2Kayseri City Education and Research Hospital, Family Medicine, Kayseri, Turkey DOI : 10.31086/tjgeri.2022.272 Introduction: Healthcare professionals" attitudes towards the elderly are at the basis of the healthcare services provided to the elderly. Although training in geriatrics is known to be necessary, when and how are still not clear. This study aims to evaluate the attitudes of Medical Faculty students towards the elderly and the change in their attitudes after watching a movie about elderly people.
Materials and Method: The presented study is an interventional study that included 402 1st and 6th-grade medical students. A film named "AMOUR" which is about an aged couple"s life events was watched. Attitude changes were analyzed pre and post-intervention via UCLA Geriatric Attitude Scale (UCLA-GAS) and Kogan Elderly Attitude Scale (KAOPS).
Results: The data from 402 filled questionnaires were analyzed. Female ratio was 57.6% (n=103) in first year and 54.1% (n=73) in sixth year. Pre and postintervention UCLA-GAS scores were 48.12±5.19 and 46.38±5.86, respectively (p<0.001). Similarly, the mean scores of the pre-and post-intervention KAOPS were found as 102.35±12.80 and 98.22±13.64 points, and the decrease was significant (p<0.001). There were a strong positive correlation between pre and post-intervention UCLA-GAS (r=0.648, p<0.001) and KAOPS (r=0.758, p=0.001).
Conclusion: This study shows that female students have more positive attitudes than male students, and as the academic period increases, there is a decrease in students" positive attitude scores. Big family members have higher scores than nuclear family members while having a nursing home visit is not effective on the positive attitude towards the elderly.
Keywords : Ageism; Attitudes; Art; Medical Students; Geriatrics