Attitudes of the German General Population toward Early Diagnosis of Dementia – Results of a Representative Telephone Survey

Abstract

BackgroundEarly detection of dementia has clearly improved. Even though none of the currently available treatments for the most common form of dementia, Alzheimer’s dementia, promises a cure, early diagnosis provides several benefits for patients, caregivers, and health care systems. This study aimed to describe attitudes toward early diagnosis of dementia in the German general population.MethodsA representative telephone survey of the German population aged 18+ years (n = 1,002) was conducted in 2011.ResultsThe majority of respondents (69%) would be willing to be examined for early diagnosis of dementia. Almost two thirds reported that they would prefer their general practitioner (GP) as the first source of professional help. More than half of the respondents (55%) stated their belief that dementia could be prevented. Respondents mostly indicated psychosocial prevention options.ConclusionsOur findings suggest that the general population in Germany is very open to early diagnosis of dementia; however, this seems connected with large expectations on the effectiveness of prevention options. Dementia awareness campaigns may be employed to carefully inform the public about the prevention options currently available and their efficacy. To exploit GPs’ potential as a gatekeeper for early detection of dementia, their ability to identify patients with antecedent and mild stages of the disease must be improved.

Attitudes to Alzheimer's disease testing of Australian general practice patients: a cross-sectional questionnaire-based study

“…Unlike our finding of gender not being associated with acceptance, Luck et al (2012) found, in a German population, men to be more accepting of screening, as did a US study (Holsinger et al, 2011). Again contrary to our findings, a US study of acceptance of screening for four diseases, including AD, found male gender and younger age (as well as lower educational attainment) to be associated with increased acceptance of testing but did not report the AD results separately (Neumann et al, 2012).…”

“…Our finding of 66.2% of patients reporting they would like to know if they have dementia is similar to that of a German study that found 69% of participants (18 years and older) would be willing to be examined for early diagnosis of dementia (Luck et al ., ). In a telephone survey of US adults, 79% were willing to accept a hypothetical perfectly accurate blood test to predict AD.…”

Rates of formal diagnosis of dementia in primary care: The effect of screening

“…Cognitive status was assessed using the German version of the MMSE [22]. In the analyses, we used the total MMSE score and a categorization indicating "no cognitive impairment" (score 27-30), "mild" (score 20-26), "moderate" (score [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19], and "severe cognitive impairment" (score 0-9). Depression was operationalized using the score of the Geriatric Depression Scale [23,24] as a dichotomized variable ("no depression," score 0-5; "depression," score 6-15).…”

“…Only 1.5% of the patients reported that they worried more about their health after the screening. Other surveys revealed that a clear majority of participants would prefer to be diagnosed early and expected to be properly informed about their diagnosis [14], [15].…”

Fahrtauglichkeit bei Demenz – Theoretische Rahmung und Konzept einer Vorgehensempfehlung für die Hausarztpraxis

“…Hausärzte und Hausärztinnen sind oft die ersten Ansprechpartner für Menschen mit Gedächtnisbeschwer-den oder Demenz und deren Angehörige [9]. Insofern sind sie es, die mit dem Problem der Fahrtauglichkeit bei Demenz konfrontiert werden und dieses früh ansprechen könnten.…”