The Relationship Between Death Anxiety and Alexithymia in Emergency Medical Technicians

Abstract

Introduction: When confronted with traumatic accidents and events that result in death, people are at risk of developing death anxiety. Due to their stressful job, emergency medical technicians (EMTs) will develop alexithymia and be unable to express and manage their emotions over time. Studies show that alexithymia causes physical and mental disorders in many people. The present study aimed to determine the relationship between death anxiety and alexithymia in EMTs.Methods: The convenience sampling method was used to select 400 EMTs in southeastern Iran who met the inclusion criteria for this descriptive-analytical study. The Templer Death Anxiety Scale and the Toronto Alexithymia Scale were used to collect data. SPSS version 20 was used to analyze the data, which included descriptive and analytical statistics (Independent t test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation, and regression). Results: The results of the study showed that the mean score of death anxiety in EMTs was 10.26 ± 3.69. It was revealed that 46.7% of the EMTs experienced severe death anxiety. Furthermore, the total mean score of alexithymia in EMTs was 59.65 ± 8.28, indicating the possibility of alexithymia. The Pearson correlation test showed a direct moderate relationship between death anxiety and alexithymia scores (r = .351, p < .001).Conclusion: According to the results, there is a direct significant relationship between death anxiety and alexithymia in EMTs. Therefore, it is suggested that EMTs be continuously taught effective methods to deal with death anxiety and reduce the physical and mental disorders caused by this problem.