Attitudes of family physicians towards the elderly

Abstract

Introduction: It is stated that negative attitudes towards the elderly affect the diagnosis and treatment processes negatively. Nevertheless, there are not enough recent studies examining the attitudes of family physicians who provide widespread healthcare to the elderly. The aim of this study was to evaluate the attitudes of family physicians towards the elderly. Material and Methods: Participants of this descriptive study are family physicians working actively in primary care. Data were collected through the software program, between January and June 2018. The link to the questionnaire was sent to the participants via e-mail. The questionnaire consisted of two parts: the sociodemographic data and University of California at Los Angeles Geriatrics Attitude (UCLA-GA) scale. Results: A total of 401 family physicians, 216 of whom (53.9%) were women, participated in the study. The mean age of the participants was 41.19 ± 8.51 years. On evaluation of both the mean total score (42.36 ± 3.42) and mean subscale score (3.02 ± 0.24), it was observed that female participants scored significantly higher (p = 0.001). Moreover, the UCLA-GA medical care subscale score raised with increased working time at family medicine (r = 0.151, p = 0.002) or being a medical doctor (r = 0.14, p = 0.005) and with growing age (r = 0.15, p = 0.003). Conclusion: The results of our study showed that those with longer professional experience, being older age, and women are associated with positive attitude towards the elderly. However, intervention studies are required to improve family physicians’ attitudes towards the elderly.