Gender Differences in Attitudes to Ageing among Norwegian Older Adults

Increased life expectancy has led to policy interest in adding quality to years of life and in related concepts such as attitudes to ageing. Improving attitudes to ageing is regarded as one means of improving the participation and contribution of older people within society. In considering age- related attitudes in the dynamic nature of social identity, age is not just one social category that may or may not constitute a part of one’s identity. Other identities such as gender may be more salient in attitudes to ageing. The purpose of this study was to explore Norwegian gender differences in attitudes to ageing among 282 females and 200 males living in the community. Attitudes to ageing were measured using the Attitudes to Ageing Questionnaire (AAQ;Laidlaw, Power, Schmidt, & the WHOQOL-OLD Group, 2007). Both genders in this study had positive attitudes toward their ageing, in spite of acknowledging loss with problems of exclusion, making friends and talking about difficult feelings. Compared to men, women perceived ageing as a time of greater loss, however, they felt more strongly that ageing brought wisdom and that their life had made a difference. On the other hand, men felt more strongly that physical problems did not hold them back from doing what they wanted to do and believed more strongly that they passed on their experiences to others. Both genders felt that their identity was not defined by age, they didn’t feel old, aging was a privilege, and appraised the importance of exercising. Attitudes to ageing are becoming increasingly important in ageing societies. Such positive attitudes should be regarded with importance to health professionals, leaders and policy makers in planning interventions to buffer the detrimental aspects of ageing.

Patient Safety Education among Chinese Medical Undergraduates: An Empirical Study

Patient safety education is conducive to medical students＇ cognition on patient safety and to improvement of medical quality and safety. Developing patient safety education for medical students is more and more widely recognized by World Health Organization and countries all over the world. However, in China, patient safety courses aiming at medical students are relatively few, and there are few reports about the effect of patient safety courses. This paper explored the influence of patient safety curriculum on medical students＇ attitude to and knowledge of patient safety. The patient safety curriculum was carried out for 2011-grade undergraduates of Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology. The students participated in the class according to free choice. After the curriculum, the information of gender, major, attended course, attitude toward patient safety, and knowledge of laws and regulations of the 2011-grade undergraduates were collected. After rejecting invalid questionnaires, the number of undergraduates that participated in the survey was 112（61 students did not take part in the curriculum; 51 took part in）. Chi-square test was applied to analyze patient safety education＇s influence on medical students＇ attitude to patient safety and their knowledge mastery situation. The influence of patient safety education on the attitude of medical students to patient safety was not significant, but that on their knowledge of patient safety was remarkable. No matter male or female, as compared with medical students who had not accepted patient safety education, they both had a better acquisition of knowledge after having this education（for male students： 95% CI, 4.556–106.238, P〈0.001; for female students： 95% CI, 3.183–33.238, P〈0.001）. Students majoring in Western Medicine had a relatively better mastery of knowledge of patient safety after receiving patient safety education（95% CI, 6.267–76.271, P〈0.001）. Short-term patient safety education cannot change medical students＇ stereotyped cognition on matters related to patient safety, but it can effectively enhance their knowledge of laws and regulations of patient safety.