Assessing health science students’ attitudes towards persons with disabilities in Turkey. Arzu Icagasıoglu Coban 1 , Seda Attepe Ozden 1* , Mustafa Agah Tekindal , Gonca Polat 2 1 Department of Social Work, Baskent University, Turkey 2 Department of Social Work, Ankara University, Turkey Abstract Purpose: The aim of this research was to determine attitudes towards persons with disabilities among prospective health care professionals. Materials and Methods: Attitudes were measured using the Attitudes towards Persons with Disabilities Inventory developed in Turkey, which consists of 43 statements. Participants were 273 undergraduate students from a health sciences faculty in Turkish university via stratified sampling. We examined associations between Attitudes towards Persons with Disabilities Inventory scores and socio- demographics variables. Results: The students generally had positive attitudes towards persons with disabilities. The most positive attitudes were among students from lower-income families (M=198.5, SD=3.5 Significance Level=0.05). Students from the Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation and the Social Work departments had more positive attitudes. Conclusions: The findings indicate a need to revise the curricula of departments to prepare students to effectively work with persons with disabilities. Keywords: Disability, Persons with disability, Attitudes towards persons with disabilities inventory, Health sciences faculties. Accepted on April 24, 2017 Introduction Disability is common worldwide [1]. Negative attitudes towards persons with disabilities (PWD) are a problem in many countries [2-4]; in some communities, people even believe that disability is a punishment by God and is caused by evil spirits [4]. PWD experience difficulties meeting their basic needs, acquiring housing [5], realizing their human rights in the physical environment, participating in social life, and accessing education and health services. Attitudes towards PWD have changed over the years. Attitude measurement techniques have also changed, becoming increasingly complicated both theoretically and technically [6]. According to Antonak and Livneh [6], to investigate attitudes towards PWD, researchers should focus on sociodemographic variables such as age, gender, educational level and profession, and situational variables, such as social context and family dynamics. Previous research shows that service providers’ perceptions of service users are an important aspect of human service provision (in fields such as education, health, and protection) [4,7-9]. The perspectives of individuals who work in the health field, which are based on the medical model, may have negative influences on the services offered to PWD [10]. However, health professionals who have more experience working with PWD and who receive training may develop more positive attitudes towards PWD. For example, Sahin et al. [11] showed that training about PWD had a positive impact on health care students’ attitudes towards PWD. In Turkey, the first comprehensive research on this subject was carried out in 2002 by the Prime Ministry Administration for Disabled People. This research revealed that 12.29% of the total population in Turkey (almost 78 million people) [12] was disabled [13]. However, detailed statistical data on this subject are lacking and many universities, opposition parties, and organizations for PWD argue that the number of PWD in Turkey is greater than represented in the official statistics [14]. Despite this lack of clarity, many studies have revealed the problems that PWD face. PWD experience problems with education [15], health [16], employment [17], rehabilitation [18], vocational training, work-life participation [19], difficulties in accessing the physical environment [20,21], and social exclusion [14,22,23]. Bezmez et al. [24] have identified serious problems in Turkey in understanding the rights of PWD within the scope of citizenship, and the formation of integrative policy and services in this area. Perception of disability in Turkey is ISSN 0970-938X www.biomedres.info Biomed Res- India 2017 Volume 28 Issue 12 5370 Biomedical Research 2017; 28 (12): 5370-5377 1