Death Perception, Death Anxiety and Intervention among Elderly

Elderly had indirect death experience and thoughts about death. Most of the elderly wanted to have natural death. Some of the demographic factors predicted death anxiety among elderly individual. Women elderly experienced higher death anxiety as compared to men. Age was positively associated with death anxiety indicating that death anxiety increased with advancing age. Lower education predicted higher death anxiety. Living with spouse and family predicated lower death anxiety. Similarly lower financial factors predicted the higher death anxiety. Aging anxiety, death anxiety, death depression and psychological distress was highly significantly interrelated with each other. Non-institutionalized elderly reported more of death depression compared to institutionalized elderly. Insight Based Death Meditation, art therapy and skill based supervision and narrative therapy are useful therapies in reducing death anxiety, fear related to death and also helpful in increasing the quality of life and happiness among elderly.