Attitudes Of Seniors Research Articles

Assessment Of Workplace Related Factors Affecting Tolerance Of Ambiguity Among Trainee Doctors.

To assess workplace factorsinfluencing the tolerance of ambiguity among trainee doctors. The sequential mixed-method study was conducted from June 2021 to February 2022 at the Fauji Foundation Hospital, Islamabad, Pakistan, and comprised postgraduate trainee doctors of either gender associated with various specialties.Thebaseline toleranceof ambiguity scorewas establishedusingtheToleranceofAmbiguity in Medical Students and Doctors scale. A group of selected trainees was interviewed face-to-face to examine the workplace factors that they regarded as beneficial or detrimental to their tolerance of ambiguity. Quantitative data was analysed using SPSS 24 and thematic analysis was done for qualitative data. Of the 132 subjects, 59 (21.9%) were males and 73 (55.3%) were females. The overall mean age was 20.95±2.186 years. Of the total, 55(41.7%)subjects were in the first year of training, 28(21.2%) in the second year, 26 (19.6%) in the third year, and 23(17.4%) in the fourth year. There were 78(59.1%)trainees who were married compared to 54 (40.9%) who were unmarried. Against the baseline tolerance of ambiguity score of 132, the overall aggregate mean tolerance of ambiguity level was 71.28 ± 5.81 showing a moderate level. There was no significant correlation between the tolerance of ambiguity and the trainees'age, years oftraining and maritalstatus(p>0.05).The qualitative phase comprised interviews with 9(6.8%) subjects.Thematic analysis suggested that the traineesperceivedautonomy,peersupport,supervisorsupport,manageable workload, and professional development opportunities asfacilitat or softolerance of ambiguity,whilebarrierswere identified as poor physical environment, attitude ofseniors and supervisors, management issues and excessive workload.During the coronavirus diseae-2019 pandemic, excessive workload and fear of infection were identified asfactors affecting tolerance of ambiguity. The medical trainees were found to have a moderate level of tolerance to ambiguity. Autonomy, peer support, supervisor support, manageable workload, and professional development opportunities contributed positively to this aspect.

Smart Speech Systems: A Focus Group Study on Older Adult User and Non-User Perceptions of Speech Interfaces

Smart speech systems are becoming increasingly pervasive in society. At the same time, the number of older adults is rapidly growing. These simultaneous trends make it likely for older individuals to encounter and, in some cases, benefit from speech systems throughout later stages of life. To date, most research studies have examined older adult non-users’ opinions of speech systems, but not the sentiments of older users. To address this research gap, four focus groups were conducted to compare the perceptions and attitudes of seniors who voluntarily use and do not use speech systems across various devices. Findings suggest that older users and non-users are similar in their perception of the advantages provided this technology, factors that (could) motivate their use, common challenges faced while using these systems, and barriers to using particular features or speech systems altogether. The two groups differed in their preferences for learning how to use these systems, perception of system cost, and global perception of technology. In addition, older adult users exclusively believed speech systems to be easy to use, but also expressed concerns about information transparency and privacy. Older non-users explained that the absence of age-related declines was a barrier to use. These results may guide designers and researchers in developing, evaluating, and refining smart technologies to be used by various senior populations.

Preferences of seniors living in selected Baltic Sea region countries towards the use of indoor public space furniture.

Demographic changes can be observed all over the world. The number of seniors located in the societies of well-developed countries continues to rise. Both enterprises and governments need to be prepared for such changes. Consequently, public spaces need to evolve to reduce problems related to ageism and be friendly to all. Much attention is currently being paid to finding solutions for redesigning public spaces and adjusting them to the needs and requirements of senior citizens. To identify the preferences of seniors in relation to the characteristics of furniture in indoor public spaces, a survey study with 1539 respondents aged 60+ was conducted in Denmark, Finland, Latvia, Poland, Russia and Sweden. The gathered data were coded and implemented to the unified database. The statistical grouping method was used to recognize the characteristics of the needs and attitudes of seniors related to the use of public space furniture. The main variables taken into consideration in the analysis were the age and gender of respondents and their country of living. Among the most important findings are those indicating the necessity to provide the increased number of furniture for sitting in the public spaces and making sure they are not located too far away from each other. As the main disadvantages of public space furniture respondents indicated the lack of armrests or other solutions to facilitate getting up and/or sitting down, as well as profiled backrests that constitute solid support for the spine. The implementation of these data in the process of rethinking and redesigning public spaces may support the adaptation of indoor public furniture according to the requirements of a very large group of customers, namely, seniors.

