The role of social support on elderly death anxiety through self-efficacy mediation

Background: Elderly is a very important period of life in which the death anxiety is a common feature of them. It is important to identify the factors that affect death anxiety during elderly period. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of social support on death anxiety in elderlies referred to Imam Khomeini Hospital. Methods: The descriptive research method was used in current research. This study included all the elderly over 60 years old referring to Imam Khomeini Hospital between 2017 and 2018. In addition, the sampling method was considered randomly. Three questionnaires such as Social Support (SS-A), the Scherer et al (1988) questionnaire and Death Anxiety Scale questionnaire by Templer included to the study. The Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was applied to the data and the SPSS/AMOS version 23 were used for statistical analysis. Results: The results showed than score of social support, self-efficacy, and elderly death anxiety were above their average. Moreover, the impact of social support on self-efficacy and death anxiety was positive and negative significant, respectively. The impact of self-efficacy on death anxiety was negative significant. Self-efficacy and social support can explain the 36% of death anxiety variation.  Conclusion: Social support can significantly reduce the anxiety of death in the elderly and have a positive effect on their self-efficacy. Finally, considering the presented models in the current study and their appropriate fits, extensive attention to improving social support can lead to increase the self-efficacy of the elderly and to reduce the death anxiety.