A Study to Assess the Death Anxiety among Terminally Ill Patients in a Selected Hospice, Bangalore

A study was aimed to assess the death anxiety among terminally ill cancer patients in a selected hospice.

Research Approach: A descriptive survey approach was selected for the study. Death anxiety can spike temporarily to a higher level for people who have been exposed to trauma and especially for terminally ill patients. Hospice care represents one of the advances made in the direction to improve the quality of life of such patients and to add life to their dying days.

Sample and Sampling technique: A convenient sample of 30 terminally ill patients was selected for the study.

Tool: Modified death anxiety scale of Templer, Weiner and Khalok death anxiety rating scale was used to assess the death anxiety. Reliability of the tool was tested and validity was ensured in consultation with guides and experts in the field of nursing and medicine.

Results: The results revealed that the analysis showed that 25(83%) of terminally ill patients had moderate death anxiety level and 5(17%) had severe death anxiety level. The chi square value revealed that there was a statistically significant association of death anxiety level with age, gender, education, family support and stages of cancer at 0.05 level where as it was not significant with marital status and pain management at 0.05 level.

Conclusion: Death anxiety due to disease condition is common among terminally ill cancer patients.

Recommendation: Based on this finding the researchers can conduct further studies on therapeutic aspects in reducing the death anxiety of terminally ill patients on larger samples.