[Questionnaire survey comparing first-year medical students and non-medical students with regard to their level of interest and knowledge of care and terminal care for the elderly].
To study the level of interest and knowledge about care and terminal care for the elderly of medical students in Nagoya University, we made a questionnaire for first-year medical students (about 90 students per year) each April from 1998 to 2000. To assess the differences, we also gave the same questionnaire to 75 first-year non-medical students in 1999. Only about 10% of students had experienced providing care for member(s) of their family, but about one third stated that other family member(s) such as their mother, cared for older family member(s). The introduction of long-term care insurance was known by 22%, 43.5% and 96.6% of medical students in 1998, 1999 and 2000, respectively. Moreover, 19.8%, 13.0% and 52.3% of medical students knew about the care managers, respectively. About 80% of students hoped to be informed about their disease if they had terminal-stage cancer. However, about half of students could not decide whether to tell a family member who had terminal-stage cancer. Medical students had significantly more interest in the care system (68.5% in 1999) and terminal care (72.8% in 1999) for the elderly than non-medical students (41.3% and 40.0% in 1999, respectively). There were no significant differences between medical and non-medical students with regard to experiences of care, knowledge of long-term care insurance system and the attitudes to informing about terminal-stage cancer. However, more medical students had an interest in the elderly care system and terminal care than non-medical students.
Nomura
H
H
Department of Geriatrics, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine.
Naito
M
M
Iguchi
A
A
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001294:Attitude to Health; D005260:Female; D006299:Health Services for the Aged; D006801:Humans; D019359:Knowledge; D008297:Male; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013727:Terminal Care