סקירת כלים למדידה עקיפה של גילנות באמצעות תיאורי מקרה בקרב אנשי מקצועות הבריאות

Ageism has been measured in research in three common ways: a) by evaluating the extent of knowledge about older people; b) by evaluating attitudes towards older people; and c) by measuring ageist behaviors. Among these methods, measuring attitudes towards the older population is the most prevalent one. The assessment of ageist attitudes is usually divided into direct (explicit) versus indirect (implicit) measurement. Direct measures include instruments that explicitly ask for respondents' attitudes towards older people and their characteristics. While using indirect measures, the respondent is not aware that attitudes towards aging are the subject of inquiry. The implicit measurement is perceived as more accurate, particularly when the phenomenon measured has negative personal or social connotation and therefore is subjected to the social desirability bias. In light of the advantages of the indirect method in measuring ageist attitudes, the current paper presents a review of various case descriptions (vignettes) that were previously used to measure ageism implicitly. The literature review is based on a comprehensive search in four central bibliographical databases. In particular, we reviewed case descriptions that were used to assess ageist attitudes among health care professionals including: physicians, nurses, social workers, psychologists and physiotherapists. We found that the usage of this implicit method is relatively new and quite rare. Only 16 papers adopted it as a tool for measuring ageism. Our aim is to expand the awareness and the use of case vignettes among researchers.