ANADOLU PSIKIYATRI DERGISI-ANATOLIAN JOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRY

Objective: The study was designed to determine attitudes displayed by people aged 18 and over in the province of Manisa towards people with disabilities and the factors that affect these attitudes. Methods: The study is a cross-sectional descriptive type. The study data were collected between February 2011 and May 2011. The study included people aged 18 and over in the province of Manisa with no disability (n=560). During the study, the 30-cluster sampling technique of WHO was used, the pattern effect was considered as 3, and 300 households were included. Each cluster was composed of ten households. During the first stage of the selection of the sample, how many households from each one of the 11 Family Health Centers (FHC) in Manisa would be included was determined in proportion to population. During the second stage, the chief household of each cluster was determined randomly from the population registered in the FHC. Consecutive ten households formed a cluster. The data were collected by the researcher through face-to-face interviews during home visits. The study data were collected with two forms: socio-demographic questionnaire and Attitudes toward Disabled People Scale. The data were analyzed using SPSS program 15.00. For the analysis of the data, numbers mean and percentage calculations, t-test, and one-way analysis of variance were used. Results: Of the participants included in the study, 62.3% said that he/she knew of an individual with a disability whereas 25% stated that they had disabled relatives. The mean score of the individuals in the study for their attitudes toward the disabled was 12 +/- 71.17. In the study, it was determined that those aged 45 and over displayed more positive attitudes than those aged under 45, those having primary school education or less than those with higher education, mothers than the other members of the family, and those living in an extended family than those living in a nuclear family. No statistically significant difference was determined between knowing of a disabled person and the scale. Conclusion: At the end of the study, it was determined there were positive attitudes towards disabled people, and women and individuals with low socioeconomic level displayed a better attitude towards the disabled. Our findings differ from the ones in the literature in terms of age, education and knowing of individuals with disabilities, which might be due to the fact that attitudes towards the disabled have a complex nature and that they are affected by culture. (Anatolian Journal of Psychiatry 2012; 13:110-116