• Charlotte Walbaum, Rebecca Philipp, Carsten Bokemeyer, Martin Härter, Johanna Junghans, Uwe Koch, Karin Oechsle, Georgia Schilling, and Sigrun Vehling.
• Department of Medical Psychology (C.W., R.P., M.H., J.J., U.K., S.V.), University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany; Department of Oncology, Hematology and Bone Marrow Transplantation with Section of Pneumology (C.W., C.B., K.O., S.V.), University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany. Electronic address: c.walbaum@uke.de.
• J Pain Symptom Manage. 2024 Dec 1; 68 (6): 622631622-631.

ContextDeath anxiety is associated with fears of suffering and uncertainty at the end of life. It is also relevant to patients' family caregivers, who can experience fears about the patients' death and dying.ObjectivesThis study investigates the prevalence of death anxiety in advanced cancer patients and their family caregivers and its association with sociodemographic and medical characteristics.MethodsWe recruited patients with UICC stage IV solid tumors from in- and outpatient oncology and palliative care settings. We administered the Death and Dying Distress Scale to assess clinically significant death anxiety. We analyzed its association with sociodemographic and medical characteristics using simultaneous multiple linear regression analyses.ResultsDeath anxiety was prevalent in 37% of patients (N = 481) and 75% of family caregivers (N = 140). Most frequent death anxiety concerns were "feeling distressed about the impact of one's own death on loved ones" (52% of patients) and "feeling distressed about running out of time with their loved one" (69% of family caregivers). Patients who experienced high death anxiety were more likely to be younger (standardized β = -0.1; P=0.005) and have known about their diagnosis for less time (standardized β = -0.1; P=0.046). Being female predicted higher death anxiety in patients (β = 0.12; P=0.041) and family caregivers (β = 0.32; P=0.002).ConclusionThe results indicate that death anxiety is a common, clinically significant problem in patients with advanced cancer and their family caregivers, emphasizing the need for targeted psychological support.Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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