Assessing Health Science Students' Attitudes Towards Persons with Disabilities in Turkey

Abstract

Purpose: The aim of this research was to determine attitudes towards persons with disabilities among prospective health care professionals.

Materials and Methods: Attitudes were measured using the Attitudes towards Persons with Disabilities Inventory developed in Turkey, which consists of 43 statements. Participants were 273 undergraduate students from a health sciences faculty in Turkish university via stratified sampling. We examined associations between Attitudes towards Persons with Disabilities Inventory scores and socio-demographics variables.

Results: The students generally had positive attitudes towards persons with disabilities. The most positive attitudes were among students from lower-income families (M=198.5, SD=3.5 Significance Level=0.05). Students from the Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation and the Social Work departments had more positive attitudes.

Conclusions: The findings indicate a need to revise the curricula of departments to prepare students to effectively work with persons with disabilities.