Undercover fear of elderly people in nursing homes: Death anxiety and depression

Authors

  • Hicran Bektaş Akdeniz University
  • Öznur Körükcü Akdeniz University
  • Kamile Kabukcuoğlu Akdeniz University

Keywords:

Depression, death, death anxiety, nursing, elderly

Abstract

Aim: To find out the level of death anxiety and depression level among Turkish elderly people.

Methods: This research was carried out on 106 elderly people aged 60 years and older from three different nursing homes. Descriptive statistics, one-way ANOVA, t-test, Cronbach’s alpha coefficient, and correlations were used for the analyses.

Results: The 25.4% of elderly were between 65-69 years old, and included most of the elderly who were male (83%), single (92.5%) and retired (35.8%).The overall mean on depression was 14.43, and the death anxiety was 7.57.  Mild depression was found in 69.8%, and no symptoms of depression were reported by 16% of the subjects. A positive correlation was found between total score of GDS and TDAS (r: 0.304, p<0.01).

Conclusion: Healthcare professionals working with elderly people in nursing homes should be aware about death anxiety of the elderly.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Metrics

Metrics Loading ...

Author Biographies

Hicran Bektaş, Akdeniz University

Assoc. Prof. Dr., Akdeniz University, Faculty of Nursing

Öznur Körükcü, Akdeniz University

Assist. Prof. Dr., Akdeniz University, Faculty of Nursing

Kamile Kabukcuoğlu, Akdeniz University

Prof. Dr., Akdeniz University, Faculty of Nursing

References

Abdel-Khalek, A.M. (2005). Death anxiety in clinical and non-clinical groups. Death Studies, 29, 251–259. doi: 10.1080/07481180590916371

Akca, F., & Kose, A. (2008). Adaptation of Death Anxiety Scale (DAS): Validity and reliability studies. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 11, 7-16.

Al-Sabwah, M. N., & Abdel-Khalek, A. M. (2006). Religiosity and health distress in Arabic college students. Death Studies, 30, 365–375. doi: 10.1080/07481180600553435

Altay, B., & Avci, I. A. (2009). Relationship of perceived family social support and depression symptoms of old people living in Alanli District, Samsun. TAF Prevention Medical Bultein, 8(2), 139-146.

Atalay, A., & Dincer, F. (2006). Chronic pain syndrome and the elderly. In Arıogul S (Ed), Geriatrics and Gerontology (pp. 719-728). Ankara, MN Medical & Nobel Press.

Azaiza, F., Ron, P., Shoham, M., & Gigini, I. (2010). Death and dying anxiety among elderly Arab Muslims in Israel. Death Studies, 34(4), 351-364. doi: 10.1080/07481181003613941

Bassett, J.F. (2007). Psychological defenses against death anxiety: Integrating terror management theory and Firestone’s separation theory. Death Studies, 31, 727–750. doi: 10.1080/07481180701490628

Beshai, J. A., & Naboulsi, M. A. (2004). Existential perspectives on death anxiety. Psychological Reports, 95, 507–513. doi: 10.2466/pr0.95.2.507-513

Chang, T. Y., & Chueh, K. H. (2011). Relationship between elderly depression and health status in male veterans. Journal of Nursing Research, 19(4), 298-315. doi: 10.1097/JNR.0b013e318236cf89

Cohen, A. B., Pierce, J. D., Chambers, J., Meade, R., Gorvine, B. J., & Koenig,

H. G. (2005). Intrinsic and extrinsic religiosity, belief in the afterlife, death anxiety, and life satisfaction in young Catholics and Protestants. Journal of Research in Personality, 39, 307–324. doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2004.02.005

Deffner, J. M., & Bell, S. K. (2005). Nurses’ death anxiety, comfort level during communication with patients and families regarding death, and exposure to communication education: A quantitative study. Journal for Nurses in Staff Development, 21, 19–23.

Ertan, T., Eker, E., & Gungen, C. (1999). The standardized mini mental state examination for illiterate Turkish elderly population. 2nd International Symposium on Neurophysiological and Neuropsychological Assessment of Mental and Behavioral Disorders (abstract), Bursa.

Folstein, M.F., Folstein, S.E., & McHugh, P.R. (1975). Mini mental state a practical method for grading the cognitive state of patients for the clinician. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 12(Suppl 3), 189-198.

