Gerontological ageism and its overcoming among medical students The relevance of the research topic is due to the high prevalence of gerontological ageism in modern society in general, and in health care in particular. Gerontostereotypes and gerontological ageism that form at the same time among the younger generation of doctors may later manifest themselves in insufficiently attentive or incorrect behaviour of doctors with elderly patients, based on the stereotypical picture of the characteristics of the elderly, the needs and abilities of the elderly. The survey method studied attitudes towards aging, old age, as well as towards people of the older age groups of students at a medical higher educational institution. The analysis of the causes and degree of relevance of the problem of gerontological ageism among future doctors has been carried out. Survey data show that most students are aware of the features of working with older people, however, the formation of gerontological ageism among medical students is a fairly common problem. In this regard, the necessity of purposeful work with medical students at junior courses to overcome gerontostereotypes and gerontological ageism has been proved and substantiated. This will further prevent the stereotypical thinking of future doctors when working with the elderly population.
The purpose of the article is to study the manifestations of ageism in clinical practice, the relationship of ageism with the presence of senile asthenia and comorbidity in the picture of the disease, substantiation of the improvement of educational programs based on anti-age approaches. Methodology. To assess the subjective perception of discrimination, patients of mature, elderly and senile age were examined; “Questionnaire for Citizens aged 75 and Over”, “Ageism Questionnaire” by E. Palmare was used; the Charlson polymorbidity index was calculated; to improve the training programs for medical specialists, their awareness of the main problems of aging was studied. Results. Ageism manifestations were correlated with the development of senile asthenia and comorbidity in the clinical picture of the disease. It has been shown that the psychological discomfort of elderly and senile patients associated with ageism increases with age, which may exceed in importance the immediate health problems in the overall picture of the disease. The most important manifestation of the subjective perception of bias is the justification by the attending physician of the disease mainly by the age of the patients, which indirectly implies ignoring other causes of pathology and reduces the activity of carrying out therapeutic and diagnostic measures. As a result of the study, the need to improve educational programs for the training of medical specialists was substantiated, taking into account the gerontological and anti-aging approach.
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