Attitudes of family physicians and other health care givers who work at primary care units in Izmir towards elderly

Objectives: The health care givers must be aware of the health needs of the elderly in order to give the appropriate health care they deserve and must overcome the communication problems that may happen. In this study we aimed to evaluate the determine the factors that affect the attitudes and the attitude scores of primary health care givers, the first contact places they work, towards elderly. Material and Methods: Our study was carried out between March 2018 and May 2021, with the participation of family physicians and other health care workers who worked in primary care centers. We used a questionnaire asking the sociodemographic data and "UCLA Geriatrics" that evaluated attitudes of the primary health care workers' towards the elderly as a data collection tool. The questionnaire was started to be applied face to face at first but, because of Covid19 pandemics burst in March 2019, the conditions of the health care workers got harder and because of the infection risk Google Forms were applied to the participants. We prepared database at SPSS21.0 (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) software program, calculated the frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation of the data for the statistical analysis. Statistical significance value was 0.05 (p-value). Results: The average age of our study group was 45, 43±9, 05years (21–66), the mean UCLA GA total score was 46, 31±5, 69, and there was no significant difference between the female and male gender. When the medical care, social values and use of resources total score of UCLA GA subscale scores of the family physicians and other healthcare workers were evaluated, there was no significant difference between the groups. But "compassion" subscale score was significantly low of the family physicians. When the 40 years of age is taken as a cut off, "medical care" subscale score was higher for the 40 years and underage, "compassion" 12 subscale score was significantly higher for the 40 years and above group (respectively p=0,037 and p=0,025). When the cut of value for working year is taken as 15 years, "compassion" subscale score was significantly higher than the ones working over 15 years (p=0,012). The "medical care" subscale mean score was significantly lower of the ones living with the elderly (p=0.041). Conclusion: There was no significant affect of gender and others socio demographic features on attitudes towards elderly of primary care health workers. But when the "compassion" subscale scores were considered, the family physicians 40 years and under age group and 15 years and under group of work years had significantly lower. "Medical care" subscale score was significantly higher of the family physicians of age 40 years and over.