The Effect of Education Program on the Disadvantaged Elderly''s Attitudes Toward Death and Making Plan for a Good Death

• Main Authors: Miao-Chuan Tsai, 蔡妙娟
• Other Authors: Pei-Shan Yang
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2013
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/10707983720172125251

碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 社會工作學研究所 === 101 === This study intends to learn the difference of attitudes toward death and intention of making plan for a good death among the disadvantaged solitary elders of different personal backgrounds and environmental experiences, and to study the effect of involving death education program in the process. The study adopts the method of quasi-experimental design comprising pretest-posttest nonequivalent experimental group and control group. With the disadvantaged (low-income or middle-income) elders over the age of 65 who live alone in the administrative regions in Taipei as the subjects, the study collects data through structured questionnaires with the supplementary course unit assessment forms, overall course feedback forms and course records as references. The experimental group and the control group consist of 33 samples and 30 samples respectively. The research tools include questionnaire composed of four parts to investigate the study subjects’ personal background information, environmental experience, death attitude, and intention of making last will and making advance medical directives. As for the death attitude, it adopts the Three-Point Scale of Death Acceptance in Death Attitude Profile-Revised(DAP-R) developed and revised by Wong, Reker and Gesser(1994) to measure the death attitude of the study subjects. After collecting data, it sorts the questionnaires by SPSS statistical software, and then conducts data analysis by descriptive statistics such as frequency distribution, percentage, mean value and standard deviation and inferential statistics such as Chi-square test, independent t-test, dependent t-test, one-way ANOVA, Pearson product-moment correlation, Cramer’V and hierarchical regression. As for the part of personal background information, the average ages of the elders in the experimental group and control group are 75.36 and 78.1 respectively. In the two groups, the males are outnumbered by the females, and the education level of primary school takes up the largest proportion. Most of them are single or solitary with religious belief and strong piety. Nearly or over 50% believe they are in good or very good physical and mental health status. As for the environmental experience, most of the elders in these two groups haven’t suffered from serious disease, had a near death experience or talked about death with others. The data reveals the study subjects in these two groups don’t show significant difference in the personal background information and environmental experience, indicating the experimental design has controlled those variables which may possibly show influence and impact on the experimental effects. For the pretest death attitudes of the study subjects in the two groups, the subscale of neutral death acceptance gains the highest score. In the part of intention of making plan for a good death, the mean scores of the experimental group and control group are 47.45 and 45.43 respectively without significant difference. It means before involving the death education program, the elders of the two groups don’t show significant difference in their death attitudes and intention of making plan for a good death. The posttest data after involving death education program shows that the elders of the experimental group reaches significant difference in their death attitude and intention of making plan for a good death. It indicates the death education program could effectively influence the disadvantaged solitary elders in their death attitudes and intention of making plan for a good death. Regarding the influence of personal background information and environmental experience on the death attitude and intention of making plan for a good death of the elders in the two groups, the study data shows gender and serious disease experience will influence the death attitudes. Moreover, age, religious belief, physical health condition, experience of near death and death discussion will influence the intention of making plan for a good death. According to the study results, some suggestions are proposed for the elders, elders’ death education, practical work and future research direction, which can be taken as reference for those developing elders’ death education in the future, so as to improve the elders’ knowledge, attitudes and skills when facing medical decision and death topic, and effectively help them to face a good death.