Housing Preferences of Seniors and Pre-Senior Citizens in Poland—A Case Study

This article identifies and compares the housing preferences of seniors and pre-senior citizens in Poland. In addition, the attitude of residents of large cities in the Wielkopolskie Voivodeship towards senior citizens’ housing was determined. Surveys were conducted in the two largest cities of this region. The influence of the potential behaviors of this group of society on the development of housing was also examined. Results showed that differentiation of housing preferences was visible primarily when choosing the type of development and size of the dwelling. Seniors preferred smaller units in multi-family housing construction. Pre-senior citizens, on the other hand, were more likely to think about living in a single-family house. The location of a new dwelling was also important. Seniors, more often than people aged 50–59, chose a location in the city center. Pre-senior citizens, in contrast, more often decided to live in a rural area or outside the city center. Moreover, the attitude of seniors towards senior citizens’ housing is undecided, which may indicate that many people may change their housing preferences in the future and decide to move.

Attitudes of the Elderly Towards Old Age

<p class="Domylne">Starzenie się społeczeństw jest jednym z największych wyzwań XXI w. Sytuacja ta niesie za sobą konsekwencje dla polityki społecznej, zdrowotnej, gospodarczej i edukacyjnej. W obliczu zachodzących zmian ważne jest dobre przygotowanie do pracy osób pracujących z seniorami. Z tej perspektywy istotne jest zapoznanie się z postawami seniorów wobec własnej starości. Pomogą one zrozumieć funkcjonowanie jednostki w starości. Analiza literatury przedmiotu wskazuje, że postawy innych osób wobec seniorów oraz sposób postrzegania własnej starości wpływają na to, jak jednostka się starzeje i jak ocenia jakość swojego życia. Znajomość postaw wobec starości można wykorzystać do planowania działań na rzecz aktywnego starzenia się. Artykuł ma charakter przeglądowy i stanowi podsumowanie wiedzy na temat postaw wobec starości zawartej w polskiej literaturze przedmiotu oraz integruje dotychczasową wiedzę na temat postaw wobec starości. Celem opracowania było przybliżenie najważniejszych koncepcji postaw wobec starości oraz wskazanie obszaru zastosowania tej wiedzy do praktyki pracy socjalnej (zarówno uwzględnienie jej w programach nauczania, jak i udostępnienie pracownikom socjalnym). Uwzględniając kryterium przeglądowości, skoncentrowano się na: uzasadnieniu konieczności podjęcia tej tematyki z uwagi na starzejące się społeczeństwa, podaniu definicyjnego ujęcia pojęcia „postawa”, odniesieniu się do koncepcji postaw wobec starości. Ponadto przedstawiono najważniejsze typologie postaw wobec starości. W podsumowaniu zamieszczono kilka praktycznych wniosków dotyczących praktyki pracy socjalnej.</p>

Moda — czynnik determinujący czy wykluczający udział seniorów w rynku?

Fashion: A factor determining or excluding the participation of seniors on the market? Fashion is an inseparable element of contemporary human life. In general, clothing choices are determined by age, gender and material factors. In terms of age, however, these decisions differ significantly, which is especially evident among the elderly. In consumer choices older consumers are usually guided by rationality. Seniors are currently a specific group of consumers on the market. On the one hand, they are marginalized because of their age and earnings, but on the other hand, it is a social group that begins to dominate the market, which in the near future will become a group of target recipients, including clothing products. When discussing fashion, there are also important characteristics of consumers that influence the fact of whether a given person is an active partici­pant on the market or is an individual excluded from it. The purpose of this article is to try to define fashion as a factor determining or excluding the participation of seniors in the market. The paper presents an analysis of secondary research and the results of pilot studies on the attitude of seniors in the context of fashion.

Different Grouping Strategies for Cooperative Learning in English Majored Seniors and Juniors at Can Tho University, Vietnam

We present research on the attitudes of seniors and juniors doing a major in English toward different grouping strategies for cooperative learning at Can Tho University, Can Tho city, Vietnam. The collected data is analyzed by a means of quantitative approach. The findings not only facilitate the further understanding of English majors’ opinions on different grouping strategies, but also provide teachers and lecturers who employ cooperative learning as one of their teaching strategies with useful clues on which group formation they should use. More importantly, we hope to give an insight to the characteristics of different grouping strategies, in order to find out the group forming method(s) that simultaneously boosts group dynamics, students’ satisfaction, and academic achievements.

