Medical students' understanding of geriatric medicine

Abstract

With the rapid aging of Japan's population, medical professionals who specialize in geriatric medicine are in unprecedented demand. At Ehime University School of Medicine, the Department of Geriatric Medicine was established on April 1,1997. To assess the status of geriatric medicine in undergraduate education, we surveyed the opinions of medical students on geriatric medicine. A questionnaire was sent to both fourth-year medical students before their classes on internal medicine and geriatric medicine had ended and to sixth-year medical students after their classes had already ended. Medical students of Ehime University School of Medicine had significantly more interest in geriatric medicine than students at other medical schools. From a clinical viewpoint of problems in old age, they considered that cerebrovascular disease, cardiovascular disorders, neurocognitive disorders and pulmonary disease were important. A total of 60% agreed that all medical schools should have classes in geriatric medicine, which is a higher rate than that of previous reports. To study the opinions of medical students on textbooks on geriatrics, we also conducted a questionnaire among medical students. Although 90% of students had their own textbooks of internal medicine and almost half (42%) had textbooks on physical examination, none had their own textbook of geriatric medicine. The most frequent reason was "hard to choose the best textbook". The present study indicates that to develop education in geriatric medicine, it is important to make a recommendable text book for medical students, which is easily understood with high quality and originality.