Assessing age stereotypes in the German population in 1996 and 2011: socio-demographic correlates and shift over time

"The supreme discipline of Nursing"-A qualitative content analysis of nurses' opinions on caring for people eighty years of age and older

Introduction

Nurses often experience stress and feel under time pressure when working with older people, increasing their job dissatisfaction. Especially people 80 years of age and older often require more complex and a greater measure of care, as the risk of care dependency is higher in this age group. This study was conducted to collect nurses' experiences and opinions regarding the care of people 80 years of age and older, as well as to learn more about how nurses perceive this care.

Method

We analysed narratives collected in an Austrian nationwide, cross-sectional online study to investigate nurses' attitudes towards people 80 years of age and older and their perceptions regarding their care (N = 1197). Data were collected from May-October 2021 by using a convenience sampling method. In total, 149 participants filled in the free text field; these texts were analysed using a qualitative content analysis method.

Results

Three main themes emerged from the analysis of the nurses' narratives: (1) 'opinions on people in need of care', (2) 'reputation of nursing profession', and (3) 'criticism of current nursing practice'. Most narratives were assigned to the subthemes 'positive opinions on nursing', 'ideal image of nursing', and 'shortage of staff'.

Conclusion

Nurses considered their work with people aged 80 years and older to be meaningful and important, but they criticised working conditions which need to be improved. This could be achieved by offering further education and increasing nursing staff. Further research is needed to investigate nurses' needs and wishes regarding the care of people aged 80 years and older.

Country-specific differences of age stereotypes towards older hospital staff and their association with self-efficacy, work ability and mental well-being

AIMS

To compare stereotypes towards older workers between hospital staff in Germany and Latvia and to analyse the relationship between those stereotypes and self-efficacy, subjective work ability and irritation.

DESIGN

Cross-sectional study.

METHODS

In 2018, hospital staff, including nurses, physicians and other professions, of two German and three Latvian hospitals were asked to complete the standardized study questionnaire on subjective work ability, occupational self-efficacy, irritation and stereotypes towards older workers. In the latter scale older workers were defined as ≥45 years of age and the scale ranged from 27-135 whereby higher values reflect higher levels of positive stereotypes. To analyse the relationship between stereotypes and those work-related outcomes, multiple linear regression models, including interaction terms between stereotypes and age, were built and adjusted for occupational group, sex and country.

RESULTS

Data from 300 employees of Latvian and from 113 employees of German hospitals were included in the analyses. Hospital staff in Germany reported higher levels of positive stereotypes (mean = 87.46, SD 10.04) than hospital staff in Latvia (mean = 84.69, SD 10.10; t(411) = -2.496, p = .013). When analysing the entire sample of hospital staff in Germany and Latvia, a more positive view on older workers was associated with higher self-efficacy (β = 0.136, p = .008) and subjective work ability (β = 0.063, p < .001) and lower levels of irritation (β = -0.191, p = .017). The association with self-efficacy and subjective work ability increased in strength by participant's age. Country-stratified analyses yielded similar results.

CONCLUSION

The results provide first evidence that stereotypes towards older workers of hospital staff may differ between different European countries. Furthermore, they suggest that counteracting negative stereotypes towards older workers may help to improve self-efficacy and subjective work ability and reduce irritation levels of older employees.

IMPACT

Those findings emphasize the importance of age stereotypes when examining and promoting older hospital staffs' self-efficacy, subjective work ability and irritation in a cross-national context.

Global reach of ageism on older persons' health: A systematic review

OBJECTIVE

Although there is anecdotal evidence of ageism occurring at both the structural level (in which societal institutions reinforce systematic bias against older persons) and individual level (in which older persons take in the negative views of aging of their culture), previous systematic reviews have not examined how both levels simultaneously influence health. Thus, the impact of ageism may be underestimated. We hypothesized that a comprehensive systematic review would reveal that these ageism levels adversely impact the health of older persons across geography, health outcomes, and time.

METHOD

A literature search was performed using 14 databases with no restrictions on region, language, and publication type. The systematic search yielded 13,691 papers for screening, 638 for full review, and 422 studies for analyses. Sensitivity analyses that adjusted for sample size and study quality were conducted using standardized tools. The study protocol is registered (PROSPERO CRD42018090857).

RESULTS

Ageism led to significantly worse health outcomes in 95.5% of the studies and 74.0% of the 1,159 ageism-health associations examined. The studies reported ageism effects in all 45 countries, 11 health domains, and 25 years studied, with the prevalence of significant findings increasing over time (p < .0001). A greater prevalence of significant ageism-health findings was found in less-developed countries than more-developed countries (p = .0002). Older persons who were less educated were particularly likely to experience adverse health effects of ageism. Evidence of ageism was found across the age, sex, and race/ethnicity of the targeters (i.e., persons perpetrating ageism).

CONCLUSION

The current analysis which included over 7 million participants is the most comprehensive review of health consequences of ageism to date. Considering that the analysis revealed that the detrimental impact of ageism on older persons' health has been occurring simultaneously at the structural and individual level in five continents, our systematic review demonstrates the pernicious reach of ageism.