A formative research-guided educational intervention to improve the knowledge and attitudes of seniors towards influenza and pneumococcal vaccinations

Adult influenza and pneumococcal vaccination rates in Singapore are low, and factors influencing knowledge and attitudes of seniors towards influenza, pneumonia and their respective vaccines are not well-known. Our study aims to understand the barriers and facilitators towards getting influenza and pneumococcal vaccinations among seniors in Singapore, and subsequently inform the conduct of a relevant community-based educational intervention, as well as evaluate the intervention outcomes. We performed a mixed methods study with two components: Firstly, formative research was conducted among community-dwelling seniors, using focus group discussions (FGDs), to understand their knowledge and attitudes towards influenza, pneumonia and their respective vaccines. Next, a quantitative study was conducted to evaluate knowledge of seniors and the effectiveness of an educational intervention. Four FGDs were organised with 32 participants, who were predominantly female, of lower educational background, and residing in government rental flats. Participants had varying levels of knowledge and many misconceptions about influenza, pneumonia and their respective vaccinations, with concerns about side effects and vaccine effectiveness. The formative research results were used to inform a community-based educational intervention for seniors. Our subsequent evaluation included 604 elderly participants, mainly from lower educational and socio-economic strata, who initially demonstrated poor knowledge scores (median score 5 out of 9, IQR 4-5). Following our intervention, median knowledge score improved to 7 (IQR 6-8) (p < .0001). Significant improvements in knowledge scores were observed across genders, age strata, education levels, and housing types. Our formative research identified knowledge gaps among community-dwelling seniors which affected their attitudes towards vaccination uptake. Key findings were taken into consideration when implementing the educational intervention. Our community-based intervention was effective in improving knowledge and attitudes, and could be used as a cue to action for short-term behaviour changes.

Construct validity of Attitudes Towards Vaccinations Scale (ATVS)–part 2

Understanding patients’ motives for or against taking vaccination can enhance effectivity of doctors’ efforts to motivate their older patients to the advantageous health choices. We developed a tool Attitudes Towards Vaccination Scale (ATVS) assessing senior's attitudes towards vaccination uptake. In this article we demonstrate the relationship between constructs measured by the scale and five well-established psychological concepts, such as anxiety, locus of control, level of self-efficacy, health-related behaviours and styles of coping with stress. MethodThe validation was performed on a sample of individuals aged 60 and more recruited in rural and urban outpatient services (n=85). We assessed divergent and convergent aspects of construct validity by correlating the ATVS Positive Attitude subscale (PA-subscale) and Negative Attitude subscale (NA-subscale) with other psychometric tools, such as State and Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), Multidimensional Health Locus of Control Scale (MHLC), Generalized Self-Efficacy Scale (GSES), Inventory of Health-Related Behaviours (IHRB), Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations (CISS). We estimated also known group differences. ResultsThe PA-subscale correlated positively with all subscales of HRBI, task-oriented style of coping, and internal locus of health control. The NA-subscale correlated negatively with task-oriented style of copying, generalized self-efficacy and internalized locus of control, while positively with anxiety the trait, external locus of health control (based on chance) and the emotion-oriented style of coping. ConclusionsThe results of the study confirmed the construct validity of the ATVS. We believe our tool may be used in a clinical practice to apply more appropriate strategies to encourage older patients to take vaccines.

The Most Frequent Difficulties Encountered by Senior Citizens while using Information and Communication Technology

Many senior citizens are keeping in touch with modern times and put modern technologies to good use. They attempt to adapt to this era and don’t avoid computers or smart devices. Such senior citizens often also educate themselves further in ICT, but are not immune to troubles that come hand in hand with ICT, or even psychological issues that stem from learning new skills in high age. Many even reconsider, asking themselves if all the effort is worth the outcome. Courses they attend might not be the best suited for them and can be very different from one another. Taught operating systems, teacher's individual attitude, accessibility of the course itself and learning environment have huge impact on both senior's attitude and quality of gained skills. This article aims to describe areas and issues senior citizens feel are most limiting in their access to quality education in ICT, and how they are tackled. The results come from a qualitative research among a selected sample of senior citizens that took part in our ICT courses.

