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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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What do we know about dementia?
— a survey on knowledge about dementia in the general public of Japan | | Author(s) | Yumiko Arai, Asuna Arai, Steven H Zarit |
| Journal title | International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, vol 23, no 4, April 2008 |
| Pages | pp 433-438 |
| Source | http://www.interscience.wiley.com |
| Keywords | Dementia ; Information needs ; Attitude ; Social surveys ; Japan. |
| Annotation | The importance of early detection of dementia has been highlighted in recent years by the medical and scientific community. However, delays often occur between recognition of the signs or symptoms and a decision by the patient or family to seek professional help. Such delays may be caused by a lack of knowledge about dementia, and this study aimed to determine the understanding of dementia among the general public. The authors conducted a survey in Japan that asked 11 questions regarding knowledge of "general" information, "symptoms", and "biomedical" issues related to dementia. A quota sampling method was used to select 2500 participants, 2115 of whom were eligible for the analyses. This study showed that women overall had greater knowledge than men; middle-aged women had the highest level of knowledge. There is an urgent need for educational interventions to be planned for the general public, in particular for men and non-middle-aged women, in order to raise awareness of dementia. Such education should focus on biomedical aspects, i.e. cause, treatment and prognosis. The gaps in knowledge that were found may prevent caregivers from planning for the social and financial challenges to come. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-080430213 A |
| Classmark | EA: UV:IK: DP: 3F: 7DT |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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