Abstract:

Background:
Recently published research Aging Sensitivity Workshop Improves Empathy and Understanding Towards the Elderly and Disabled Population revealed a statistically significant improvement in scores of participants in an aging sensitivity workshop. The scores measured the improvement in understanding the sensory and educational challenges of our aging and disabled population.The current study builds on this evidence by increasing the number of participants to see if the statistics are reproducible.
Life expectancy is increasing, and because of the large increase in the aging population there are increases in the overall number of persons with disabilities. These disabilities frequently include visual disturbances, hearing difficulties, memory and cognitive impairment, musculoskeletal problems, and neurological problems. These impairments affect the persons learning and processing abilities. As educators and health care providers it is incumbent on us to adapt our teaching to be able to reach this increasingly large portion of the population.

Research Plan:
The plan is to duplicate the previous study to see if the original statistics were reproducible. The current research doubled the number of workshops and increased the number of participants. The technique and implementation is the same as the previous study and is outlined below:
An aging sensitivity program will be performed with medical providers who frequently care for and teach an aging population.
The sensitivity training will include techniques to simulate common disabilities seen with aging including visual difficulties, decline in hearing, arthritic conditions, and neurological disorders.
Visual difficulties demonstrations will be performed using special glasses that simulate common problems with aging.Decline in hearing will be simulated by using foam ear plugs. There will also be a CD played which simulates high frequency hearing loss. Arthritic and neurologic conditions will be simulated by using ace wraps on the dominant arm and a plastic bag with uncooked popcorn in the shoe and tongue blades immobilizing the knee.
Participants will also wear gloves to decrease dexterity and be asked to perform simple tasks such as opening a medicine bottle and picking out a certain color pill (skittle).

Statistical Analysis:
An anonymous voluntary paired score analysis was performed using a ten question pre and post test questionnaire. The results of the statistical analysis were done using a T-test score.

Results:
The results of the expanded study appear to validate the original smaller study.
Note full results are pending complete statistical analysis.
The results showed an improvement in the participant’s knowledge and an understanding of the disabilities. It also showed a better understanding of methods to overcome these educational challenges.

Conclusion:
This larger study helps to validate the previous study showing that the workshop helped to improve the participants understanding of the educational challenges of our aging and disabled population. At the encouragement of the medical students this workshop has been added to the 3rd year curriculum of the medical school.

Keywords:

Aging sensitivity.