Ageism among undergraduate dental students: A multicenter comparison across institutions in the same district

Background/Aim: Ageism can influence the quality of geriatric dental care, yet evidence among dental students remains inconsistent across cohorts. This study compares ageism between students at two institutions within the same district sharing identical training requirements and evaluated the questionnaire's internal consistency. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, the 15-item, six-component ageism questionnaire was administered online to 100 undergraduate dental students (65 from Institution 1; 35 from Institution 2). Internal consistency was measured using Cronbach's alpha; Welch's t-tests compared institutions, with a Bonferroni-adjusted significance level ≤ 0.008 for the six component comparisons. Results: The mean total score was 48.81 (SD 5.83). Overall internal consistency was weak (α = 0.521). The total score did not differ significantly between institutions (48.58 vs. 49.23; t (54.12) = 0.48, p = 0.634), and no component difference was observed with Bonferroni adjustment. Conclusions: Ageist attitudes did not differ between institutions, but the questionnaire's weak overall reliability limits interpretation. Larger samples, confirmatory factor analysis, and testing of measurement invariance are warranted.