An examination of students' attitudes toward the elderly.

A study, employing Kogan's Old People Scale, was conducted to investigate undergraduate pharmacy students' attitudes toward the elderly. A total of 266 students from one school of pharmacy in their last three years of schooling comprised the sample. Demographic and experiential factors with the aged also were examined as to their relationship with the students' attitudes, but only one of these variables was found to be significant. Female students had a significantly more favorable attitude toward the aged than males. Overall the results showed that the students had a favorable attitude toward the elderly, which was consistent with other studies employing college students, but which was in contrast to other health professionals and medical and dentistry students. A discussion is made as to why this difference exists and the importance of future research in this area.