Ansiedad ante la muerte en adultos peruanos, durante la pandemia de la COVID-19

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has spread around the world, causing fear, suffering and other psychological conditions in its wake. Objective: Identify the relationship of the degree of anxiety before death with sociodemographic, health and religious variables in Peruvian adults, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: Cross-sectional and descriptive study, carried out in the Ica region of Peru during April and June 2020. A total of 386 adults participated and answered a questionnaire with sociodemographic, health, religious variables and the Templer Death Anxiety Scale, adapted to the current context. Relative frequencies, means and standard deviations, Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis U tests were calculated. Results: The average degree of death anxiety is medium/high. Women, widowers, housewives and teachers score higher on the scale, reaching statistical significance. Although those who did not fall ill with COVID-19, have relative with COVID-19, do not have a family member who died from COVID-19, are considered religious and are aged 30-59 years, score high, the differences were not significant. The results varied according to fear of death, fear of illness, and fear of time. Conclusions: During this pandemic, the degree of death anxiety is high; there are related sociodemographic factors. It is necessary to promote joint and multidisciplinary actions aimed at preventing or alleviating the psychological suffering caused by the health crisis and contributing to the well-being of the population.