Public Knowledge about Dementia in China: A National WeChat-Based Survey.

Dan Liu,Yulian Wu,Lina An,Liang Wu,Bo Zhang,Xuguang Gan,Guirong Cheng,Sheng Hu,Yan Zeng

doi:10.3390/ijerph16214231

Abstract

Dementia is a serious public health problem. The more extensive dementia knowledge is, the more conducive it is to early prevention and treatment of dementia. However, no assessment of the general population’s dementia awareness has been conducted so far in China. Thus, this study assessed the national public knowledge of dementia based on mobile internet in China. We assessed 10,562 national respondents recruited based on the most popular social networking service in China, WeChat and analyzed the data using quantitative methods. The overall correct rate of total dementia knowledge was 63.14%. Only half of the participants (50.84%) could identify risk factors accurately. The level of dementia knowledge was positively associated with high education, city residency, and experience of exposure to information on dementia. The sandwich generation (aged 20–60 years) had the highest level of dementia knowledge. Chinese people were found to have a low level of knowledge about dementia, especially those aged over 60 years, with low education and living in rural areas. Further educational programs and campaigns are needed to improve dementia knowledge, with greater focus on the older population as the target audience, emphasis on dementia risk factors as educational content, correcting misconceptions about dementia, and providing more experience of exposure to dementia.

Highlights

Dementia is a chronic disease characterized by a progressive and irreversible decline in cognitive functions, which mainly affects older people, those aged over 65 years
Participants living in rural areas accounted for 48%, and the rest were living in cities
About the experience of exposure to dementia, 94.66% respondents replied that they had heard of dementia, and 42.41% participants answered that they had had contact with dementia patients at least once

Summary

Introduction

Dementia is a chronic disease characterized by a progressive and irreversible decline in cognitive functions, which mainly affects older people, those aged over 65 years. With the increasing population aging in all parts of the world, the number of newly diagnosed dementia cases is over 9.9 million each year worldwide, equating to 1 new case every 3.2 seconds. 58% of dementia patients live in low- and middle-income countries, and this percentage is expected to rise to 68% by 2050 [1]. In China, the prevalence dementia is estimated at 6.19% [1] , and 62.8% of patients with dementia have AD [2]. The number of patients with dementia in China accounts for approximately 25% of the entire worldwide population with dementia [3].

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Discussion

Conclusion