title: The Attitude of Medical Students Toward Death: A Cross-Sectional Study in Rafsanjan.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Attitude toward death is one of the most important factors that can influence the behavior related to the health profession. It is thought that physicians are afraid of death more than other groups of specialist. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the attitudes of the medical students of Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences toward death.
  
  
  METHODS
  This study is a cross-sectional study on 308 medical students of Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences in the academic year of 2015. Attitudes were assessed through the questionnaire of death attitude profile-revised. The collected data were analyzed upon arrival to a computer with SPSS version 14, and descriptive and inferential statistical methods.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Attitude toward death was investigated in the 5 dimensions including the fear of death, death avoidance, approach acceptance, neutral acceptance, and escape acceptance. The results showed that the mean and standard deviations of fear of death, death avoidance, natural acceptance, approach acceptance, and escape acceptance were 3.76 ± 1.15, 3.54 ± 1.33, 5.14 ± 0.86, 4.66 ± 0.95, and 3.73 ± 1.25, respectively. It was found that people who have had the experience in dealing with death had less escape of the death attitude.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Totally, the results of this study demonstrated that the medical students had good attitudes through 5 dimensions of attitudes toward death. This is probably due to the religious beliefs and also dealing with dying patients. However, it is recommended that training programs should be provided for students in the field of attitudes toward death.
authors: Department of Health Services and Health Promotion, School of Health, Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences, Rafsanajn, Iran.
authors: Mohammad
authors: M
authors: Asadpour
authors: Department of Psychiatry, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran.
authors: Laya
authors: L
authors: Sabzevari
authors: Medical student, Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences, Rafsanjan, Iran.
authors: Asadollah
authors: A
authors: Ekramifar
authors: Department of Psychiatry, Research Center of Addiction and Behavioral Sciences, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran.
authors: Reza
authors: R
authors: Bidaki
keywords: Approach acceptance; Attitude toward death; Death avoidance; Escape acceptance; Fear of death; Medical students of Rafsanjan; Natural acceptance