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Thanatophobia in Medical Students: Approach to Death and Dying Patients Attitude Scale (ADDPAS) for Undergraduate Years in Medicine

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Abstract

In recent decades growing efforts in Western countries in integrating end-of-life care issues into undergraduate medical education have been conspicuous. However, studies in this field are limited in Turkey. We aimed, therefore, as a first step, to develop an attitude scale in order to obtain objective data regarding medical students’ approaches to death and dying patients. After applying the scale on medical students and performing exploratory factor analysis, it was found out to be composed of a two-dimensional structure. Then the internal construct validity of these dimensions was subjected to Rasch analysis and the reliability of them was tested by internal consistency and person separation index. As a result of overall analyses, we suggest a new scale which is capable of making valid and reliable measurements

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Acknowledgements

We thank Prof. N. Yasemin Oğuz, M. Volkan Kavas’ supervisor professor, for her invaluable support to this study and for providing us with insightful comments through her numerous reviews of it. We also thank Ülgen Okyayuz and Filiz Çay Şenler for their unhesitating professional guidance during the course of this study.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of History of Medicine and Ethics, Ankara University School of Medicine, 06100, Sihhiye, Ankara, Turkey

    Mustafa Volkan Kavas

  2. Department of Biostatistics, Ankara University School of Medicine, Ankara, Turkey

    Derya Öztuna

Authors
  1. Mustafa Volkan Kavas
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  2. Derya Öztuna
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mustafa Volkan Kavas.

Additional information

This study was conducted within the scope of M. Volkan Kavas’ doctoral dissertation in Medical Ethics and History of Medicine entitled “The Efficacy of Narrative Methods in the Ethical Education on Approach to Death and Dying Patient”.

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Kavas, M.V., Öztuna, D. Thanatophobia in Medical Students: Approach to Death and Dying Patients Attitude Scale (ADDPAS) for Undergraduate Years in Medicine. J Canc Educ 26, 774–781 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13187-011-0197-z

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