Association of Death Anxiety with Spiritual Well-Being and Religious Coping in Older Adults During the COVID-19 Pandemic

This descriptive study aimed to examine the association of death anxiety with religious coping and spiritual well-being among 248 community-dwelling older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic. The brief Arab religious coping scale, the Arabic version of the spiritual well-being Scale, and the Arabic Scale of death anxiety were used to measure religious coping, spiritual well-being, and death anxiety, respectively. The majority of the participating older adults were found to have low levels of religious coping and spiritual well-being and high levels of death anxiety. Further, in comparison to male older adults, female older adults were found to have higher levels of religious coping and lower levels of death anxiety. Moreover, in comparison to widowed older adults, married older adults were found to have higher levels of death anxiety. After controlling for sociodemographic characteristics, religious coping, and spiritual well-being were found to be significant predictors of death anxiety in older adults.

Automated summary

This descriptive study found that community-dwelling older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic generally had low levels of religious coping and spiritual well-being, but relatively high levels of death anxiety. Female older adults showed higher levels of religious coping and lower levels of death anxiety compared to male older adults, while married older adults exhibited higher levels of death anxiety compared to widowed older adults. Both religious coping and spiritual well-being were significant predictors of death anxiety in older adults after controlling for sociodemographic characteristics.