Relationship between COVID-19 anxiety with sleep quality and death anxiety in Zoroastrian elderly: Structural Equation Approach

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has a significant effect on the elderly and affects all aspects of human psychology. The current study was conducted on people >60 years of age and a religious or ethnic minority. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between COVID-19 anxiety with sleep quality and death anxiety in the Zoroastrian elderly population in Yazd.

The population of the multivariate correlation study was 97 elderly Zoroastrians in 2021. The data collection tools were the Templer death anxiety scale, COVID-19 anxiety questionnaire and Petersburg sleep quality index. Data were analyzed using SPSS and AMOS through Pearson correlation and structural equations.

The results showed that the mean scores of COVID-19 anxiety, death anxiety and sleep quality were 29.9±9.40, 5.40±4.55 and 8.88±2.29, respectively. The direct effect of COVID-19 anxiety on sleep quality (β=0.303 and P<0.05) and death anxiety on sleep quality (β=0.439 and P<0.001) was statistically significant. There was a positive and significant relationship between COVID-19 anxiety with death anxiety and sleep quality (P<0.01). COVID-19 anxiety and death anxiety, in total, showed 39% of the variance in sleep quality variables.

The elderly participants had high COVID-19 anxiety, moderate death anxiety and poor sleep quality, and the sleep quality decreased with increasing COVID-19 anxiety and death anxiety. Thus, it is necessary to take appropriate interventions to reduce COVID-19 anxiety and death anxiety in the elderly in order to increase the quality of sleep and health of the elderly in this period.