Differences among entering dental classes in attitudes toward health care issues

Attitudes toward social and professional issues in health care were examined for six successive entering classes in a single dental school. Attitudes were assessed on six scales derived by factor analysis of a larger set of questions presented to first-year students. The analyses focused on detection of annual variations and longer term differences in attitudes, and on associations between attitudes and students' background characteristics. Both annual variations and longer term differences were found, but no strong associations between students' characteristics and attitudes were noted. The finding that entering students' attitudes differ between classes can be of importance to educators' teaching strategies.