Implicit attitudes toward the elderly among health professionals and undergraduate students in the health field: a systematic review

Abstract

Trends in Psychiatry and Psychotherapy Review ArticleResumo Objetivo: Realizar uma revisão sistemática de artigos publicados que avaliam atitudes implícitas em relação ao idoso de profissionais de saúde e estudantes de cursos de graduação da área da saúde. Método: A pesquisa foi realizada nos bancos de dados PsycINFO, PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus e LILACS, buscando artigos relevantes publicados em inglês, português e espanhol. Foram utilizados os seguintes operadores booleanos: implicit attitude AND (elderly OR aged OR older people). Foram selecionados 7 artigos. Resultado: A maioria dos estudos selecionados foi realizada em países desenvolvidos e relatou uma atitude negativa em relação aos idosos. Indivíduos do sexo masculino apresentaram mais atitude negativa que os do sexo feminino. Conclusão: Os artigos analisados nesta revisão mostram que a atitude negativa em relação ao público idoso está implicitamente presente entre os profissionais e estudantes da área da saúde. Descritores: Atitude implícita; profissional da saúde; estudante da saúde; idoso. AbstractObjective: To perform a systematic review of articles evaluating implicit attitudes of health professionals and undergraduate students in the health field toward the elderly. Methods: The PsycINFO, PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus and LILACS databases were searched for relevant articles published in English, Portuguese and Spanish using the following search terms: implicit attitude AND (elderly OR aged OR older people). Seven articles were selected. Results: The majority of studies were conducted in developed countries and found negative attitudes toward the elderly, with males exhibiting more negative attitudes than females. Conclusion: The articles analyzed in this review demonstrate an implicitly negative attitude among professionals and students in the field of health toward the elderly.

Efficacy And Feasibility of Telephone-Delivered Educational Intervention in Knowledge Transfer of COVID-19 Related Information to Elderly in Hong Kong: A Pilot Study

“…Students realized that older adults in Hong Kong were more knowledgeable than expected. Although students' attitudes towards older adults were not formally accessed in the present study, misconceptions and negative prejudices against older people remained prevalent in health professionals and students of health-related disciplines [34]. When students with negative attitudes towards elderly became health professionals, they were more likely to offer poor patient care [35].…”

Does caring lead to stigmatisation? The perception of older people among healthcare professionals and the general population: A cross‐sectional study

“…Allport developed the ‘contact hypothesis’ in 1954, which proposes that contact between members of different groups reduces prejudice (Allport, 1954 as cited in Hughes, 2016). However, simple contact does not seem to be enough as some studies found that professionals with experience (and more frequent contact with older adults) are more negative than students (with less contact) (Gaymard, 2006; Liu, Norman, et al, 2012; Maximiano‐Barreto et al, 2019; Nash et al, 2014). Actually, the ‘beneficial effect of contact’ is present only when certain criteria are fulfilled, such as equal status between protagonists, shared goals and mutual interdependence (Allport, 1954 as cited in Hughes, 2016).…”

“…Indeed, healthcare professionals receive limited education on ageing (Lee et al, 2018; Newell et al, 2004), and this education focuses on diseases and deficits which reduce ageing to a single story of medical decline (Lucchetti et al, 2017) instead of a normal, highly individualised, multidimensional process of growth with maintenance and decline (Rattan, 2014). With the reductive biomedical view, prevalent within the educational environment, students can develop a pessimistic view of ageing and ageist attitudes (Abreu & Caldevilla, 2015; Frost et al, 2016; Maximiano‐Barreto et al, 2019; Schimidt & Paes da Silva, 2012). This could explain the students’ lack of interest in working with older adults (Happell, 2002; Jackson et al, 2017; Kalu et al, 2018; Rathnayake et al, 2016), as well as the ever more negative attitudes towards older patients observed by some studies over the course of their schooling (De Biasio et al, 2015; Kishimoto et al, 2005; Liu et al, 2012).…”

A Survey of Nurses’ Knowledge of and Attitudes Toward Hospitalized Older Adults

“…Another explanation may be the number of female participants in this study. Maximiano-Barreto et al (2019) reported that the majority of studies conducted in developed countries found that males have higher tendency of having negative attitudes toward older adults.…”

“…However, according to a systematic review on majority of studies conducted in developed countries, it was found that professionals and undergraduate students in the field of healthcare have negative attitudes towards older adults (Che et al, 2018;Maximiano-Barreto et al, 2019). Rush et al(2017) indicated that hospital nurses' attitudes towards caring for older adults and contributing factors to their attitudes was imperative to inform approaches for improving nurse' attitudes and supporting quality care for older adults.…”