Abstract

PURPOSE
A descriptive correlation study was done to provide basic data for comprehensive nursing care by analyzing the relationship between spiritual well-being and death anxiety of the elderly.
METHOD
358 respondents who lived in facilities for elders such as nursing homes and elder's rehabilitation centers were selected, and their age was over 65 years old. Paloutzian and Ellison(1982)'s spiritual well-being scale and Park(1989)'s death Anxiety scale was used. From August 2nd to November 7th, 2002, readymade questionnaires were handed out by the researcher to those who could fill it out and for those who could not fill out the questionnaires alone, the researcher read it and completed it by interview. The data were analyzed with SPSS Win 10.0 program, t-test, ANOVA, and correlation coefficient.
RESULT
1) The mean score for spiritual well being of the elderly was 43.95 in a possible range of 20-80. The mean score of religious well being was 22.22 and that of existential well being was 21.73 in a possible range of 10 - 40. 2) The mean score for death anxiety of the elderly was 109.04 in a possible range of 34 - 136. 3) There were significant differences in spiritual well being according to religion, and present occupation. 4) There were significant differences in death anxiety according to age, religion, and family status. 5) In testing concerning the relationship between spiritual well being and death anxiety, there was a statistically negative correlation(r=-.70 p=.000).
CONCLUSION
There was a negative correlation between spiritual well being and death anxiety. When the nurse implicates the nursing intervention, which can promote the spiritual well-being, elder's death anxiety also can be released.