The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the well-being and mental health of populations worldwide. This study sought to examine whether religious coping mediated the relationship between COVID-19-related fear and death distress. We administered an online survey to 390 adult participants (66.15% females; Mage = 30.85 ± 10.19 years) across Turkey. Participants completed a series of questionnaires measuring the fear they had experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic, their levels of religious coping and their levels of death anxiety and depression. Our findings revealed that (a) fear of COVID-19 was associated with positive religious coping, negative religious coping, death anxiety and death distress; (b) negative religious coping was associated with death anxiety and depression and (c) negative religious coping mediated the relationship between fear of COVID-19 and death anxiety and depression. These results highlight the detrimental effect of negative religious coping in increasing the adverse effect of the COVID-19 fear on death depression.

This study aimed to assess death anxiety and death depression levels among patients with acute myocardial infarction. This was a descriptive correlational study, which was conducted on patients who were treated on an outpatient clinic or cardiology clinics a training and research hospital in Istanbul, Turkey between January and August 2020. The sample of study included 300 patients, who met the inclusion criteria and agreed to participate in the study. The Sociodemographic Form, Death Anxiety Scale and Death Depression Scale served as data collection tools. The patients obtained a mean score of 12.260 ± 3.315 from Death Depression Scale and a mean score of 12.506 ± 2.915 from Death Anxiety Scale. The patients had a death-related depression mood and a severe death anxiety level. The correlation between the patients\' Death Depression Scale and Death Anxiety Scale mean scores was statistically significant and moderate positive (r = .590; p = 0.000). As patients\' death anxiety increased, their death-related depression levels also increased was determined. The death anxiety levels of the patients were mostly severe, to the point of panic. Their depression scores were also above average.

The main aims of this study were to explore the differences between seven Egyptian clinical and non-clinical samples in death depression, as well as to estimate gender-related differences.
A cross-sectional study.
The Death Depression Scale (DDS) was administered to seven groups (N = 765) of Egyptian normal (non-clinical) patients, anxiety outpatients, schizophrenic inpatients (men and women) and addicts (men only) in individual sessions.
Anxiety outpatients of both sexes obtained significantly and greatly higher death depression scores than did the other five groups, whereas the male schizophrenics, the male addicts, and the male and female non-clinical groups had the lowest death depression scores. Female schizophrenics obtained a significantly higher death depression scores than did male schizophrenics, addicts and non-clinical participants. Female anxiety outpatients and schizophrenics had higher death depression mean scores than did their male counterparts.
The present finding is consistent, in general, with previous studies on death anxiety and death obsession. What applied to death anxiety was consistent also with death depression and death obsession. That is, the death distress concept.

Death distress can increase mental health problems. The aim of the present study was to develop a measure of death distress and evaluate the reliability of this Death Distress Scale-Farsi (DDS-F) among nurses. The hypotheses were that death distress has three components and that the DDS-F would have desirable psychometric properties.
A descriptive cross-sectional study.
A convenience sample of 106 Iranian nurses from two hospitals at Tehran city, Iran was recruited. They completed the Death Anxiety Scale (DAS), the Death Depression Scale (DDS) and the Death Obsession Scale (DOS).
Cronbach\'s α for the DDS-F was 0.71. As expected, the DDS-F had three independent components: death obsession, death depression and death anxiety. A principle component analysis with a varimax rotation of the DDS-F items identified three factors accounting for 66.13% of the variance. Factor 1 was labelled \"Death Obsession\" (31.3% of the variance), Factor 2 was labelled \"Death Depression\" (21.9% of the variance), and Factor 3 was labelled \"Death Anxiety\" (12.8% of the variance).
Death distress has three components: death obsession, death depression and death anxiety. The DDS-F which measures these has good psychometric properties, and it can be used in hospital settings to assess death distress among Iranian nurses.

Death education using the 8A model can reduce death distress and promote mental health. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effectiveness of the 8A model death education programme for reducing death depression among nurses. The hypothesis was that participating in the 8A model death education programme would reduce death depression.
A pre-test-post-test intervention.
Ten nurses were selected randomly from the intensive care units and critical care units wards of the Khatom-Al-Anbia General Hospital in Tehran, Iran. They completed the Death Depression Scale before and after intervention. The 8A model was conducted in six workshops weekly, each of 6 hr, for a total of 36 hr.
There was a significant difference between pre-test and post-test on the Death Depression Scale scores.
The 8A model appears to be useful for the reduction of death depression and the promotion of mental health in the sample. However, the model should be tested on larger samples and with a control group before concluding that the model is effective in reducing death distress.

Death anxiety, obsession, and depression constitute three dimensions of death distress which can be influenced by religious coping in religious individuals. The aim of this study was to compare death anxiety, depression, and obsession between Muslims with positive and negative religious coping. In a cross-sectional study, a sample of 339 participants were selected via stratified random sampling method. The participants were screened using the Brief Religious Coping Scale, in which 60 individuals were identified to have positive religious coping and 62 individuals were recognized as individuals with negative religious coping. They responded to Death Anxiety Scale, Death Obsession Scale, and Death Depression Scale. The data were analyzed using factor analysis and multiple analysis of variance. The results of principal component analysis showed that death anxiety, death obsession, and death depression were separate factors of death distress. The results also revealed that individuals with negative religious coping gained higher scores than those with positive religious coping in all the three variables of death anxiety, obsession, and depression. Consistent with the previous studies and Terror Management Theory, this finding lays emphasis on the role of positive religious coping in reducing death distress and the possible consequent psychopathology.

OBJECTIVE: The study investigated relationships among the extent of disease, religious coping, and death depression in Iranian patients with cancer.
METHODS: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted with a convenience sample of 482 Iranian cancer patients. Participants completed demographic and health, death depression, and religious coping surveys.
RESULTS: After controlling for demographic and health characteristics, positive and negative religious coping behaviors were significantly related to the experience of death depression. There was an interaction effect between negative religious coping and extent of disease with significant positive relationships to the experience of death depression.
CONCLUSIONS: Negative religious coping was found to be more closely associated with death depression in patients with earlier stage disease than those with advanced stages of cancer in this sample of patients with cancer from Iran. Findings support assessing patients for use of religious coping strategies. Muslim patients who are religiously alienated and have existential anguish may be vulnerable and need heightened support following diagnosis and during treatment of early stage cancer.

UNASSIGNED: The surfacing of thoughts and depressive affect associated with the prospect of death are prevalent among patients with advanced cancer. Because death cognitions and associated negative affect occur along an adaptive-less adaptive continuum, it is essential that valid and reliable instruments are available to measure death depression. The present study aimed to determine the psychometric properties of the Death Depression Scale among Iranian patients with advanced cancer.
UNASSIGNED: About 497 cancer patients completed a Persian version of the 21-item Death Depression Scale-Revised. The face, content and construct validity of the scale were ascertained. Reliability was also assessed using internal consistency, construct reliability and intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC).
UNASSIGNED: Construct validity determined one factor with an eigenvalue greater than 1. The model had a good fit (χ2 (179, N = 248) = 520.345, P < 0.001; χ2/df = 2.907, CFI = 0.916, TLI = 0.902, IFI = 0.917, SRMR = 0.049 and RMSEA = 0.088 (90% confidence interval = 0.079-0.097)) with all factors loadings greater than 0.5 and statistically significant. The internal consistency, construct reliability and ICC were greater than 0.70. Convergent validity of the scale was demonstrated.
UNASSIGNED: Findings revealed that the Persian version of the Death Depression Scale-Revised is valid and reliable, and may be used to assess and evaluate death depression in Iranian patients with advanced cancer.