Attitudes Toward Dying and Death: A Comparison of Recreational Groups among Older Men

Abstract

Previous research reports examining the relationship between attitudes toward dying, death, and involvement in death-related occupations have provided mixed findings as no clear pattern has been identified. Examination of the relationship between attitudes toward dying, death, and recreational activity has not received much attention. The current study examined attitudes toward dying and death of older men categorized into four groups defined by recreational activities. The groups included skydivers (high death risk), nursing home residents (high death exposure), volunteer firefighters (high death risk and high death exposure), and a control group. The analyses found that skydivers reported the least fear of death, while nursing home residents reported the highest level. In addition, skydivers and firefighters had higher death acceptance scores than nursing home residents and the control group for the confrontation dimension, whereas skydivers had higher death acceptance scores than all groups, and firefighters were more accepting of death than nursing home residents for the integration dimension.

Comparison of attitudes towards five end-of-life care interventions (active pain control, withdrawal of futile life-sustaining treatment, passive euthanasia, active euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide): a multicentred cross-sectional survey of Korean patients with cancer, their family caregivers, physicians and the general Korean population

“…Nevertheless, people’s opinions change as they move along a disease trajectory, and particularly as they become closer to death, so this information should be included in future studies. Finally, attitudes towards EoL care interventions such as euthanasia and PAS vary with the wording of the survey questions and whether the questions are focused on law 7 or ethics, 14 so comparison of our findings with those from other studies has limitations.…”

Attitudes of the General Population, Cancer Patients, their Family Caregivers, and Physicians toward Dying and Death: A Nationwide Survey

“…This study provided evidence that attitudes toward death vary in the general population, cancer patients, their family caregivers, and physicians. Since physicians frequently witness dying and death, they may accept death as a natural event and see no need to be afraid (Griffith et al, 2013;Neimeyer et al, 2004;Yeun, 2005). Firefighters were found fear death less than lower-risk groups, including nursing home patients and a control group (Griffith et al, 2013).…”

“…This is particularly important in the context of palliative care (Chochinov, 2006). Research comparing the attitudes of different groups toward dying and death should be continued to identify themes associated with attitudes (Griffith et al, 2013).…”

“…Despite the advances of medical diagnosis and treatment, people age (G, 1993) and die in the natural course of a critical disease (Chochinov, Hack, McClement, Kristjanson, & Harlos, 2002). Factors related to attitudes toward dying and death have become an area of interest because of the increasing population of older people in most nations (Griffith et al, 2013). Since discussing death and dying is considered a social taboo in our culture, we are separated from the actual circumstances of death even of those close to us.…”

“…Physical, psychosocial, and spiritual concerns all arise toward the time of death (Chochinov, 2006), but little research focuses on the influence of the attitudes toward death and dying on cancer patients, their family caregivers, and their physicians (Chochinov, 2006;Griffith et al, 2013). Greater scientific understanding of these attitudes and their influence on the physical, mental, social, and spiritual health of all concerned will afford opportunities to improved end-of-life care (Chochinov, 2006;Yeun, 2005).…”