Many factors may affect the attitudes of health care workers towards the elderly including age, gender, education, relationship with happy older adults, workplace, and professional socialization [1, 2]. Due to the fact that nurses’ attitudes toward the elderly care in different societies are different due to cultural and social factors, and various studies have only examined their attitudes towards the elderly and have reported contradictory results, this study aims to provide possible strategies to improve the attitude of nurses toward the elderly by examining the possible related factors so that they can be able to provide more effective care to them. Moreover, this study aimed to assess the predictive role of altruism, moral intelligence, life satisfaction and general health in nurses’ attitude toward the elderly care.

This descriptive-analytical study was conducted on 270 nurses working in hospitals located in Sabzevar, Iran. Data were collected using a demographic form, General Health Questionnaire- 28 item (GHQ-28), Lennick and Kiel’s Moral Competency Inventory (MCI), Kogan’s Attitudes toward Older People Scale (KAOPS), Carlo’s revised form of Prosocial Tendencies Measure (PTM), and Diener’s Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS). The validity and reliability of the Persian version of KAOPS have been evaluated and a Cronbach’s alpha value of 0.83 have been reported [3]. In our study, its reliability was obtained 0.78. The MCI consisted of four subscales (integrity, forgiveness, responsibility and compassion). The validity and reliability of the Persian version of this questionnaire on nurses in Iran is 0.85 and 0.87, respectively [4]. In our study, its reliability using the intraclass correlation coefficient was obtained 0.87. The PTM has 8 questions. In our study, the reliability of its Persian version using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was obtained 0.75 [5]. The reliability (internal consistency) of the Persian version of SWLS in the present study using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was obtained 0.7. The GHQ has been used in various studies and has acceptable validity and reliability. In the present study, the reliability of its Persian version was obtained 0.76. Participants were asked to complete the questionnaire at an appropriate time (during the work or break times) in three days. Nurses who had no willingness to participate or returned the questionnaires incomplete were excluded from the study. After collecting data, they were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics including independent t-test, Pearson correlation test, and multiple regression analysis in SPSS v.16 software.

The mean KAOPS score of nurses was 155.39±17.47, ranged from 114 to 199. Their mean SWLS, MCI, PTM, and GHQ-28 scores were 16.84±3.90, 02±18.50, 25.52±5.67, and 26.03±11.62, respectively. Results showed no any significant difference in nurses’ attitudes toward the elderly care in terms of demographic factors (gender, marital status, education, living with the elderly) and Pearson correlation test results showed the significant relationship of age, work experience, moral intelligence, life satisfaction and altruism with attitudes toward the elderly care (P<0.05). Stepwise regression analysis showed that the variables of moral intelligence, altruism and living with the elderly were the stronger predictors of nurses’ attitudes. Considering that the effect of other variables are constant, with the increase in life satisfaction, the attitude of nurses increases by 0.5. The power of altruism, moral intelligence, and living with the elderly in predicting the attitude score of nurses was 2%, 7%, and 3%, respectively. There was a significant positive relationship between living with the elderly and nurses’ attitudes. 

Moral intelligence, altruism, life satisfaction and history of life with the elderly are related to nurses’ attitudes toward the elderly care. It is recommended that, when recruiting the nurses to work in nursing homes or hospitals where the elderly are often hospitalized, policymakers should take into account the moral intelligence, altruism, life satisfaction of nurses. The mentioned factors, however, were not strong predictors of nurses’ attitude. This suggests that several other factors may play a role in this regard. Therefore, it is recommended that the effect of other factors on nurses’ attitudes toward the elderly also examined.

This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Sabzevar University of Medical Sciences (Code: IR.MEDSAB.REC.1398.114).

Sabzevar University of Medical Sciences Vice-Chancellor supported this study.

Conceptualization: Mostafa Rad, Maryam Ghorbani, Raha Salehabadi; Research: Mostafa Rad, Maryam Ghorbani, Raha Salehabadi; Editing and finalization written: All authors.

The authors declare no conflict of interest
 

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