The Impact of Death Anxiety on the Quality of Life of Iranian Women with Breast Cancer, Mediated by Life Expectancy

This study was conducted to investigate the effect of death anxiety on the quality of life of Iranian women with breast cancer with the mediation of life expectancy. This research was a cross-sectional study with structural equation modeling; 400 patients were selected by multistage cluster sampling. A questionnaire was used, which included demographic questions, death anxiety, quality of life, and life expectancy scale. The results show that the items have satisfactory internal consistency reliability. Average Variance Extracted (AVE) exceeds the recommended value of 0.5. The model has shown adequate convergent validity and Q^2 values have predictive relationships for the endogenous constructs. By introducing the mediator variable, the coefficient value between death anxiety and quality of life decreased from −0.361 to −0.239. This research showed that with the mediator variable of life expectancy, the negative effect of death anxiety on the quality of life is reduced. This research demonstrates that life expectancy can act as a mediator between death anxiety and quality of life. In other words, when considering the mediating variable of life expectancy, the negative impact of death anxiety on the quality of life is diminished.