What do Medical Students know about Living Conditions of the Elderly in Germany

BACKGROUND: With the aging of Western societies there is an increasing necessity to teach geriatrics to medical students. To better understand what students know about the elderly, we performed a questionnaire survey addressing three important aspects of seniors’ life in current Germany, based on demographic data. METHODS: At the beginning of a geriatrics lecture for third-year medical students, each student received a questionnaire. Using an ordinal scale (1-5-25-50-75%), participants were asked to estimate the percentage of elderly in a nursing home (correct: 5%), percentage of elderly women living alone at home (correct: 75%), percentage of seniors with weekly contact to their children (correct: 75%). Biographic data were obtained: age, gender, living grandparents or great-grandparents, personally knowing at least one elderly person. SPSS 14.0 was used for analysis (p>0.05). RESULTS: Participation rate was 50% (55 of 110). Students’ average age was 28 years, 68% were female. Eighty percent knew a person above age 80 and 73% had at least one living grandparent. No participant had three correct estimates; 13% had two and 35% one correct answer. 42% correctly knew the percentage elderly in a nursing home. Yet, only 13% realized that the majority of women above eighty lives at home independently. Also, contact between generations was severely underestimated: only 6% knew the correct answer. None of the biographic variables had any significant influence. CONCLUSION: Students’ estimates about the elderly differed markedly from actual living conditions of senior citizens in a modern society. It seems prudent to include data about seniors’ everyday life when teaching geriatrics to medical students.

[1]  S. Herman,et al.  Attitudes, Experiences, and Interest in Geriatrics of First‐Year Allopathic and Osteopathic Medical Students , 2008, Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

[2]  M. de Wit,et al.  THE UNDERGRADUATE CURRICULUM “MEDICINE IN OLD AGE AND THE OLD PERSON”— EXPERIENCES IN TEACHING MEDICAL STUDENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF HAMBURG, GERMANY , 2007, Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

[3]  D. Bragg,et al.  The Medical College of Wisconsin Senior Mentor Program , 2006, Gerontology & geriatrics education.

[4]  Nancy A. Richeson,et al.  The Senior Mentor Program at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine , 2006, Gerontology & geriatrics education.

[5]  Gary M Rull,et al.  A Simulated Couple Aging Across the Four Years of Medical School , 2006, Teaching and learning in medicine.

[6]  Kerry Byrne,et al.  … But Does It Stick? Evaluating the Durability of Improved Knowledge Following an Undergraduate Experiential Geriatrics Learning Session , 2006, Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

[7]  S. Laditka,et al.  Geriatrics Training and Education for Nongeriatrician Faculty: The Dean's Faculty Scholars in Aging Program , 2005, Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

[8]  L. Arnold,et al.  Changing Medical Students’ Attitudes about Older Adults and Future Older Patients , 2005, Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges.

[9]  A. Summer,et al.  Introducing home visits and interdisciplinary learning to an existing geriatrics practicum for medical students. , 1999, Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges.

[10]  J. Tschann,et al.  Attitudes of Beginning Medical Students Toward Older Persons: A Five‐Campus Study , 1995, Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

[11]  R. Adelman,et al.  Geriatric Education Part II: The Effect of a Well Elderly Program on Medical Student Attitudes toward Geriatric Patients , 1992, Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

[12]  R. Adelman,et al.  Geriatric Education Part I: Efficacy of a Mandatory Clinical Rotation for Fourth Year Medical Students , 1992, Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

[13]  E. Gillie,et al.  Teaching Physical Diagnosis in the Nursing Home: A Prospective, Controlled Trial , 1991, Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

[14]  J. Wattis,et al.  Medical students' attitudes to old people and career preference: the case of Nottingham Medical School , 1989, Medical education.

[15]  G. Marion,et al.  A model for teaching medical students ambulatory care geriatrics. , 1987, Family medicine.

[16]  N. Boreham.  A theoretical framework for improving education in geriatric medicine. , 1983, Age and ageing.

[17]  E. Calkins,et al.  Medical student attitudes toward geriatric medicine and patients. , 1981, Journal of medical education.