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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Public Mental Health
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1427995
This article is part of the Research Topic Youth Mental Health, Particularly in Asian Populations View all 34 articles

Prevalence of death anxiety and its related factors in the population of eastern Iran: a cross-sectional study in the era of covid-19

Provisionally accepted
Hossein Dovvombaygi Bakhtiari Hossein Dovvombaygi Bakhtiari Mohammad Namazinia Mohammad Namazinia *Mohammad Rahimkhani Mohammad Rahimkhani Mahboobeh Abdollahi Mahboobeh Abdollahi Mohammadreza Baladastian Mohammadreza Baladastian Amir Alipour Amir Alipour Mohammadreza Askari Mohammadreza Askari
  • Torbat Heydarieh University of Medical Sciences, Torbat-e Ḩeydarīyeh, Iran

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The global COVID-19 pandemic has triggered widespread anxiety, including a significant rise in death anxiety. If unaddressed, death anxiety can lead to numerous mental and physical health issues. This study aimed to assess the prevalence of death anxiety and its associated factors in the population of eastern Iran.This cross-sectional study included 515 participants from Torbat Heydariyeh in 2019.Data were collected using a structured two-part questionnaire: demographic data and the Templer Death Anxiety Scale. Sampling was conducted through a stratified approach to represent the city's population distribution accurately.The mean age of participants was 32.88 ± 10.75 years (range: 18-80). The mean death anxiety score was 6.72 ± 3.11. Multiple linear regression analysis revealed significant associations between death anxiety and gender (B = 1.12, β = 0.23, P = 0.001), education level (B = 1.75 for high school or lower, β = 0.19, P < 0.05), smoking (B = 0.76, β = 0.15, P = 0.049), and economic status (B = -0.82, β = -0.12, P = 0.006). No significant relationship was found between death anxiety and age, marital status, occupation, medical history, medication use, health status, or income source (P > 0.05).This study demonstrates that participants exhibited moderate levels of death anxiety.Given its potential to impact quality of life, strategies for managing death anxiety should be considered in similar public health crises.

    Keywords: Death Anxiety, COVID-19, Epidemiology, Mental Health, Pandemics

    Received: 05 May 2024; Accepted: 04 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Dovvombaygi Bakhtiari, Namazinia, Rahimkhani, Abdollahi, Baladastian, Alipour and Askari. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Mohammad Namazinia, Torbat Heydarieh University of Medical Sciences, Torbat-e Ḩeydarīyeh, Iran

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