Relationship Between Subjectively Evaluated Health and Fear of Death Among Elderly in Three Cultural Contexts
Language English Country United States Media print-electronic
Document type Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
- Keywords
- culture, fear of death, old age, optimism, social support, subjective health,
- MeSH
- Humans MeSH
- Optimism psychology MeSH
- Attitude to Death ethnology MeSH
- Aged MeSH
- Social Support * MeSH
- Cross-Cultural Comparison * MeSH
- Aging ethnology MeSH
- Fear * MeSH
- Health Status * MeSH
- Check Tag
- Humans MeSH
- Male MeSH
- Aged MeSH
- Female MeSH
- Publication type
- Journal Article MeSH
- Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't MeSH
- Geographicals
- Czech Republic ethnology MeSH
- Cameroon ethnology MeSH
- Germany ethnology MeSH
It is often argued that declining health in elderly people makes death more salient and threatening. However, we argue that health, optimism, and social support interact to predict fear of death in samples from Cameroon, the Czech Republic, and Germany. Low health was associated with enhanced fear of death for participants who received only little social support. As the measure of optimism did not comply with psychometric requirements in the Cameroonian sample, the three-way interaction was tested only in the Czech and German samples. It was found that the two-way interaction was further qualified by optimism in that low health was associated with enhanced fear of death for participants with little social support unless they reported pronounced optimism. Thus, internal and external resources, respectively, can serve to buffer the effect of declining health on the fear of death in the elderly.
Palacky University Olomouc Czech Republic
The Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic Prague Czech Republic
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