Geriatrics education is associated with positive attitudes toward older people in internal medicine residents: A multicenter study

Effectiveness of the aged simulation suit on undergraduate nursing students' attitudes and empathy toward older adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis

AIM

This study aims to investigate the efficacy of the aged simulation suit on undergraduate nursing students' attitudes and empathy toward older adults.

BACKGROUND

A new approach to teaching to enhance nursing students' attitudes toward and empathy for older adults involves the use of an aging simulation suit.

DESIGN

This systematic review and meta-analysis seeks to determine the efficacy of the aged simulation suit on the attitudes and empathy of undergraduate nursing students toward older adults. This protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis was registered as CRD 42023393879 on the PROSPERO database.

METHODS

In February-March 2023, a systematic review with meta-analysis of randomized controlled and quasi-experimental studies was conducted in accordance with the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines. Population, Intervention, Control, Outcomes, Study Design (PICOS) structure was used for search strategy. Databases CINAHL, Cochrane Library, PubMed, PsycINFO, and Web of Science, as well as ULAKBIM, Turkish Medline, Turkiye Klinikleri, and YOK National Thesis Center, were searched for the articles. The Joanna Briggs Institute Critical Appraisal Tools were used to evaluate the methodological quality of a study and the extent to which its design, conduct, and analysis addressed the possibility of bias.

RESULTS

The meta-analyses of attitudes toward older adults included six studies (including 535 nursing students). The intervention group's attitudes toward older adults were found to be similar to those of the control group (SMD: 15.84, Z= 1.98, p= 0.05). The subgroup analyses revealed similarities between intervention group's and the control group's mean score on attitudes toward older adults (SMD: 4.85, Z=0.70, p=0.48, for RCT; SMD: 23.05, Z= 2.02, p=0.04, for quasi-experimental). Three studies (involving 207 nursing students) revealed significantly higher mean empathy score for the control group compared with the intervention group following the intervention (SMD: 7.08, Z=4.82, p=0.00001). The subgroup analyses revealed statistically significantly higher mean level of empathy for the control group compared with the intervention group was after the intervention (SMD: 7.49, Z=3.15, p=0.002, for RCT; SMD: 6.83, Z= 3.65, p=0.0003, for quasi-experimental).

CONCLUSIONS

Nursing students should be aware of older adults' feelings and experiences aging-related changes and aged simulation interventions can be a useful intervention to allow students to empathize with an older adult.

Attitudes of health professionals toward elderly patients during the COVID-19 pandemic

The perceptions and attitudes of health professionals toward a certain group of society are among the factors affecting the quality of health service. This study aimed to investigate the attitudes of physicians and nurses about ageism in the COVID-19 pandemic. An easy face-to-face survey was used to collect the data. It involves the questions about demographic information and geriatric perspectives, and they were taken from the University of California at Los Angeles Geriatrics Attitudes Scale (UCLA-GAS). In the study, 58.1% of participants were over 35 years old, 76.6% were women, and 50% were physicians out of 308 in total. It was found that most of the participants have worked in inpatient services and intensive care units for the longest time, where the triage issue was the most discussed topic during the pandemic. An average of 75% of the participants stated that they did not witness any ageist attitude in health care provided. In the comparative analyses conducted with the UCLA-GAS sub-dimensions, statistically significant results, which were anti-ageist and prioritized human life, were obtained. In the extraordinary periods such as pandemic, especially physicians should be able to give the treatment without feeling any social or legal concerns during their medical applications with the light of guidelines accepted scientifically, legally, and morally. Thus, health professionals will not only be away from legal concerns such as malpractice but also will not be exhausted mentally and they can provide more sufficient health service by working under these conditions.

Perceptions of Geriatric Medicine and Care of the Elderly: An Exploratory Survey of Physicians from the Middle East and Africa

Background The number of older people is growing in the Middle East and Africa (MEA). We aimed to explore the attitudes of MEA's physicians toward the care of the elderly and nursing homes.

Methods We surveyed 137 doctors practicing in the MEA region in 2017 using an online questionnaire that included attitude scales of geriatrics and nursing homes.

Results Most respondents were senior (47.1%) or in middle grades (35.3%), in public facilities (77.4%), and practiced internal medicine and subspecialties. More respondents (86%) agreed with what was perceived as the most exciting and entertaining qualities of most older people in their accounts of their past experiences. Also, 69.0% of respondents disagreed that older people need/demand no more attention or love than younger people. At the same time, 43.6% of respondents were neutral on the question relating to older people's power in business and politics. Positive attitudes, that is, older people's willingness to continue working for as long as possible, and that wisdom with age scored 61.5% was supported by 85.1 and 61.5% of the respondents, respectively.

On the other hand, 53.7% of respondents agreed that older people could not adjust and change with changing circumstances, 70.9% disagreed that older people make neighborhoods less favorable. However, only 15.5% disagreed with the statement that older people cannot adjust and change with changing circumstances. Nearly two-thirds thought nursing homes were not well developed (63.0%) in the MEA region. Also, 59.8% said that the expected reimbursement is low, 57.7% were concerned about complicated medical problems, and 57.3% highlighted the deficits in training. There was low satisfaction with providing nursing home care despite agreeing that they may feel professionally satisfied providing nursing home care (49.5%). The respondents were neutral (47.3%) or somewhat agreed (42.9%) about enjoying nursing home care.

