Frailty vs. Wise as Thematic Verbatim Perceptions of Aging from College Students Enrolled in a Health and Aging Course

摘要

The older adult population is rapidly growing expecting to reach nearly 95 million by 2060. Consequently, there is a growing need for young adults preparing to enter the workforce to have accurate perceptions of the aging process. The purpose of this study was to examine students’ verbatim descriptors ? of someone over 65 years of age and how they change after completing ? an undergraduate health and aging course. 132 junior-level Health Behavior Science undergraduate students completed a pre-course and post-course questionnaire that assessed aging knowledge and perceptions. A thematic analysis was conducted to examine students’ descriptors of individuals 65+ pre- and post-course. An evaluation of the qualitative responses indicated that the undergraduate students’ perceptions of older adults and aging changed from their pre-course to post course responses. Positive personality trait descriptors increased from 160 (11.5%) initially to 268 (31.8%) following course completion. Conversely, negative traits of being sedentary/inactive (pre (4.6%) to post (0.5%)), being slow (pre (4.8%) to post (2.5% ) ), having health problems (pre (9.7%) to post (4.5% ) ), and being fragile (pre (7.5%) to post (5.3% ) ) all decreased. Independent samples paired t test showed a significant increase ( p ? < ? 0.0001) in aging knowledge scores from pre to post course. In year one, the scores increased from 64.45 (+12.63) to 78.66 (+12.67) and in year two the scores increased from 69.41 ? (+13.12) to 80.75 (+11.07). Overall, this study demonstrated that an undergraduate health and aging course with a service-learning component greatly impacted undergraduate students’ perceptions of older adults and the aging process to be more positive.