title: Junior doctors' attitudes towards older adults and its correlates in a tertiary-care public hospital.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The medical community in Singapore is faced with a rapidly ageing demographic. This would result in an increase in the interaction between medical professionals and older adults. In anticipation of an increased exposure to elderly patients, we sought to determine the attitudes of our house officers (HO), medical officers (MO) and Registrars towards the elderly.
  
  
  METHODS
  A descriptive pilot study of junior doctors from the Division of Medicine carried out during a luncheon in the largest tertiary-care public hospital in Singapore. A validated self-administered structured questionnaire using Kogan's Old People (KOP) Scale was used to evaluate attitudes towards older adults and basic demographics and medical educational data were collected.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Fifty-one questionnaires were completed. The mean KOP score was 114.4, suggesting an overall positive attitude towards older people in this sample. The prevalence of negative attitude was 7.8%. There was no significant difference in attitudes among doctors with different designation, age, marital status, medical school attended, nationality, years in medical practice and living arrangement. Doctors who had previous exposure with a posting in Geriatric Medicine had higher KOP scores but were just out of significance (P = 0.098). Respondents who found treating older people unrewarding had significantly lower KOP score (P <0.001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In this sample of junior doctors, overall attitudes towards older people as measured by the KOP scale were moderately positive. Exposure to a Geriatric Medicine posting during residency may positively influence a doctor's attitudes towards the older adults.
authors.affiliation: Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, Singapore General Hospital, Singapore.
authors.forename: Nai Lee
authors.initials: NL
authors.lastname: Lui
authors.forename: Chek Hooi
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Wong
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D005260:Female; D006779:Hospitals, Public / Q000941:ethics*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations / Q000941:ethics*; D012846:Singapore; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult