Comparison of death anxiety among cancer, hemodialysis, and asthma patients and healthy individuals: a cross-sectional study

Introduction: Death anxiety is a major psychological complication among patients with chronic disease patients. The aim of the present study was to compare death anxiety between cancer, hemodialysis, and asthma patients and healthy individuals. Material and methods: This cross-sectional study was performed on 543 subjects (88 cancer patients, 103 asthma patients, 188 hemodialysis patients, 164 healthy individuals) referred to educational hospitals in southeastern Iran in the period from August 1, 2019 to May 1, 2020. Patients were selected using the convenience sampling method. Data were collected using the Templer Death Anxiety Scale (DAS). Data analyzed using SPSS with the chi(2) test. Results: The results of the study showed that most of the participants were female and had a diploma. Death anxiety results showed that most participants in the groups of cancer patients (n = 53, 60.2%), hemodialysis patients (n = 113, 60.1%), and asthma patients (n = 51, 49.5%) had high anxiety. The prevalence of death anxiety among cancer patients was 73.8%. There was no significant difference between the two groups of cancer patients and healthy individuals in terms of death anxiety scores (p = 0.3); however, the prevalence of death anxiety was higher among cancer patients. There was also no significant relationship of death anxiety with sex or education level of participants. Conclusions: The high prevalence of death anxiety among cancer patients indicates the importance of paying attention to the psychological dimension of patients along with the physical dimension and designing appropriate training programs to improve the psychological dimensions of patients.