Prevalence of Thanatophobia in General Population of Punjab During Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Background. The aim of this research was to check the universality of thanatophobia in general
population of Punjab during COVID-19 pandemic.
Method. The study used a survey research design to conduct it, & it was quantitative in nature. In this
research design, we asked multiple questions from the population of interest. The current study was
comprised of general population of two areas, namely Lahore and Sargodha, from Punjab (N = 1000) with
age range of 20-60 years. Data was collected through a convenient sampling technique. The scale used in
the study was Collet-Lester Fear of Death (Thanatophobia) Scale, proposed by Collett-Lester (1969). The
final version was published in 2003 (Lester, 2003).
Results. Analysis showed that on Pearson product moment correlation, subscales of Thanatophobia scale
significantly correlated with each other in general population of Punjab at the (p < .01) level. An
Independent sample t-test for gender difference showed non-significant differences in the Thanatophobia
subscales. Fear of death according to age categories in the MANOVA analysis of variance indicated that
there were noticeable differences. According to educational level, there were remarkable variations
founded on the fear of death in the MANOVA analysis of variance.
Conclusion. This article is related to the fear of death. This falls under those concerned social issues that
need to be identified and addressed on a greater scale in the form of organizing seminars, conferences,
workshops etc., especially during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The fear of death increased at a
greater rate during and after COVID-19 pandemic. This study is important for clinical psychologists and
counselors to know about new behaviors and new findings about thanatophobia in public during COVID19 pandemic and to further researches in this area for exploration.
Keywords: Thanatophobia, Fear of death, Prevalence, and Pandemic