Perceptions of E-commerce Web Sites across Two Generations

Introduction The Informing Science framework consists of three distinct parts: informer, delivery mechanism, and client (E. B. Cohen, 1999). E-commerce vendors (the informers) communicate to and interact with customers (clients) of vendor's products and services. This is achieved through a delivery mechanism that is composed of three parts: Web site infrastructure, its human-computer interfaces, and communication medium - Internet. Gill (2008), through a client resonance model, states that client's initial mental model of informing system is altered by a series of filters based on various biological, psychological, motivational, and visceral elements and factors. Based on Gill's model, informer's goal, via design of delivery mechanism, is to acquire client's attention and then to motivate client to engage in informing process. Vendors have choices in terms of technologies they use to develop and support their Web sites but face challenges in designing Web sites that effectively and efficiently inform many different users with different levels of computer knowledge and Internet experience, differing demographic profiles, and presence of sensory, cognitive, or mobility impairments. It is human-computer interfaces that communicate information to customers, and it is through interfaces that customers purchase vendor's products and services, thus communicating information back to vendor. The success of this information exchange is dependent on customers' mental model of Web site, influenced by customers' perceptions of usefulness of Web site and how easy Web site is to use. Numerous studies have examined and predicted usage of e-commerce Web sites using Technology Acceptance Model and its primary constructs of perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use. The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) (see Figure 1) states that success of a system can be determined by user acceptance of system, measured by two variables: Perceived Usefulness of system and Perceived Ease of Use of system (Davis, 1989). According to TAM, a user's perceptions about a system's usefulness and ease of use result in an intention to use or not use system (Davis, 1989; Venkatesh, 2000). It can be argued that a Web site's usefulness and ease of use act upon filters, thereby acquiring customer's attention and motivating customer to use system. [FIGURE 1 OMITTED] The TAM has been tested in many empirical studies (Burton-Jones & Hubona, 2005), was found to be highly valid and reliable (Koufaris, 2000), and is widely referenced (Devaraj, Fan, & Kohli, 2002). The external variables represent attributes or characteristics of system, such as overall design and features of system; user's computer skills, capabilities, and abilities; and user's knowledge, beliefs, and attitude toward computers. Perceived usefulness is defined as the degree to which a person believes that using a particular system would enhance his or her job performance (Davis, 1989, p. 320). Perceived ease of use refers to the degree to which a person believes that using a particular system would be free of effort (p. 320). Smith (2008) conducted an empirical study of four e-commerce Web sites with participation from a unique and often understudied segment of population--the senior generation or people defined as 65 years of age and older (Fox, 2004). The research model that was used, showing hypotheses and construct relationships, is depicted in Figure 2. The null hypotheses (SGH) were as follows: * SGH1: The senior's perception of products and services offered by an e-commerce Web site will not have a significant effect on senior's perceived usefulness of an e-commerce Web site. * SGH2: The senior's perception of perceived usefulness of an e-commerce Web site will not have a significant effect on senior's attitude toward using an e-commerce Web site. …

Seniors' attitudes: oral health and quality of life

The objective of this study was to determine what impact, if any, oral health was having on the quality of life for selected seniors in Prince Edward Island, Canada. The attitudes of seniors towards oral health and its relationship to quality of life is important to define. This self-reported assessment provides information on this particular relationship. The research design was a random cluster sampling that covered all geographical areas of Prince Edward Island. It represented the cultural diversity within these geographical areas. The survey instrument selected was the Subjective Oral Health Indicators' Status, a validated survey instrument. This particular instrument addressed all the issues raised in the objectives. Data were analysed using Pearson's correlation with age and number of teeth present. The independent t-test was used to identify differences in responses by gender. Results of the survey showed identification of individual indicators that were having an impact on quality of life. Gender differences in responses were identified in four of the eight subject areas. The level of worry/concern was inconclusive because of the high non-response rate to the last question. Non-response rates increased with each topic in the questionnaire. More research is needed to identify clinical needs of seniors on Prince Edward Island. Qualitative study to determine attitudes and beliefs could provide groundwork for future programme design.

A study of attitudes to student-centred learning and teaching, and concepts of andragogy in senior nurse educationalists in england

This article presents the findings of a study that investigated the attitudes of senior nurse educationalists in England towards the importance of student-centred learning and teaching, and concepts of andragogy in vocational pre-registration nurse education. An in-depth literature review was conducted which formed the basis of development of a measuring instrument that utilised a Likert scale. The findings reveal overall high mean scores and an implied propensity towards beliefs in student-centredness and concepts of andragogy. Analysis related to a number of context variables gives some significant results. These results relate to possible barriers to adopting student-centred teaching and learning methods. Limitations of the study and possible future research in the subject area are given.

Attitudes to women in management: an analysis of West Midlands businesses

Examines the attitudes of senior, predominantly male staff to women managers in a specific industrial setting ‐ namely the West Midlands region of the UK ‐ using data derived from the Price Waterhouse West Midlands Business Survey. The survey is unique in that it is focused on eliciting the opinions of the senior management level in companies. Finds women to be significantly under‐represented at the senior management level in West Midlands businesses. In a region which is characterized by heavy manufacturing industry, identifies differences in attitudes to women managers by the respondent’s industrial sector, size of company and by individual managers’ educational background. Concludes with a discussion of some of the policy implications of the findings.