Attitudes of Different Professional Groups Toward Geriatric Patients

This study deals with attitudinal differences toward geriatric patients among health professionals. For this study, 172 psychiatrists, 157 surgeons and 108 internists responded to a set of eight attitudinal questions. For six questions, statistically significant differences were found among the three groups. Psychiatrists and surgeons differed greatly, with internists falling in between. Psychiatrists were found to be the group with the most favorable responses to five out of eight questions and surgeons as the least favorable group. The results are discussed in relation to the pervasive societal concept of the aged and the influences of different medical settings.