Healthcare Professionals' Views and Perspectives towards Aging

Peggy Palsgaard; Christian A Maino Vieytes; Natasha Peterson; Sarah L Francis; Lillie Monroe-Lord; Nadine R Sahyoun; Melissa Ventura-Marra; Lee Weidauer; Furong Xu; Anna E Arthur

doi:10.3390/ijerph192315870

Healthcare Professionals' Views and Perspectives towards Aging

Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Nov 29;19(23):15870. doi: 10.3390/ijerph192315870.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Carle Illinois College of Medicine, The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA.
² Division of Nutritional Sciences, The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA.
³ Department of Human Development and Family Studies, The Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011, USA.
⁴ Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, The Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011, USA.
⁵ Center for Nutrition, Diet, and Health, The University of the District of Columbia, Washington, DC 20008, USA.
⁶ Department of Nutrition and Food Science, The University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA.
⁷ Department of Nutritional Sciences, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26506, USA.
⁸ School of Health and Consumer Sciences, South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD 57007, USA.
⁹ School of Education, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI 02881, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Dietetics and Nutrition, The University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, KS 66160, USA.

Abstract

Improving care for the older population is a growing clinical need in the United States. Ageism and other attitudes of healthcare professionals can negatively impact care for older adults. This study investigated healthcare professionals' (N = 140) views towards aging and characterized a confluence of factors influencing ageism perspectives in healthcare workers using path analysis models. These models proposed relationships between aging anxiety, expectations regarding aging, age, ageism, and knowledge. Aging anxiety had a less critical role in the final model than hypothesized and influenced ageism in healthcare workers through its negative effect (β = -0.27) on expectations regarding aging. In contrast, aging knowledge (β = -0.23), age (β = -0.27), and expectations regarding aging (β = -0.48) directly and inversely influenced ageism. Increased knowledge about the aging process could lower ageism amongst healthcare professionals and improve care for older adults. The results put forth in this study help to characterize and understand healthcare workers' complex views towards the aging population they often encounter. Moreover, these results highlight the need and utility of leveraging practitioner education for combating ageism in the clinical setting.

Keywords: ageism; anxiety; education; geriatrics.

Publication types

Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

Aged
Ageism*
Aging
Attitude
Delivery of Health Care
Health Personnel
Humans

Grants and funding

This research was funded by the USDA NE-1939 Multistate Project “Improving the health span of aging adults through diet and physical activity” grant number 1021991; supported by the Lura M. Lovell Fellowship; funded by the USDA/NIFA Hatch Project grant number 1011487; funded by the University of the District of Columbia Multistate Project, West Virginia Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station, National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Hatch/Multi-State grant number 1021322.