the mediating role of health anxiety in explaining personality dimensions and death anxiety in the elderly

Objective: the elderly are associated with challenges, such as physical diseases, increased health anxiety (ha), and death anxiety (da). the present study was conducted to develop a causal model of da in the elderly living in nursing homes based on personality dimensions (pds) mediated by ha and with the moderating role of gender. methods: the present research was conducted by correlation method and using path analysis. the statistical population of the research included all elderly living in private nursing homes in tehran city, iran in the summer and autumn of 2023, of which, 340 people were selected by the convenience sampling method. during one session and individually, the participants responded to the templer da scale (das) (1970), the short ha inventory (shai), and the hexaco personality inventory-revised (hexaco-pi-r). results: the results showed that the path coefficient (pc) between extraversion (β=-0.054, p=0.001), conscientiousness (β=-0.058, p=0.001), humility (p=0.001, β=-0.248), and emotionality (p=0.001, β=0.152) were significant with da. the pc of ha (β=0.241, p=0.001) was significant with da. indirect pc of extraversion (p=0.001, β=0.054), conscientiousness (β=0.058, p=0.001), humility (p=0.049, β=0.023) and emotionality (p=0.001, β=0.038) were significant with da. conclusion: ha mediates the relationship between pds and da. the research model was different in terms of fit with the data of two groups of women and men.