Background: Croatia and Slovenia are neighboring countries with marked differences in high school and undergraduate nursing curricula. The aim was to assess and compare attitudes toward the elderly among undergraduate nursing students in Croatia and Slovenia and identify factors associated with positive/negative attitudes.
Subjects and methods: This was a cross-sectional survey conducted between September, 2017 and July, 2018 among undergraduate nursing students at five higher education institutions: three in Slovenia and two in Croatia. The following data were gathered: age, sex, year of study, previous education, employment status, previous education in gerontolgy, desired professional role after graduating, previous experience with the elderly. Kogan`s Attitude Towards Old People Scale (KATOPS) score was the primary outcome measure. Pairwise comparisons were conducted between Croatian and Slovenian students. KATOPS score was dichotomized with values above the 3rd quartile considered excellent - the dichotomized score was used as the dependent variable in a binary logistic regression model.
Results: Overall, 825 students completed the questionnaire, 85.5% were women, 417 from Slovenia, 408 from Croatia, and 80% were under 22 years of age (80%). The average score on the KATOPS was 127.4, 95% CI 126.6-128.2. Variables associated with excellent scores on the KATOPS, based on the binary regression were: studying in Slovenia (OR=2.05, 95% CI 1.39-3.03), age group 28-32 years (OR=3.9, 95% CI 1.53-9.98); previous education gerontic nursing (OR=2.45, 95% CI 1.34-4.47), and full-time study (OR=2.12, 95% CI 1.38-3.55). Variables not associated with excellent scores were: being married (OR=0.44, 95% CI 0.22-0.92) and having previous experience in working with the elderly (OR=0.5, 95% CI 0.3-0.86).
Conclusion: Attitudes toward old age are mildly positive in Slovenian and Croatian nursing students. Slovenian students have significantly more positive attitudes toward old age and these differences are most probably due to marked differences in undergraduate nursing curricula between the two countries.