Junior doctors' attitudes towards older adults and its correlates in a tertiary-care public hospital

ABSTRACT

<p><b>INTRODUCTION</b>The medical community in Singapore is faced with a rapidly ageing demographic. This would result in an increase in the interaction between medical professionals and older adults. In anticipation of an increased exposure to elderly patients, we sought to determine the attitudes of our house officers (HO), medical officers (MO) and Registrars towards the elderly.</p><p><b>MATERIALS AND METHODS</b>A descriptive pilot study of junior doctors from the Division of Medicine carried out during a luncheon in the largest tertiary-care public hospital in Singapore. A validated self-administered structured questionnaire using Kogan's Old People (KOP) Scale was used to evaluate attitudes towards older adults and basic demographics and medical educational data were collected.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Fifty-one questionnaires were completed. The mean KOP score was 114.4, suggesting an overall positive attitude towards older people in this sample. The prevalence of negative attitude was 7.8%. There was no significant difference in attitudes among doctors with different designation, age, marital status, medical school attended, nationality, years in medical practice and living arrangement. Doctors who had previous exposure with a posting in Geriatric Medicine had higher KOP scores but were just out of significance (P = 0.098). Respondents who found treating older people unrewarding had significantly lower KOP score (P <0.001).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>In this sample of junior doctors, overall attitudes towards older people as measured by the KOP scale were moderately positive. Exposure to a Geriatric Medicine posting during residency may positively influence a doctor's attitudes towards the older adults.</p>