Assessment of knowledge, practice and attitudes of workers working in Assuiut University toward the elderly care

ABSTRACT

Aging is a complex and dynamic process with interrelated and inseparable physiological, psychological and sociological components. Moreover the elderly can be a burden to themselves, their families and their communities. The present study aims to assess knowledge, attitudes and practices of workers in Assiut University toward the elderly care. The subjects of the study consist of 624 working personnel in different faculties in Assiut University setting. They were chosen using proportion allocation method which was 25% of the total number of working personnel in each faculty, the total number of the workers in Assiut University was 2558. The results revealed that the mean age of the workers was 37,2 +/- 11.6, females represented 60% of the studied sample, 44% of them were highly educated, and 81.0% of them living in urban communities, 45.8% of them living with elderly persons at home, while 54.2% not living with them. Majority of the studied sample had good knowledge regarding to the changes, which occur to the elderly, such as nutrition, sleeping problems, accident and exercise, while the majority of them had a poor knowledge regarding health promotion and disease prevention of the elderly. Only 14.7% of the studied sample had a satisfactory degree of practice toward the elderly care and the rest of them had a poor degree of practice. Females in studied sample had more score in practice than males. Those living in rural communities also had more score in knowledge and practice than those living in urban communities. The portion of the studied sample that was living with elderly persons, at their homes had high score in knowledge and practice than who were not living with them