Psychometric Properties of the Death Anxiety Scale for Adult Chronic Patients

Introduction: Death anxiety is a predictor of exacerbations in both physical and psychological symptoms of chronic diseases. Therefore, having short and easy-to-apply instruments to assess the presence of death anxiety and adopting a multidisciplinary approach to address it are important.

Method: This study analyzes the psychometric properties of the Death Anxiety Scale (DAS) developed by Donald Templer in a Colombian population of adult patients diagnosed with a chronic disease. The original instrument was linguistically, conceptually, and culturally adapted to Colombian Spanish to be subsequently applied to 301 adult patients with chronic diseases.

Results: The exploratory factor analysis revealed a 3-factor structure, with a variance of 47%. Internal consistency was observed (Cronbach's alpha: 0.71; McDonald's omega: 0.76; Guttman's lambda 6 (G6): 0.74; greatest lower bound: 0.54). A correlation coefficient of 0.64 was found between the total score of the DAS and the Beck Anxiety Inventory.

Conclusion: When comparing the results with the versions of the DAS in Spanish from Mexico and Spain, variability in the psychometric properties was observed; therefore, language cannot be assumed to be a guarantee of the reliability and validity of the instrument.