Conclusion There is a suboptimal attitude of practicing physicians to geriatrics that needs improvements.

Attitudes toward aging of health professions students: Implications for geriatrics education

We compared attitudes toward aging of students from several health professions (N = 1,156: 286 medical, 275 pharmacy, 213 undergraduate nursing, 160 graduate nursing, 139 Internal Medicine residents, 49 physical therapy, and 34 physician assistant), and assessed the construct validity of the Image of Aging Scale. Physical therapy and graduate nursing students reported more positive attitudes toward aging in comparison to all other health professions (all p <.001). Differences in attitudes were not strongly affected by demographic variables, clinical exposure, desire to pursue primary care, or interest in providing care to older adults. The Image of Aging Scale yielded good internal reliability and adequate construct validity for health professions students. Health professions students' attitudes toward aging largely reflect the students' professional training, rather than student characteristics or career goals. The Image of Aging Scale is a robust measure of attitudes toward aging in health professions students and in older adults.

The psychometric properties, confirmatory factor analysis, and cut-off value for the Fraboni scale of ageism (FSA) in a sampling of healthcare workers

PURPOSE

The Fraboni scale of ageism (FSA) is one of the scales used to determine ageism, which is the expression of prejudice toward the elderly because of their age through attitudes and behaviors. The purpose of this study is to determine the psychometric properties, factor analysis, and cut-off value for the FSA in a sampling of healthcare workers.

DESIGN AND METHODS

The sampling of this study was conducted methodologically in a descriptive and relationship-seeking type of research and comprised 814 healthcare workers employed at a university and state hospital.

FINDINGS

As a result of the exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, it was found that the FSA comprised 29 items and three subdimensions, that these three factors explain approximately 30.23% of the total variance, and that the cut-off value is 78.

PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS

This study determined that the Turkish adaptation of the FSA is a suitable tool to measure the ageism of healthcare workers.

Pensamiento social de vejez: Actitudes y Representaciones Sociales

El objetivo del presente estudio fue revisar las investigaciones sobre pensamiento social en torno a la vejez, específicamente aquellas desarrolladas desde las teorías de las Actitudes y de las Representaciones Sociales. Lo anterior no sólo permitió reconocer las proposiciones teóricas y metodológicas de cada uno de los paradigmas, sino también discutir las implicaciones de estos resultados para el estudio del pensamiento social sobre vejez, las orientaciones futuras, y posibles desarrollos en el tema. Fueron revisados aquellos artículos publicados durante los últimos catorce años, en revistas indexadas, y escritos en inglés, español, francés y portugués. Cuarenta y ocho investigaciones cumplieron con los criterios de selección, éstas presentan la vejez como un fenómeno complejo, descrito con valoraciones positivas o negativas. Si bien los estudios de actitudes se enfocaron en evaluar las diferencias individuales, las variables socio-estructurales fueron relevantes en la explicación de las actitudes hacia la vejez. Los estudios sobre representaciones sociales se enfocaron en analizar las diferencias contextuales y sus repercusiones sobre el contenido de la representación, mostrando que la vejez no se puede entender sin indagar el contexto social. Tras la discusión, fue concluido que los estudios sobre pensamiento social sobre la vejez deberían explorar la relación entre los términos usados para definir la vejez, sus significados y su función social; además de tener abordajes complejos que expliquen el vínculo entre la información, la actitud y las condiciones socio-estructurales (macro-micro).

Attitudes of neurology specialists toward older adults

OBJECTIVE

Attitude of healthcare providers toward older people is very important in the aging world. Neurologists contact older adults very frequently. We aimed to investigate the attitudes of neurologists toward older adults.

MEASUREMENTS

We recorded participants age; sex; duration of clinical practice in neurology; existence of older adult relatives; and history of geriatrics education, nursing home visits, older adult patient density in their clinical practice, and participation in voluntary public activities. UCLA Geriatrics Attitude Scale was used to evaluate participants' attitudes.

RESULTS

A total of 100 neurologists participated in this study. Seventy-seven percent had positive, 3 % had neutral, and 20 % had negative attitudes. Twenty-seven percent of the participants had history of geriatrics education, and these participants tended to have a higher rate of positive attitudes. Neurologists with positive attitudes tended to be older than those with negative attitudes. Participants with history of living with older adult relatives had lower rates of positive attitudes. The most common diagnoses of the patients the participants encountered were stroke and dementia. Independent factors associated with positive attitudes were history of geriatrics education and older age. History of living with older relatives tended to have a negative effect. Most of the negative items of the attitude scale were associated with the natural course and behavior of the common diseases in neurology practice.

CONCLUSIONS

Generalization of geriatrics education may translate into a better understanding and improved care for older patients. Development of instruments and implementation of qualitative studies to assess attitudes of neurologists toward older adults are needed.