Affiliations: [a] Faculdade de Ciências da Saúde, Universidade da Beira Interior, Covilhã, Portugal
| [b] USF Beira Ria, Gafanha da Nazaré, Portugal
| [c] Center for Health Technology and Services Research(CINTESIS), Porto, Portugal
| [d] Universidade deAveiro, Aveiro, Portugal
Correspondence:
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Address for correspondence: Prof. F. Prazeres, Faculdade de Ciências da Saúde, Universidade da Beira Interior, 6200-506 Covilhã, Portugal. E-mail: filipeprazeresmd@gmail.com.
Abstract: BACKGROUND:Age discrimination affects older and younger workers, and prevents equal access to opportunities. OBJECTIVE:This study aimed to characterize age discrimination at work in health-related professionals, and to explore its association to demographic variables. METHODS:Exploratory cross-sectional, web-based questionnaire survey, including the Workplace Age Discrimination Scale (WADS), performed amongst 369 Portuguese health-related professionals. Participants were classified into two groups: physicians (medical doctors) and non-physicians (all other health-related professions). RESULTS:82%of the professionals experienced age discrimination at work, non-physicians being the ones who most often experienced it (WADS 20.1 vs. 17.6). They have been more frequently passed over for a work role, evaluated less favourably and blamed for failures or problems due to their age. CONCLUSION:Non-physicians, with less experience in the profession, and with lower quality of life may experience age discrimination more frequently. They need to be closely monitored for discrimination. A key policy priority should be to plan for age diversity teams where older and younger professionals may work together and where older can teach/mentor younger colleagues.
