Factors Affecting the Death Anxiety Levels of Relatives of Cancer Patients Undergoing Treatment

This descriptive study was performed to determine levels of the death anxiety levels of relatives of patientswho being treated in a public hospital located in the Asian side of Istanbul and influencing factors. The samplewas 106 patient relatives of patients from oncology or chemotherapy units of the hospital. Data were collectedbetween May-June 2011 with the 15-item Death Anxiety Scale developed by Templer (1970) and adapted toTurkish by Senol (1989) and evaluated by number-percentage calculations, the Kruskal Wallis, Anova and t tests.Some 36.8% of the included group were aged 45 years and over, 57.5% were female and 65.1% were married. Astatistically significant difference was found between the age groups, genders of the patient relatives, the periodof cancer treatment regarding the death anxiety levels (p<0.05). The death anxiety levels of the patient relativeswho were in the 17-39 age group, female and had a patient who was under treatment for less than 6 monthswere found to high as compared to others.