ARE WE PREPARED TO WORK WITH THE ELDERLY? THE PHENOMENON OF AGEISM AMONG STUDENTS OF PHYSIOTHERAPY

M. Podhorecka¹, A. Woźniewicz¹, J. Husejko¹, A. Pyszora²

¹Collegium Medicum in Bydgoszcz, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Department of Geriatrics, Bydgoszcz, Poland, ²Collegium Medicum in Bydgoszcz, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Department of Palliative Care, Bydgoszcz, Poland

Background: Ageism is a phenomenon of discrimination against the elderly. In an aging society, ageism can become one of the most discriminatory forms in the world, and this can also apply to healthcare workers. Looking at the future demographic changes and the growing number of elderly people and the possibility of the phenomenon of ageism, educating the appropriate medical staff seems to be a huge challenge for universities.

Purpose: The subject of the study was to assess the attitude of students of physiotherapy towards the elderly.

Methods: 589 people participated in the study (453 students of physiotherapy, 101 students of medicine and 35 nursing students). We used the following tools: metric questionnaire, Kogan Attitudes Towards Older People Scale and an original questionnaire on contacts with the elderly. We used R 4.0.2 (Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ, USA) to analyze the data. To model the KOAP score as a function of the predictors, the Bayesian linear regression was used.

Results: The results in the KAOP questionnaire in relation to the main ones ranged from 125.29 to 134.57. The highest results were obtained by students of physiotherapy, and the lowest by students of nursing. Additionally, men were characterized by a more positive attitude towards the elderly. Additionally, for all respondents, maintaining contacts with the elderly positively correlated with the results of a positive attitude towards the elderly.

Conclusions: Physiotherapy students are characterized by a high positive attitude towards the elderly compared to future doctors and nurses. However, that the attitude towards the elderly may depend on many factors, including the quantity and quality of contacts with this social group, as shown in the above analyzes.

Implications: Looking at the forecasts about the growing number of elderly people and the possibility of the phenomenon of ageism, educating well-prepared medical staff seems to be a huge challenge for centers educating medical staff. Our research in this area shows that contact with the elderly has an impact on the attitude of future physiotherapists. The above research can be a basis for further reflection on the selection of appropriate educational content and for increasing practice in places where there are elderly people, in order to prepare even better specialists who will work in the times of the silver tsunami.

Funding acknowledgements: No

Keywords:
education
ageism
discrimination

Topics:
Education
Older people
Professionalism & ethics

Did this work require ethics approval? Yes

Institution: Nicolaus Copernicus University Collegium Medicum in Bydgoszcz, Poland

Committee: Yes

Ethics number: KB 83/2021