Determination of the Attitudes of the Health Staff Working for the Institutions Providing Primary Health Care Towards Ageism

Abstract

Aim: This descriptive and correlational study was conducted to determine the attitudes of the health care staff who work for the institutions providing primary health care services in Kayseri. Material and Methods:The study was conducted with 259 individuals who agreed to participate in the study. In the quantitative part of the study, a questionnaire form and the Ageism Attitude Scale were used. In the qualitative part of the research, indepth interviews were conducted with eight health care personnel who had the highest and lowest scores on the Ageism Attitude Scale and agreed to interview. Mann-Whitney U, Kruskal-Wallis, and chisquare tests were used to analyze the data. The statistical significance level was taken as 0.05 in all tests. Results: In the study, it was found that while male health care personnel wanted to live with the elderly, female health care personnel did not (p <0.05). In the mean score distribution of the ageism attitude scale, it was determined that physicians and health officers had higher positive discrimination scores towards the elderly. Nurses' and midwives' negative discrimination scores against the elderly were higher than the other groups (p<0.05). As the education level increased, the scores of positive discrimination against the elderly also increased. Conclusion:In the research, we can say that healthcare personnel discriminates elderly at different points. The important thing is to reveal the prejudices of the health personnel about the elderly and ensure that the health personnel serving the elderly are aware of these prejudices. We think that this research will give health care professionals an insight.