Ageism Among Physicians and Nurses in Russia.

The phenomenon of ageism has been studied extensively in the Western world, but there is only a small number of studies among medical staff in Russia. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of ageism and to identify variables that can explain ageism in a sample of physicians and nurses in Russia. This is a prospective cross-sectional study of physicians and nurses who participated in a training course in the years 2016-2018 in Russia. Data collected before the start of training included the Fraboni scale of ageism (FSA) questionnaire, and sociodemographic characteristics including age, gender, profession, professional seniority, place of work, and number of older adults treated by the study participant over the past half year. In total, 903 physicians and nurses participated in the study. The mean FSA score was 2.75 ± 0.49, which indicates a moderate degree of ageism. There was a trend to higher scores among nurses compared with physicians (2.78 ± 0.50 vs. 2.76 ± 0.48,