The relationship between death obsession and religiosity in Muslim nursing home non-demented residents in Tunisia

Background: The death distress would be one of the most important problems in the older population and would be more pronounced in some vulnerable older subjects, including those living in nursing homes facilities. We aimed to assess death obsession (DO) in elderly without dementia living in nursing homes, and to examine the association between DO and religiosity. Methods: We carried out a cross-sectional survey involving 42 old subjects living in Manouba nursing home. The "Mini-Mental State Examination", the "Geriatric Depression Scale", the 'Activity of Daily Living", the "Cumulative Illness Rating Scale-Geriatric", the "Death Obsession Scale", the "Brief religious coping scale" and the 'Arabic Religiosity Scale" were used to assess cognitive functions, depression, level of dependency, comorbidities, death obsession, religious coping and religiosity, respectively. Results: We found relatively high death obsession scores, with no gender differencies (mean scores = 33.1 +/- 18.1). The death obsession was significantly and positively associated with comorbidity scores (p = 0.04). No significant correlation was found between death obsession scores and religiosity and religious coping scores in the bivariate analysis. Similarly, multiple hierarchical regression found that religious variables (global religiosity and religious coping) did not significantly contribute to the variance of the death obsession. Conclusion: Older people living in nursing homes have specific psychosocial and spiritual needs, that health care providors should recognize, assess and care for, early and adequately.