ATTITUDES OF HEALTH CARE SERVICES STUDENTS TOWARDS AGEISM AND AFFECTING FACTORS

Abstract

This research aims to determine the attitudes of health care servıces students towards ageism and affecting factors. It is a descriptive and crossectional research, which has been conducted with the participation of 160 students. The data have been collected through the questionnaire that covers socio-demographic features and Ageism Attitude Scale (AAS). Data analysis was carried out in the computer environment using SPSS (IBM SPSS Statistics 20) package program. Percentage, average, frequency tables and descriptive statistics were used to evaluate the data. The total AAS score of the students was 84,76±8,47 (min-max;60-110) and it was seen that the subscale scores of positive ageism for the elderly was 33,03±5,10, negative ageism for the elderly was 16,85±3,82 and restricting life of the elderly was 34,88±3,46. Statistically significant differences were found between gender and negative ageism for the elderly subscale scores, women had more positive attitude towards elderly discrimination (p <0.05). It was determined that there was a significant difference between the “working status” and the ASS total and all sub-dimensions mean scores (p <0.05). The ones who live in a extended family, statistically had higher average scores in total AAS and negative ageism for the elderly subscale scores (p<0.05). In this study, it was determined that students' attitudes towards ageism were higher positive and these attitudes were influenced by gender, family structure and working status.