Effect of Reminiscence Therapy on Death Anxiety in Retired Elderly Men: An Interventional Study

Background: Death anxiety is one of the concerns of the elderly population in the late stages of life. In this context, recalling memories is one of the favorite characteristics of these people that can affect different aspects of their mental and social health. Objectives: This study aimed to determine the effect of reminiscence therapy on the death anxiety of men retried from the Islamic Republic of Iran Army living in Zahedan. Methods: A quasi-experimental study was performed on 90 retired men over 60 years of age. The subjects were recruited through convenience sampling at the Army Retirement Center in Zahedan in winter 2019. The participants were randomly divided into the intervention (n = 45) and control (n = 45) groups. In the intervention group, reminiscence therapy was carried out based on major life events twice a week for six sessions. Data were gathered again two months after the intervention. The control group did not take part in any program. Data collection tools included a demographic form and the Death Anxiety scale (Templer, 1970). The results were analyzed by SPSS-21 using descriptive and inferential statistics. The P values < 0.05 were considered statistically significant. Results: The mean scores of death anxiety were 25.37 ± 1.89 and 25.17 ± 1.61 in the intervention and control groups, respectively. After the experiment, this score was 9.09 ± 1.79 in the intervention group and 25.04 ± 1.62 in the control group. Thus, while reminiscence therapy significantly relieved death anxiety in the intervention group (P < 0.0001), the control group showed no significant difference in this respect at the end of the study (P = 0.63). Conclusions: Group reminiscence therapy can reduce the death anxiety of older adults. Since the elderly are fond of expressing their memories, and such storytelling is an attractive, simple, and inexpensive intervention, it could be used to help these people mitigate their death anxiety.