The comparison of death anxiety and hope in stages of early and advanced cancer and normal individuals

The aim of this research was to compare the death anxiety and hope in early and advanced cancer and normal individuals.

The statistical population included of all cancer patients in Fars province. In a cross-sectional analytical design, three groups of patients with advanced cancer (n=100), patients with treatable cancer (n=100) and normal individuals (n=100) were selected by convenience sampling and responded to Death Anxiety and Hope Scales.

The results revealed no significant main effect of group membership on death anxiety, but this effect observed significant on hope and this means that the hope score in patients with advanced cancer is more than normal individuals and patients with primary cancer and there was no difference between the groups of normal individuals and patients with primary cancer.

The results of this research revealed no significant differences in death anxiety in early and advanced cancer and normal individuals, probably because of religious contexts in Iranian participants, but with intensification of cancer at advanced stage patients’ levels of hopefulness are raised likely as an adaptive coping.