title: Diversity of patients' beliefs about the soul after death and their importance in end-of-life care.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Because beliefs about the soul after death affect the dying experience, patients and survivors may want to discuss those beliefs with their healthcare provider; however, almost no medical research describes such beliefs, leaving healthcare professionals ill prepared to respond. This exploratory study begins the descriptive process.
  
  
  METHODS
  Assuming that culture is key, we asked older adult Mexican American (MA), European American (EA), and African American (AA) inpatients their beliefs about whether the soul lives on after physical death; if so, where; and what the "afterlife" is like.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Some beliefs varied little across the sample. For example, most participants said that the soul lives on after physical death, leaves the body immediately at death, and eventually reaches heaven. Many participants also said death ends physical suffering; however, other beliefs varied distinctly by ethnic group or sex. More AAs than MAs or EAs said that they believed that the soul after physical death exists in the world (57% vs 35% and 33%) or interacts with the living (43% vs 31% and 28%). Furthermore, in every ethnic group more women than men said they believed that the soul exists in the world (42% vs 29% for MAs, 45% vs 14% for EAs, and 71% vs 43% for AAs).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  As death nears, patients or survivors may want to discuss beliefs about the soul after death with their healthcare provider. This preliminary study characterizes some of those beliefs. By suggesting questions to ask and responses to give, the study provides healthcare professionals a supportive, knowledgeable way to participate in such discussions.
authors.affiliation: From the Department of Medicine, University of Texas Health Science Center, the Intercultural Development Research Association, and the Department of Veterans Affairs Audie L. Murphy Medical Center, San Antonio, Texas, USA. perkins@uthscsa.edu
authors.forename: Henry S
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Perkins
authors.forename: Josie D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Cortez
authors.forename: Helen P
authors.initials: HP
authors.lastname: Hazuda
mesh_terms: D001741:Black or African American; D000368:Aged; D001293:Attitude to Death / Q000208:ethnology*; D018864:Cultural Diversity; D003643:Death; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D017058:Mexican Americans; D008875:Middle Aged; D019222:Mind-Body Relations, Metaphysical; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D012067:Religion; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013727:Terminal Care / Q000523:psychology*; D014481:United States; D044465:White People