STRIKING demographic changes have occurred during this century with the increase in the number and proportion of elderly in the US population. With the improvement in life expectancy, however, the elderly are experiencing more of the cumulative effects of multiple chronic diseases and disability. The growing needs of the aged population require the availability of more physicians with an active interest and commitment to geriatric care. Yet, numerous reports have documented a widespread negative attitude held by those in the medical profession toward aging and the care of the elderly.1-10Such biases may, in part, be due to the general societal negativity toward the aged and they may further reflect the traditional orientation of medical training, which emphasizes the management and cure of acute diseases to the neglect of a comprehensive approach to geriatrics/gerontology in medical school curricula.8 In an effort to sensitize medical students to the problems
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Laura J. McVey (1989) studied this question.