The Relationship between Attitude and Practical Commitment to Prayer and Death Anxiety in Patients with Chronic Renal Failure

Chronic renal failure is a stressful condition, and patients with this condition are faced with the fear of death due to their stressful physical and mental conditions. Studies have shown that prayer is associated with greater relaxation and reduced levels of anxiety and stress in patients. This study aims to investigate the relationship between attitude and practical commitment to prayer and other predictive variables with death anxiety in chronic renal failure patients.

In this descriptive-analytical study, 180 patients with chronic renal failure admitted to hospital with a dialysis unit in Kashan, in 2018 were evaluated by convenience method sampling. The research tools included a demographic questionnaire, attitude, and practical prayer questionnaire and a Templer death anxiety questionnaire. Data were analyzed by SPSS version 16 using univariate and multivariate linear regression analysis.

The mean age of the studied samples was 55.95 ± 13.66 years, 83% of the patients lived in the city, and 72% of the samples had underlying diseases in addition to renal failure. The mean score of death anxiety in the patients was 7.56 ± 11.3 (Moderate). There was a negative correlation between age, attitude, and practical commitment to prayer with death anxiety score (r = -0.166, r = -0.148), respectively. In the univariate data analysis, living in the village, higher age, absence of other diseases, and attitude and commitment to prayer significantly were associated with lower death anxiety, respectively. In multivariate data analysis living in the village, the absence of other diseases and higher age was associated with lower death anxiety, respectively.

However, some determinants of death anxiety such as age cannot be changed, but interventions such as more support and care about some determinants, especially in patients who have other illnesses, as well as encouraging patients to pray, can reduce the anxiety of dying of kidney disease.