Attitudes of nursing students toward older adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Background Global population aging has precipitated an increased demand for professional geriatric care while facing a shortage of nursing personnel and inconsistent attitudes toward older adults care among nursing students. A systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted to examine nursing student’s attitudes toward older adults care and the factors that influence these attitudes in order to optimize the education of geriatric nurses. Methods This meta-analysis was reported following the PRISMA 2020 Checklist. PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, Cochrane Library, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wanfang data, VIP, and Chinese Biomedical Literature Service System were systematically searched from inception to July 4, 2024, to identify cross-sectional surveys reporting nursing student’s attitudes toward older adults. Meta-analysis was performed using Stata 17.0 software after two researchers independently screened the literature, extracted information, and evaluated the risk of bias in the included studies. Subgroup and sensitivity analyses were performed to address heterogeneity. Funnel plots and Egger’s test were used to assess the publication bias. Results Sixty-four studies of nursing student’s attitudes toward geriatric care from 11 countries, 47 using KAOP 34–238 and 17 using KAOP 34–204, involved 19,933 and 4,399 nursing students, respectively. Fifty-six studies were assessed as being of high or moderate quality, while eight studies were classified as low quality. Regarding nursing students’ attitudes toward older adults, the results of the meta-analysis showed that the KAOP 34–238 score was 146.41 (95% CI: 141.16–151.66, I 2 = 99.8%), and the KAOP 34–204 score was 130.95 (95% CI: 125.53–136.39, I 2 = 99.5%). Subgroup analyses of these predictor variables revealed that nursing students showed statistically significant differences in the following factors ( p < 0.05): gender, having lived with and caring for an older person, having taken a course in geriatric care, selecting nursing as their first choice, and student grade level. Conclusion The attitude of nursing students toward older adults is generally positive. Future studies should be designed with higher quality to explore the relationship between attitudes toward older people and nursing students’ willingness to work in geriatric care. Systematic review registration CRD42022348244.