Hi Mariella,

I don't think I can be much help; however, I am curious to know if you are studying Sub-Saharan cases of HIV/AIDS as your mention of spouses indicates that you are interested in death anxiety in the traditional marriage arrangement (male/female heterosexual couples). My understanding is that this fits the pattern of HIV/AIDS contraction in the Third World (Sub-Saharan Africa and India come prominently to mind).

Since there is more likely to be resentment on the part of a spouse who was infected by a perhaps unfaithful spouse, wouldn't your results be very confused by all the emotions that need to sorted out (e.g., disappointment, hatred, concern over the fate of the children who will be left behind, etc.) when married couples are involved?

At any rate, I would think your inquiry should not be so general as to include "any studies on death anxiety in people living with HIV/AIDS." For instance, I don't think studies done on the death anxiety of Black women in Newark, NJ (high incidence of infection) would be useful. Many of these women have been infected by irresponsible sex partners who aren't their spouses and who are drug addicts who have contracted the disease from use of dirty needles. Studies of their cases would appear to be irrelevant to you if your interest is in the impact of death anxiety on the spouses of infected persons.

In this same vein, although the sophisticated, affluent gay communities in the U.S. were the first to engage in social intervention (condoms, mouthguards, in other words, safe sex) and have thus stemmed the spread of AIDS in their communities, I feel that any studies that have been conducted with a focus on gay couples would not be particularly helpful for your purposes. Gay couples in the U.S. have just recently been allowed the right to marry in a few states (this week, in fact, in New Jersey, where I am). Because of the discrimination gays experience from the law and often from close family members (who otherwise are a source of support for married couples in crisis), they have far too much baggage for studies conducted on them to be useful. How would a researcher separate out the death anxiety factor? Also, with many of these gay partners, they have been too busy fighting for health benefits for their same-sex afflicted partners to take time out for death anxiety. And, the main preoccupation of the infected partner is staying alive for spite until they are victorious in court and the intransigent insurance companies pay up. No, this is not a fruitful source of material for you.

In short, I think it would help you get wind of useful studies if you revealed more about the nature of your human subjects (gay, straight, bisexual, drug users) other than the fact that they are obviously married (since you mention spouses). Where, geographically, are your human subjects located? Are they affluent members of their respective societies? Is free and adequate health care available to them? Or, are they impoverished persons with no health insurance? You don't want to wind up comparing apples and oranges so if your human subjects are covered by insurance, you wouldn't want to waste time looking at studies in societies where "Socialism" is a curse word.

Gwen

Mariella,

I woke up this morning thinking about your question and it occurs to me that it would be important to know whether your human subjects are religious or not; and, if so, what is the predominant religion among the subjects you are studying? The eschatology of any given religion has a great bearing on the amount of anxiety an adherent to that religion experiences in connection with knowledge that death is imminent.

Gwen

Hi Mariella,

Yes - you might like to look at:

Kennedy, C. A. (1995). Gender differences in HIV-related psychological distress in heterosexual couples. AIDS care, 7(1), 33-38.

Chandra, P. S., Ravi, V., Desai, A., & Subbakrishna, D. K. (1998). Anxiety and depression among HIV-infected heterosexuals—a report from India. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 45(5), 401-409.

Gwen's advice on narrowing down your focus with consideration of demographics and geography seems really useful; likewise the issue of religion.

Good luck! Very worthwhile to investigate, especially if you also include some temporal analysis re how this has changed over the last 30 years.

Dear Mrs D'souza

please read this article:

Death Stud. 2012 Aug;36(7):640-63.

Death anxiety in persons with HIV/AIDS: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Miller AK1, Lee BL2, Henderson CE2.