RESEARCH ARTICLE


Attitude of Medical Sciences Students toward Older Adults in Iran, 2017



Yadollah Abolfathi Momtaz1, 2, Fatemeh Mousavi-Shirazi3, *, Parisa Mollaei3, Ahmad Delbari4
1 Iranian Research Center on Aging, University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Malaysian Research Institute on Ageing (MyAgeing), Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
2 Malaysian Research Institute on Ageing (MyAgeing), Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
3 School of Health, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
4 Iranian Research Center on Aging, University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences, Tehran, Iran


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Creative Commons License
© 2019 Momtaz et al.

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode). This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the Department School of Health, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran;
Tel: +982122180154; E-mail: mousavishirazi.f@gmail.com


Abstract

Background:

Studies show as people age, demand for health care services rises. One of the most important factors that significantly affect the quality of elderly care is the attitude towards older adults.

Objective:

The current study aimed to assess the attitude of medical sciences students towards older adults in Iran.

Methods:

A cross-sectional design study using a multistage proportional random sampling method was employed to obtain a sample of 583 Iranian medical sciences students in 2017. The data were measured using the Kogan's Attitudes Towards Older People Scale (KAOPS). The SPSS 23.0 for Windows (IBM SPSS Statistics 23.0) was used to analyze the data.

Results:

Out of the 583 respondents, around 44% were female and a little more than one-fourth was medical students. The mean age was 21.98 (SD=3.63) years. The mean score of the attitude towards the elderly was found to be 56.90 (SD=8.04). Aging health students scored a more positive attitude towards elderly people than other medical sciences students. Results of the bivariate analyses revealed that field of study (F (7, 575) = 2.66, P<0.01), participating in gerontology and geriatrics research (t (581) =2.80, p<0.01), and attending in gerontology and geriatrics congress (t (581) =1.96, p<0.05) significantly associated with attitude toward older adults.

Conclusions:

The findings from the current study show that Iranian medical sciences students have moderate positive attitudes towards older adults and vary by students’ field of study and their research activity in gerontology and geriatrics field. Therefore, effective interventions for enhancing the attitudes of medical sciences students towards older adults should be developed and implemented.

Keywords: Attitude toward older adults, Geriatrics, Gerontology, Medical sciences students, KAOPS, Health care.