| Abstrakt: |
Introduction: This study's aim was to investigate the attitudes of first- and sixth-year medical students on ageism and related factors, and to examine their willingness to work with older patients in their professional lives. Materials and Method: In this cross-sectional study, the target population comprised 637 students, 352 of whom were first-year and 285 were sixth-year medical students, studying at Akdeniz University Faculty of Medicine in the 2018--2019 academic year. The dependent variable was their attitudes on ageism. The Ageism Attitude Scale was used to assess the students' attitudes. The Mann-Whitney U test, Kruskal-Wallis, Spearman correlation, and multiple regression analyses were used for data evaluation. Results: At total of 524 students were included (access rate 82.3%), 53.8% were first-year students. The mean Ageism Attitude Scale score was 84.1 ± 8.9 (33--107). Forty-six percent of the study group stated that they would rather not work with older patients. In Agesim Attitude Scale scoring, the determinants of a positive attitude are: being a female, having good/very good communication with grandparents, desire to live with parents when their parents are very old, and desire to work with elderly patients in their professional life. Conclusion: The attitudes of medical students toward older patients were generally positive but their reluctance to work with them in their professional life was high, a determinant of having a negative attitude. From the first year of education, the curriculum and social activities should support increased communication with healthy older people to raise awareness about ageism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
