Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice of Geriatric Care Among Health Care Professionals in Kumasi, Ghana.

BACKGROUND

The Ghanaian elderly population is increasing at the fastest rate and this has become a burden as the rate is not proportional to the investment in health to meet their deteriorating health needs. This creates discrepancies and inequalities in healthcare access and coupled with poor healthcare provider services, the inequalities widen. Poor care services are related to poor knowledge and bad attitudes of care providers hence this study seeks to explore the health practitioners' level of knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) toward geriatric care.

METHODS

The study used a cross-sectional survey design with a simple stratified random technique to select study participants. Out of 257 participants who were sampled for the study, 215 responses were received, representing 83.6% response rate. However, 200 questionnaires were complete (93%) and valid for analysis, which consisted of 166 nurses, representing 83% valid responses, and 34 medical officers, physician assistants, and other allied health care providers, representing 17% valid responses from these professionals. A structured questionnaire was used to assess KAP using the knowledge about Older Patients Quiz (KOP-Q) and Kogan's Attitudes toward Old People Scale (KAOP). Using a mean score of 80%, knowledge, attitude, and practice were dichotomized into good or bad. The Kruskal-Wallis test was used to compare mean rank across health professionals' knowledge, attitude, and practice of geriatric care.

RESULTS

It shows that the majority (94%) of participants have low levels of knowledge in geriatric care. The majority (84%) of participants do not practice good geriatric care. Differences in knowledge exist among health providers and were statistically significant ( = .045). Doctors had the lowest mean knowledge score (78.61). Nurses (100.27) and physician assistants (106.15) had moderate mean knowledge score ranks. Although not statistically significant, the rank order for practice scores from highest to lowest was: physician assistants (112.95), nurses (99.19), and doctors (79.21). There were however no statistically significant differences between professions in practice scores ( = .067), or attitude scores ( = .097).

CONCLUSION

Health care providers have low knowledge and, bad attitude toward aged care and this may be related to their service delivery which may affect the aged patronage of healthcare services. This is a wake-up call for authorities to organize continuous professional development to enable care providers to improve their service delivery.