The Comparison of The Effectiveness of Well‐Being Therapy with Acceptance and Commitment Therapy on Death Anxiety in The Elderly

The elderly seems to be associated with many limitations and disabilities which can cause them to feel death anxiety. Therefore, the current study aimed to compare the effectiveness of well‐being therapy with acceptance and commitment therapy on death anxiety in the elderly. It was a quasi-experimental study with pretest-posttest-follow-up design with a control group. The statistical population of the present study included the community dwelling elderly members of day care centers with death anxiety, among whom 45 were selected using the convenience sampling method and assigned randomly into three groups, with each group containing 15 people. The experimental groups underwent eight 90-minute sessions of well‐being therapy or acceptance and commitment therapy, and no action was taken for the control group. Data collection tool included the Templer's Death Anxiety Scale. The results of Univariate Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) indicated that well‐being therapy and acceptance and commitment therapy had a significant effect on reducing death anxiety compared to the control group. However, there was no significant difference between the effectiveness of the two experimental groups. According to the results, well-being therapy and acceptance and commitment therapy can be applied to improve the death anxiety in the elderly.