「死亡」乃是人生中一個必經的過程，但傳統文化中將它視為禁忌的議題。隨著老年人口的快速發展，針對老年人對死亡的態度的探討，有助於健康照護人員了解並協助其老人個案透過生命與死亡意義的尋求來思考及面對死亡。本研究為一先驅性質性研究，以探討臺灣老人之死亡態度，共訪談六位社區中健康老人，以半結構式問卷做錄音訪談。資料分析以行為單位來歸納資料。 研究結果發現老人對死亡的態度可歸納為三方面：（1）死亡是生命中之過程，（2）死後是一種未知狀態之憧景，（3）盡力而活。老年人雖認為死亡是人生舞台必經的階段，且死後世界不能確定，但對死後世界仍有盼望，而對生的世界朝盡力而活，不要因自己身體的不健康而影響他人。

　　　　　"Death" is a necessary process in one's life. But, most of people avoid to discuss the issues of death in the traditional culture. During the period of increasing old population, it is important to understand the attitude toward death among the elderly. Health providers may assist the old clients to think over and face to their own death by the meaning of life and death. The purpose of the pilot study was to explore the attitude toward death among the elderly in Taiwan. Six older persons who were living in the community participated in the study. Data were collected through audio-tapes recorded the interviews following the semi-structured interviewed guide. A line-by-line approach was used to derive coding categories. The study showed that the attitude of older persons toward death could be categorized as following: 1) Death is life process. 2) The world of death is an uncertain status. 3) They to the best for their own life. Most of the elderly think that death is a necessary in life stage. The elders also do not know about the uncertainty of death world, but they do have hopes in the death and the living worlds. Most of them fear their health problems to be the caregivers' burden. They expect to do the best for their own life.