The Relationship of Loneliness AND Death Anxiety in the Post-Covid -19 Era among the Older People in Ilam Province in 2023

 Nowadays, in the Post-COVID-19 period, paying attention to related psychological issues, such as loneliness and subsequent death anxiety among the elderly, is of particular importance. This study was conducted to determine the relationship of loneliness with death anxiety in the Post-COVID-19 era among the Older People in Ilam Province in 2023.

 In this cross-sectional descriptive-analytical study, 384 elderly men and women in Ilam province were included in the study after checking the inclusion criteria by cluster and simple random sampling methods. To collect data, demographic information questionnaires, the UCLA Loneliness Scale (Version 3), and Templer's Death Anxiety (DAS) were used. The obtained data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Kolmogorov-Smirnov, Mann-Whitney, Kruskal-Wallis, and Spearman's correlation coefficient tests in SPSS version 22 software with a significance level of P< 0.05.

 The mean and standard deviation of loneliness and death anxiety scores were 51.88 ± 14.17 and 10.93 ± 4.55, respectively. A significant direct relationship was found between loneliness and death anxiety. Also, there was a significant direct correlation between age with loneliness (r = 0.29) and death anxiety (r = 0.88) and a significant inverse correlation between the number of children with death anxiety (r = -0.1). There was a statistically significant difference between loneliness and death anxiety with gender, insurance status, residence, and housemate segregation, and there was also a statistically significant difference between death anxiety with marital status, education level, underlying disease, and experiencing a stressful event.

 Considering the positive relationship between loneliness and death anxiety and the influencing factors in this study, health policymakers must plan to reduce loneliness and subsequent death anxiety in the elderly while paying attention to these factors.