title: Existential concerns about death: a qualitative study of dying patients in a Danish hospice.
abstract: Research suggests that addressing dying patients' existential concerns can improve their quality of life. We aimed to illuminate dying patients' existential concerns about the impending death through a descriptive analysis of semistructured interviews with 17 patients in Danish hospices. The main findings demonstrated how the patients faced the imminent death without being anxious of death but sorrowful about leaving life. Some patients expressed that they avoided thinking about death. They wished to focus on positive aspects in their daily life. We argue that the patients' existential concerns could not be fully captured by Yalom's existential psychology or by Kübler-Ross's theory about death stages. Patients' complex concerns could be more fully explained taking an outset in Heidegger's phenomenological thinking.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark lmoestrup@health.sdu.dk.
authors.forename: Lene
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Moestrup
authors.affiliation: Institute of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark.
authors.forename: Helle Ploug
authors.initials: HP
authors.lastname: Hansen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology; D001293:Attitude to Death; D005260:Female; D006117:Grief; D017051:Hospice Care / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D036301:Qualitative Research; D011788:Quality of Life; D019452:Terminally Ill / Q000523:psychology*
keywords: afterlife; daily living; end of life; life-threatening diseases; patient perspectives; support