the relationship between gerotranscendence and existential anxiety in the elderly in Kerman city in 2020

Aging is the best stage for human excellence and ultimately reflects human maturity. Existential anxiety is one of the most important emotions that plays a vital role in different stages of development and most importantly in old age and is due to the individual's understanding of his/her being and existence, limitations, bottlenecks and consequences. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between gerotranscendence and existential anxiety in the elderly in Kerman in 2021.

This cross-sectional study (descriptive-analytical) was conducted in 2021. The study sample included 200 elderly people over 60 years old who referred to primary health care facilities of Kerman. In this study, to collect data, the short form of Gerotranscendence Scale which had 10 items and three subscales and also Existential Anxiety Scale which had 13 items were used. 18 questionnaires were excluded due to incomplete information. Finally, the data of 182 questionnaires were analyzed by SSPS (version 22) statistical software and Spearman correlation, Mann- Whitney U and Kruskal -Wallis H.

The results showed that there was significant correlation between integration (of the dimensions of Gerotranscendence) dimension with existential anxiety (p = 0.008, r = 0.197). There were significant relationships between participants, age, educational level or health status and the mean score of gerotranscendence of them. Also, there was a statistically significant relationship between the scores of existential anxiety of the participants and their occupation status.

Findings of the present study showed that the dimension of integration has a significant inverse relationship with existential anxiety. Psychological interventions to reduce the existential anxiety of the elderly need to focus more on improving the integration dimension.