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Effect of death education on self‐determination in medical treatment in university students
Author(s) -
Mogi Nanaka,
Masuda Yuichiro,
Hattori Ayako,
Naito Michitaka,
Iguchi Akihisa,
Uemura Kazumasa
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
geriatrics and gerontology international
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.823
H-Index - 57
eISSN - 1447-0594
pISSN - 1444-1586
DOI - 10.1111/j.1444-1586.2003.00087.x
Subject(s) - death education , autonomy , death anxiety , medicine , test (biology) , organ donation , medical education , scale (ratio) , family medicine , anxiety , psychology , nursing , psychiatry , transplantation , surgery , paleontology , physics , quantum mechanics , political science , law , biology
Background: Young people have little opportunity to acquire knowledge about or to determine in advance their medical preferences regarding their own end‐of‐life situation, including diagnosis disclosure and/or organ donation. Therefore a 90 min university‐level death education lecture was presented, which was designed to allow students to examine their attitudes regarding medical autonomy and to prepare themselves to make realistic decisions. Methods: At the beginning of the semester a survey was conducted using the questionnaire method. Three months later the death education lecture was provided to students in the death education group and the usual lecture to students in the control group, after which the survey using the same questionnaire was readministered. The questionnaire consisted of Templer's death anxiety scale (DAS), five items regarding medical autonomy, background data, and voluntary comment. Results: Regarding the DAS and the items on medical autonomy, no significant differences were detected between the pre‐test and post‐test results, nor between the death education group ( n = 62) and the control group ( n = 49). However, in the death education group there was a significant increase in the number writing about the deaths of significant others and in the number providing voluntary comments. Conclusion: The death education lecture had the effect of deepening the students’ thoughts regarding their own death and/or their attitudes to medical autonomy.