Fortner, B. V., & Neimeyer, R.A. (1999). Death anxiety in older adults: A quantitative review. Death Studies, 23, 387-411. doi: 10.1080/074811899200920

Geerlings, S.W., Beekman, A.T.F., Deeg, D.J., Twisk, J.W., & Van Tilburg, W. (2002). Duration and severity of depression predict mortality in older adults in the community. Psychological Medicine, 32, 609–618. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0033291702005585

Goldenberg, J. L., Hart, J., Pyszczynski, T., Warnica, G. M., Landau, M., & Thomas, L. (2006). Ambivalence toward the body: Death, neuroticism, and the flight from physical sensation. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 32, 1264–1277. doi: 10.1177/0146167206289505

Gungen, C., Ertan, T., Eker, E., & Yasar, R. (2002). Reliability and validity of the Standardized Mini Mental State Examination in the diagnosis of mild dementia in Turkish population. Turkish Journal of Psychiatry, 13, 273-281.

Harding, S. R., Flannelly, K. J., Weaver, A. J., & Costa, K. G. (2005). The influence of religion on death anxiety and death acceptance. Mental Health, Religion & Culture, 8, 253–261. doi: 10.1080/13674670412331304311

Hustey, F.M., & Meldon, S.W. (2002). The prevalence and documentation on impaired mental status in elderly emergency department patients. Annals of Emergency Medicine, 39(3), 248-253. doi:10.1067/mem.2002.122057

Iecovich, E., & Lev-Ran, O. (2006). Attitudes of functionally independent residents toward residents who were disabled in old age homes: The role of separation versus integration. The Journal of Applied Gerontology, 25, 252–268. doi: 10.1177/0733464806288565

Jongenelis, K., Pot, A. M., Eisses, A. M., Beekman A. T., Kluiter, H., Van-Tilburg, W., & Ribbe M. W. (2003). Depression among older nursing home patients: A review. Tijdschrift Voor Gerontologie en Geriatrie, 34, 52–59.

Lehto, R. H., & Stein, K. F. (2009). Death anxiety: an analysis of an evolving concept. Research and Theory Nursing Practice, 23(1), 23-41. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1891/1541-6577.23.1.23

Mehta, K. M., Simonsick, E. M., Penninx, B. W., Schulz, R., Rubin, S. M., Satterfield, S., & Yaffe, K. (2003). Prevalence and correlates of anxiety symptoms in well-functioning older adults: findings from the health aging and body composition study. Journal of American Geriatrics Society, 51, 499–504. doi: 10.1046/j.1532-5415.2003.51158.x

Mikulincer, M., Florian, V., Birnbaum, G., & Malishkevich, S. (2002). The death-anxiety buffering function of close relationships: Exploring the effects of separation reminders on death-thought accessibility. Personality and Social

Psychology Bulletin, 28, 287–299. doi: 10.1177/0146167202286001

Mion, L.C., Palmer, R.M., Meldon, S.W., Bass, D.M., Singer, M.E., Payne, S.M., Lewicki, LJ., Drew, B.R., Connor, J.T., Campbell, J.W., Emerman, C. (2003). Case finding and referral model for emergency department elders: A randomized clinical trial. Annals of Emergency Medicine, 41(1), 56-67. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1067/mem.2003.3

Moorhead, S., Johnson, M., Maas, M. L., & Swanson, E. (2008). Nursing outcomes classification (NOC). St. Louis: MO: Mosby Elsevier.

Neimeyer, R. A., Wittkowski, J., & Moser, R. P. (2004). Psychological research on death attitudes: An overview and evaluation. Death Studies, 28, 309–340. doi: 10.1080/07481180490432324

Nyatanga, B., & de Vocht, H. (2006). Towards a definition of death anxiety. International Journal of Palliative Nursing, 12, 410–413. doi: 10.12968/ijpn.2006.12.9.21868

Ormala, K. K., & Julkunen, K.V. (2012). Functional activity and depression in elderly subjects over 70 years of age visiting Accident and Emergency Departments. Singapore Nursing Journal, 39(2), 3-9.

Ongun, E., Guder, F.Z., & Demirag, A. (2016). Elderly people's choice of media and their perceived state of loneliness. Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies; 6(1), 35-47.

