Investigation of Knowledge and Attitudes of African and Turkish Nursing Students Regarding the Older Adults; A Comparative Descriptive Study

Abstract

Objective: The aim of the study is to determine the attitudes and knowledge of African and Turkish Nursing Students with regard to the older adults. Materials and Methods: This comparative descriptive study was conducted in a private university in Northern Cyprus. A total of 455 African and Turkish nursing students participated in this study. Personal information form, Palmore's facts on aging quiz (FAQ) and Kogan attitudes towards older people scale (KAOPS) were used to collect data. Descriptive statistics, Kruskal-Wallis test, Mann-Whitney U tests and multivariate linear regression were used for data analysis. Results: The mean FAQ score of the Turkish students was determined to be 30.64±7.15 and the mean KAOPS score was 125.33±13.14, whereas the mean FAQ score of the African students was 26.33±7.82 and the mean KAOPS score was 122.97±10.30. No significant difference was found in the students' attitudes towards the elderly in terms of nationality. The Turkish students' knowledge about old age was 3.43 times higher than the African students' knowledge [R2=8.9%, odds ratio=3.43 (1.93-6.11)]. Conclusion: It was determined that both the Turkish and African students had similar and positive attitudes towards the elderly; however, Turkish students had more knowledge about the elderly.