Abstract
Recently, the dementia-prevention program hosted by the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Labor has been widely implemented. We administered a questionnaire to 347 elderly adults (mean age: 71, mean MMSE score: 27.2) who attended programs in community healthcare centers. The questionnaire consisted of questions concerning: (1) belongings (2) knowledge about dementia (3) opinions about revealing the diagnosis of dementia to patients (4) anxiety for own onset of dementia. Regarding the knowledge about dementia, 17% of the participants knew about drug therapy, and 13% of them knew about legal guardianship. The results indicated a limited knowledge about facilities where demented people can be placed (home: 39%, hospital: 43%, nursing home: 62%, group-home: 25%). As for revealing the diagnosis, 68% of the participants hoped they would be informed of the diagnosis if they become demented, while 66% of them felt anxiety about having dementia in the future. In terms of difference by age (> or = 70 v.s. < or = 69), while the older group had low knowledge about the facilities and felt more anxiety about their own onset of dementia (chi2 test p < 0.05, Mann-Whitney U test p < 0.05), there were no intergroup difference regarding their expectations of being told about the diagnosis of dementia. Overall, the results of the questionnaire suggest that appropriate education of dementia to older adults may contribute to early diagnosis of the community level, thereby may maximize the effect of therapeutic interventions.
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Schedule a callMore From: Nippon Ronen Igakkai Zasshi. Japanese Journal of Geriatrics
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