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Chapter 2: Literature Review
Quizzes remain the only published, documented, and tested measures of knowledge
about ageing.
The “Reactions to Ageing Questionnaire” (RAQ) was developed by Gething in 1994
and aims to measure attitudes toward personal ageing and thus assess how
individuals anticipate their own personal ageing. It is designed to measure negative
and positive reactions and thus conform to the widely accepted definition of an
attitude as involving positive or negative evaluation. It is a 27-item questionnaire
requiring respondents to rate statements regarding their own ageing on a six-point
Likert scale with 1 being “agree very much” to 6 being “disagree very much”.
Gething et al. (2004) applied the RAQ to Sweden and the UK and concluded that it
was applicable to countries outside of Australia where it was designed. Gething et al.
(2004) also concluded that the RAQ provides a complementary instrument to
attitudinal instruments that focus on the societal level of measurement, and its
inclusion in data collection enables a more comprehensive study of attitudes by
providing access to information gathered at the personal level. It requires further
application by other researchers.
Several researchers have used these scales to investigate attitudes to ageing (Gething
et al., 2004; Wells et al., 2004; Hope, 1994; Huber, Reno and McKenney, 1992). In
one study Gething et al. (2004) used the RAQ across several countries. Their aim
was to establish if the psychometric characteristics and norms of the RAQ identified
by Australian nurses also apply to nurses in Sweden and the UK. The RAQ was
completed by 147 nurses in Australia, 218 nurses in the UK and 102 nurses in
Sweden. The average response rate was 78%. Demographic details were also
obtained. The researchers found that the Swedish sample had more positive attitudes
than in the UK or Australia and that there was no significant difference between the
UK and Australia. They concluded that attitudes of nurses towards older people can
impact upon healthcare service provision for this client group and that the RAQ is
applicable in countries other than Australia where it was developed. This was a
significant study as it further validated the RAQ. Hope (1994) found that attitudes
not only vary across countries but also across care sectors. Hope (1994) administered
a postal questionnaire containing demographic information, the FAQ and Kogan’s
Attitudes towards Old People scale (KAOP). One hundred and forty-nine distributed