title: Attitudes of German undergraduate dental students towards the aged.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To describe attitudes towards the aged and changes in attitudes of dental students during their participation in an undergraduate gerodontology programme.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  Attitudes of dentists have been shown to influence their willingness to provide dental services to the aged.
  
  
  METHODS
  A questionnaire was administered to 160 (50 men) dental students at Leipzig University aged 19.2-30.5 (mean, 21.7; SD, 2.3) years before entering (T1) and when completing (T2) a gerodontology course. A definition of being young and old and of hopes and fears associated with age was requested. The semantic ageing differential (SAD) was used to measure the students' attitudes towards the aged in three categories. Statistical analysis comprised mean age definitions by gender and mean scores of the SAD at T1 and T2.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Old age was defined as beginning between 56 and 64 years. Female students at T1 regarded a woman as young up to 35.8 years, for male students a woman was young only up to 33.5 years. Male students consider men as old from 60.1 years and women 4.4 years earlier from 55.7 years. Old age fears related mainly to impairment of health and loss of relatives. Hopes for relaxation, rest and serenity were paramount. The SAD results were near neutral in all three dimensions. Minor changes between T1 and T2 occurred.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Students' attitudes were well balanced. Specific barriers to the provision of dental care to the aged emanating from dental students' negative attitudes or fears were not identified. Changes in attitudes occurring during the course appeared small.
authors.affiliation: Department of Prosthodontics and Materials Science, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany; Clinic of Geriatric and Special Care Dentistry, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Ina
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Nitschke
authors.forename: Thanh-Ha
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Clarenbach-Tran
authors.forename: Daphne
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Schlegel
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Reiber
authors.forename: Bernhard A J
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Sobotta
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D016321:Dental Care for Aged; D004499:Education, Dental, Graduate; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D013335:Students, Dental / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: belief systems; extramural training; geriatric dentistry; semantic ageing differential; undergraduate education