Prevalence of ageism of the elderly in healthcare proffesionals

CILJ ISTRAŽIVANJA: Ispitati prevalenciju ageizma starijih osoba u zdravstvenih djelatnika koji s njima rade. NACRT STUDIJE: U diplomskom radu riječ je o presječnom istraživanju. MATERIJALI I METODE: Uzorak su činili zdravstveni djelatnici koji rade sa starijim osobama na klinikama za kirurgiju, onkologiju, unutarnje bolesti i neurologiju te izvanredni studenti diplomskog studija Sestrinstva osječkog Fakulteta za dentalnu medicinu i zdravstvo u Svetoj Nedjelji. Anketni upitnik bio je anoniman. Za mjerenje ageizma odabrana je Frabonijeva skala. Osim Frabonijeve skale, upitnik je imao i demografski dio. U analizi je primijenjena aritmetička sredina, kreirana je bodovna skala za Frabonijev dio, a podatci su obraĎeni MS Office Excel programom. REZULTATI: Bilo je 89 sudionika - 58,4 % njih bilo je iz KBC-a Zagreb, a 41,6 % s FDMZ-a. MeĎu ispitanicima 86,5 % bilo je žena i samo 13,5 % muškaraca. Rad pokazuje kako zdravstveni djelatnici projiciraju nisku (40,5 %) te srednju razinu ageizma (59,5 %). Iako su i žene i muškaraci ispitanici pokazali srednju razinu ageizma, žene su bile zastupljene s 59,7 %, a muškarci s 58,3 %. Zdravstveni djelatnici u dobi iznad 50 godina imali su nisku razinu ageizma, 72,7 %, a najvišu razinu ageizma imali su zdravstveni djelatnici u dobi od 30 do 39 godina, 71,4 %. ZAKLJUČAK: U više od pola zdravstvenih djelatnika uočena je srednja razina ageizma, a u ostalih niska razina.OBJECTIVE: The goal of this study was to detect the prevalence of ageism of the elderly in healthcare professionals working with elderly people. STUDY DESIGN: The study was conducted as a cross-sectional study. MATERIALS AND METHODS: For the sample were taken the healthcare professionals from the following departments from the University Hospital Centre Zagreb: surgery, oncology, neurology and internal medicine, as well as the healthcare professionals that are graduate students at the Faculty of Dental Medicine and Health. An anonymous survey was used in the paper. To measure ageism the Fraboni scale was used. Along with the Fraboni scale, the survey had a demographic part as well. The arithmetic mean was used in the analysis, the scoring scale was created for the Fraboni part and MS Office Excel program was used for calculating the statistics. RESULTS: There were 89 participants, of which 58,4 % were from the University Hospital Centre Zagreb, and 41,6 % from the Faculty of Dental Medicine and Health. In the research 86,5 % were women, while there were only 13,5 % men. The study has shown that healthcare professionals projected low (40,5 %) to mid-levels of ageism (59,5 %). Although both female and male healthcare professionals displayed mid-levels of ageism, female healthcare professionals had a score of 59,7 %, while male had 58,3 %. Healthcare professionals older than 50 had low levels of ageism, 72,7 %, while healthcare professionals from the age group 30-39 had the highest level of ageism, 71,4 %. CONCLUSION: More than half of the observed healthcare professionals showed mid-levels of ageism while the rest had low levels. Female healthcare professionals showed higher levels of ageism than men. Younger healthcare professionals (age group 30-39) showed the highest level of ageism while the lowest levels of ageism were shown by the healthcare professionals who were older than 50