The influence of demographic factors on the attitude of healthcare workers towards older people in western Kenya

The world is experiencing an unprecedented demographic transformation. The purpose of the study was to investigate the influence of demographic factors on the attitude of healthcare workers towards older people in Western Kenya. The objectives of the study were to: explore the influence of gender and marital status on their perception towards the elderly and establish whether their religious beliefs influence their perception towards older people. The study was guided by Ajzen and Fishbein’s Theory of Reasoned Action and Townsend’s Structured Dependency Theory. The ontology was post-positivism and the epistemology was realist/objectivist. The research method was quantitative. The research design was ex-post-facto. Random sampling, stratified and purposive sampling were applied. Data was generated using questionnaires. The 60-item Attitudes Towards Older People Scale (ATOPS) was the main instrument for data collection. A total of 295 participants, responded to the Questionnaire. The data collected was analyzed using descriptive statistics, frequencies and percentages. The findings revealed that gender had no influence on their perception towards older people, it also revealed that there is no significant influence of religious belief on their attitudes towards older people and that marital status did not significantly influence healthcare workers’ attitudes towards older people. It recommended the importance and urgency of more concerted research to inform the public and organizational policies to better promote and manage care of older people in an ageing society like Kenya. Further, there is need to explore psychological constructs of ageism across cultures.