Amoateng Emmanuel, Wireko Manasseh B, Assah Augustine Y, Ashaley Michael Darko, Sani Samudeen, Opare-Addo Henry S, Manu Gordon A
Department of Population and Family Health, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana.
Department of Applied and Theoretical Biology, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana.
Health Serv Insights. 2024 Sep 28;17:11786329241285529. doi: 10.1177/11786329241285529. eCollection 2024.
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.
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.
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).
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.
加纳老年人口正以最快的速度增长，这已成为一种负担，因为该增长速度与用于满足其日益恶化的健康需求的卫生投资不成比例。这在医疗服务可及性方面造成了差异和不平等，再加上医疗服务提供者的服务质量差，这种不平等进一步加剧。护理服务质量差与护理人员知识水平低和态度不好有关，因此本研究旨在探讨卫生从业人员对老年护理的知识、态度和实践（KAP）水平。
本研究采用横断面调查设计，运用简单分层随机技术选取研究参与者。在抽取的257名研究参与者中，收到了215份回复，回复率为83.6%。然而，200份问卷完整（93%）且可用于分析，其中包括166名护士，占有效回复的83%，以及34名医务人员、医师助理和其他专职医疗服务提供者，占这些专业人员有效回复的17%。使用结构化问卷，通过老年患者知识测验（KOP-Q）和科根老年人态度量表（KAOP）来评估KAP。以80%的平均分数为界，将知识、态度和实践分为好或差。使用Kruskal-Wallis检验来比较不同卫生专业人员在老年护理知识、态度和实践方面的平均排名。
结果显示，大多数（94%）参与者在老年护理方面知识水平较低。大多数（84%）参与者没有提供良好的老年护理。卫生服务提供者之间在知识方面存在差异，且具有统计学意义（P = 0.045）。医生的平均知识得分最低（78.61）。护士（100.27）和医师助理（106.15）的平均知识得分排名中等。尽管无统计学意义，但实践得分从高到低的排名顺序为：医师助理（112.95）、护士（99.19）和医生（79.21）。然而，不同专业在实践得分（P = 0.067）或态度得分（P = 0.097）方面无统计学差异。
医疗服务提供者对老年护理知识水平低且态度不好，这可能与他们的服务提供有关，可能会影响老年人对医疗服务的光顾。这对当局来说是一个警钟，要组织持续的专业发展，以使护理人员能够改善他们的服务提供。