Peters, L., Cant, R., Payne, S., O'Connor, M., McDermott, F., Hood, K., Morphet, J., & Shimoinaba, K. (2013). How death anxiety impacts nurses' caring for patients at the end of life: a review of literature. The Open Nursing Journal, 7, 14-21. doi: 10.2174/1874434601307010014

Ron, P. (2004). Depression, hopelessness, and suicidal ideation among the elderly: A comparison between men and women living in nursing homes and in the community. Journal of Gerontological Social Work; 43 (2-3), 97–116. doi: 10.1300/J083v43n02_07

Saleem, T., Gul, S., & Saleem, S. (2015). Death anxiety scale; translation and validation in patients with cardiovascular disease. The Professional Medical Journal, 22(6), 723- 732.

Sharif-Nia, H., Ebadi, A., Lehto, R.H., Mousavi, B., Peyrovi, H., & Chan, Y.H. (2014). Reliability and validity of the Persian version of Templer Death Anxiety Scale-extended in veterans of Iran–Iraq warfare. Iranian Journal of Psychiatry Behavioral Science, 8(4), 29-37.

Sheikh, R.L. & Yesavage, J.A. (1986). Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS): Recent evidence and development of a shorter version. Clinical Gerontologist, 5, 165-173. doi: 10.1300/J018v05n01_09

Singh, C. (2013). An analytic study of death anxiety among type 2 diabetes. Mediterrenean Journal of Social Science, 4(10), 205-17.

Suhail, K., & Akram, S. (2002). Correlates of death anxiety in Pakistan. Death Studies, 26, 39–50. doi: 10.1080/07481180210146

Templer, D.I., Awadalla, A., Al-Fayez, G. Frazee, J., Bassman, L., Connel, H. J, Arikawa, H., & Abdel-Khalek, E. M. (2006). Construction of a death anxiety scale-extended. Omega, 53(3), 209-226. doi: 10.2190/BQFP-9ULN-NULY-4JDR

Templer, D. I. (1970). The construction and validation of a Death Anxiety Scale. Journal of General Psychology, 82, 165–177.

The Turkish Statistical Institute. (2012, August). Population by years, age group and gender. Retrieve from: http://www.tuik.gov.tr/UstMenu.do?metod=temelist

Tufan, I. (2011, July). Violence against the elderly in Turkey. A section from 1st Turkey atlas of gerontology geroatlas national social and applied association of gerontology Antalya, Retrieved from http://www.inpea.net/images/Turkey_Violence__Against_Elderly_2011.pdf

World Health Organization. (2013, August). Data and statistics. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/topics/ageing/en/erişim tarihi: 12.02.2016.

Wu, A. M., Tang, C. S., & Kwok, T. C. (2002). Death anxiety among Chinese elderly people in Hong Kong. Journal of Aging and Health, 14(1), 42-56. doi: 10.1177/089826430201400103

Yesavage, J. A., Brink, T. L., Rose, T. L., Lum, O., Huang, V., Adey, M., & Leirer, V. O. (1983). Development and validation of a geriatric depression screening scale: A preliminary report. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 17, 37-49. doi: 10.1016/0022-3956(82)90033-4

Downloads

Published

2017-03-24

How to Cite

Bektaş, H., Körükcü, Öznur, & Kabukcuoğlu, K. (2017). Undercover fear of elderly people in nursing homes: Death anxiety and depression. Journal of Human Sciences, 14(1), 587–597. Retrieved from https://j-humansciences.com/ojs/index.php/IJHS/article/view/4268

Issue

Vol. 14 No. 1 (2017)

Section

Nursing and Midwifery

License

Uluslararası İnsan Bilimleri Dergisi ISSN:1303-5134
International Journal of Human Sciences ISSN:2458-9489
 
is an "Open Access Journal" that uses a funding model that does not charge readers or their institutions for access. From the BOAI definition of open access, users take the right of read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of these articles.

Authors can retain copyright, while granting the journal right of first publication. Alternatively, authors can transfer copyright to the journal, which then permits authors non-commercial use of the work, including the right to place it in an open access archive. In addition, Creative Commons can be consulted for flexible copyright licenses.

©1999 Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.