Effects of a Death Education Intervention for Older People with Chronic Disease and Family Caregivers: A Quasi-Experimental Study

To investigate the effectiveness of a structured death education program for older adults with chronic illness and their family caregivers. This study adopted two-group, nonrandomized quasi-experimental design. Patient–caregiver dyads in the intervention group (N = 40 dyads) engaged in the death education program at the bedside once a week for 5 weeks, and were compared with participants (N = 40 dyads) in the control group who received usual health education. The program consisted of five sessions based on the Interaction Model of Client Health Behavior. Death attitude, death competence, well-being, family function, and satisfaction were measured at baseline (T0), immediately after the intervention (T1), and 1 month later (T2). Data collection was conducted from July 30, 2019, to December 30, 2019. The intention-to-treat analysis The intention-to-treat analysis of between groups at 1-month follow-up revealed that the intervention group had greater decreases in the fear of death (p=.002, 95% CI -2.53, -0.47; p