THE EFFECT OF DEATH ANXIETY AND AGE ON HEALTH PROMOTING BEHAVIORS

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of death anxiety and age on the frequency of health promoting behaviors. Through random sampling 200 young (those who were 20–35 years of age) and older adults (those who were 60 years of age and older) were involved. Data gathering questionnaire included a health promoting lifestyle profile and death anxiety scale. The authors calculated a 2 (young adults vs. older adults) × 2 (death anxiety vs. no death anxiety) between-subjects factorial analysis of variance (ANOVA) and post hoc to test their hypotheses. Although ANOVA results did not yield a significant effect for age, the main effect of the death anxiety was significant. The interaction of the age and death anxiety was also significant. Result indicated that young adults with death anxiety compared to older adults with death anxiety showed high rate of health promoting behaviors. The results show that death anxiety is a determinant factor on the frequency of health promoting behaviors in young and older adults. People with high death anxiety reported more health promoting behaviors than people with low death anxiety.