The relationship between sense of coherence and ego strength with death anxiety in elderly

Elderly people are getting more evidence of death from physical changes, higher rates of illness and disability, and the loss of relatives and friends. Experiencing some anxiety about death is normal, but, like other fears, it weakens adaptability if it is too severe. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between sense of coherence and ego strength with death anxiety in the elderly. The research method is descriptive-correlational. The statistical population of this study includes all non-resident older people over 60 years old in Tehran. Among them, a sample of 200 people was selected by purposeful sampling. Data were collected using the Death Anxiety Questionnaire Templer (1970), Ego strength Questionnaire Markstrom et al. (1997), and sense of coherence Questionnaire Antonovsky (1987). Finally, after data collection, the data were analyzed using the Pearson correlation coefficient and multiple regression analysis with the Enter method. The results showed a significant negative relationship between ego strength and death anxiety in the elderly (r = -0.22, P <0.01). There was also a significant negative relationship between sense of coherence and death anxiety in the elderly (r = -0.18, P <0.01). Ego strength with a beta coefficient of -0.19 and a sense of coherence with a beta coefficient of -0.15 negatively and significantly predict death anxiety. Finally, it can be concluded that ego strength and sense of coherence are among the variables related to death anxiety in the elderly and can predict it.