Cognition,attitude towards funeral directors and their influencing factors among occupational populations

Objective To examine cognition and attitude towards funeral directors and their relevant factors among people with different occupations.Methods Purposive sampling method was used and 1 181 people with different occupations from Chongqing municipality and Sichuan,Gansu,Henan,and Hebei provinces were surveyed with a self-administered questionnaire between July to September 2014.Results Of the participants,1 022 (86.5%) had no contract with funeral directors; 457 (38.7%) did not know funeral directors at all; 615 (52.1%) did not know the technique difficulty in the work of funeral directors; 420 (35.6%) thought that funeral directors did not have public holidays; 355 (30.1%) thought that the education background of funeral directors should be in college level at least;and 480 (40.7%) did not know the career prospect of funeral directors.As for the attitude towards funeral directors and their vocation,926 (78.4%) accepted while 255 (21.6%) rejected the funeral directors and their vocation.Multivariate logistic regression showed that occupation,residing location,and knowledge about funeral directors were the main factors influencing the attitude towards funeral directors (all P<0.05).Conclusion Occupational populations have poor cognition on funeral directors and their work,suggesting specific intervention on this issue should be promoted in the society.