Death Anxiety among Institutionalized and Non-institutionalized Elderly

The present study was conducted to assess the death anxiety among institutionalized and non-institutionalized elderly. All the people above the age of 60 living in and around Coimbatore city form the population. This population is divided into two groups institutionalized and non – institutionalized elderly. The sample was randomly selected from both the groups. 200 people formed the sample for this study. Out of which 100 were institutionalized (40 males and 60 females) and 100 were noninstitutionalized (50males and50 females). The institutionalized elderly were chosen randomly from nine old age homes in Coimbatore city and equivalent of this sample were chosen from households of different regions of the city. The death anxiety of the elderly was measured using the Templer’s death anxiety scale (Templer 1970). The data was analysed using mean, standard deviation and critical ratio. The findings of the study indicate that: non-institutionalized elderly tend to have relatively higher level of death anxiety compared to institutionalized elderly, the institutionalized elderly males have relatively lower level of death anxiety than noninstitutionalized elderly males, institutionalized elderly females have lower level of death anxiety than noninstitutionalized elderly female, the institutionalized elderly males and females are not differing in death anxiety, they tend to have low level of death anxiety and the non-institutionalized elderly females have high level of death anxiety than the non-institutionalized elderly males.