Relationship between death anxiety and Mental Health of Nurses Working in Bushehr Persian Gulf Martyrs Hospital at the Time of Coronavirus Virus

The Covid-19 epidemic began in February 2017 in Iran. The first groups involved in this epidemic were nurses and in addition to physical problems, they faced death anxiety caused by this disease. Therefore, this study was conducted to determine the relationship between death anxiety and Mental Health of Nurses Working in Bushehr Persian Gulf Martyrs Hospital at the Time of Coronavirus Virus.

This is a descriptive-correlational cross-sectional study. Participants in this study were 208 nurses working in Bushehr Persian Gulf Martyrs Hospital who were included in the study by census. Data were collected using the General Health Questionnaire GHQ-28 (Goldberg & Hillier) and Death Anxiety Scale DAS (Templer). Data were analyzed using Pearson correlation test and multiple regression analysis using SPSS software v. 22.

The mean age of nurses was 32.45 ± 6.45 years. 53.5% of nurses experienced high death anxiety. All dimensions of death anxiety and mental health were directly and significantly correlated (P<0.001). Dimensions of fear of death (β = 0.21, P = 0.005) and transient time and short life (β = 0.40, P <0.001) were able to predict changes in GHQ-28.

"Fear of death" and "transient time and short life" were the most important dimensions that were able to predict the mental health of nurses at the time of coronavirus 2020.