Dental hygiene students' future orientation and perceptions of old age and of older persons.

The future orientation that health care providers have toward old age has been proposed as one factor that contributes to unfavorable perceptions of older patients. Two samples of students from a dental hygiene program (n1 = 145; n2 = 100) were questioned about their general attitudes toward older people, older people as patients, their own future, the future for older adults, and about their social/familial contact with the elderly. Discriminant function analysis supported the importance of both views of the future and social/familial background for general attitudes and perceptions of patients.