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Perceived educational needs in geriatric medicine of professionals : a multinational multilingual open online survey

Ogliari, Giulia ; Kotsani, Marina ; Benetos, Athanase ; Bogdanovic, Nenad ; Bonin-Guillaume, Sylvie ; Buzaco, Rui ; Duque, Sofia ; Wissendorff Ekdahl, Anne LU orcid ; Frost, Rachael and Herghelegiu, Anna Marie , et al. (2026) In European Geriatric Medicine 17(3). p.1281-1294
Abstract

Purpose: To assess perceived overall knowledge in geriatric medicine and perceived educational needs in key geriatric topics and skills of health and social care professionals working within the WHO Region Europe. Methods: The sample of this cross-sectional survey was not designed to be nationally representative. We analysed the responses of 5425 professionals who completed a multilingual multinational open online survey between October 2023 and June 2024. Professionals rated their perceived knowledge, the relevance to their profession and their interest in further training in each of 33 geriatric topics or skills, from “very low” (scored as 1) to “very high” (scored as 5). We computed a global topic score as “relevance + interest –... (More)

Purpose: To assess perceived overall knowledge in geriatric medicine and perceived educational needs in key geriatric topics and skills of health and social care professionals working within the WHO Region Europe. Methods: The sample of this cross-sectional survey was not designed to be nationally representative. We analysed the responses of 5425 professionals who completed a multilingual multinational open online survey between October 2023 and June 2024. Professionals rated their perceived knowledge, the relevance to their profession and their interest in further training in each of 33 geriatric topics or skills, from “very low” (scored as 1) to “very high” (scored as 5). We computed a global topic score as “relevance + interest – knowledge” for each topic and Z-scored it. Higher Z-scores indicated higher educational needs. Results: Professionals’ mean age was 42.6 years (standard deviation 11.9); 3942 (72.7%) were women; 3273 (60.3%) worked in the EU-27. The most represented categories were medical doctors, nurses, dentists, pharmacists, and physiotherapists. Perceived overall knowledge varied by country of work and profession. The perceived educational needs Z-scores varied from 1.45 to − 2.57, with the highest being observed for chronic pain (1.45), comprehensive geriatric assessment (1.20), management of behavioural and psychiatric symptoms of dementia (1.19), assessing capacity to consent (1.07), and resilience and diversity and depression (both 1.05). Conclusion: To our knowledge, this is the first multinational multilingual online survey on perceived educational needs in geriatric medicine of a large number of professionals from multiple disciplines. Our findings should inform harmonized curricula and continuing education programmes.

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organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Continuous professional development, Emerging geriatric medicine, Geriatric medicine education, Online mixed-methods survey
in
European Geriatric Medicine
volume
17
issue
3
pages
14 pages
publisher
Springer Science and Business Media B.V.
external identifiers
  • pmid:41910868
  • scopus:105035345890
ISSN
1878-7649
DOI
10.1007/s41999-026-01456-4
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
798e6335-c02e-4759-95e7-4030e335b41a
date added to LUP
2026-07-06 15:43:12
date last changed
2026-09-28 22:15:15
@article{798e6335-c02e-4759-95e7-4030e335b41a,
  abstract     = {{<p>Purpose: To assess perceived overall knowledge in geriatric medicine and perceived educational needs in key geriatric topics and skills of health and social care professionals working within the WHO Region Europe. Methods: The sample of this cross-sectional survey was not designed to be nationally representative. We analysed the responses of 5425 professionals who completed a multilingual multinational open online survey between October 2023 and June 2024. Professionals rated their perceived knowledge, the relevance to their profession and their interest in further training in each of 33 geriatric topics or skills, from “very low” (scored as 1) to “very high” (scored as 5). We computed a global topic score as “relevance + interest – knowledge” for each topic and Z-scored it. Higher Z-scores indicated higher educational needs. Results: Professionals’ mean age was 42.6 years (standard deviation 11.9); 3942 (72.7%) were women; 3273 (60.3%) worked in the EU-27. The most represented categories were medical doctors, nurses, dentists, pharmacists, and physiotherapists. Perceived overall knowledge varied by country of work and profession. The perceived educational needs Z-scores varied from 1.45 to − 2.57, with the highest being observed for chronic pain (1.45), comprehensive geriatric assessment (1.20), management of behavioural and psychiatric symptoms of dementia (1.19), assessing capacity to consent (1.07), and resilience and diversity and depression (both 1.05). Conclusion: To our knowledge, this is the first multinational multilingual online survey on perceived educational needs in geriatric medicine of a large number of professionals from multiple disciplines. Our findings should inform harmonized curricula and continuing education programmes.</p>}},
  author       = {{Ogliari, Giulia and Kotsani, Marina and Benetos, Athanase and Bogdanovic, Nenad and Bonin-Guillaume, Sylvie and Buzaco, Rui and Duque, Sofia and Wissendorff Ekdahl, Anne and Frost, Rachael and Herghelegiu, Anna Marie and Koca, Meltem and Kossioni, Anastassia and Kravvariti, Evrydiki and Macijauskiene, Jurate and Martínez-Velilla, Nicolas and Masud, Tahir and Pavic, Tajana and Piotrowicz, Karolina and Roller-Wirnsberger, Regina and Savas, Sumru and Soraci, Luca and Soulis, George and Vassallo, Michael and Yellon, Tamar and Petrovic, Mirko}},
  issn         = {{1878-7649}},
  keywords     = {{Continuous professional development; Emerging geriatric medicine; Geriatric medicine education; Online mixed-methods survey}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{3}},
  pages        = {{1281--1294}},
  publisher    = {{Springer Science and Business Media B.V.}},
  series       = {{European Geriatric Medicine}},
  title        = {{Perceived educational needs in geriatric medicine of professionals : a multinational multilingual open online survey}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s41999-026-01456-4}},
  doi          = {{10.1007/s41999-026-01456-4}},
  volume       = {{17}},
  year         = {{2026}},
}