People’s knowledge about dementia

Abstract

Cognitive impairment is one of the most urgent problems due to the high prevalence and disability. Timely identification and early diagnosis of dementia are the most important for successful management of patients that may be possible only if patients refer for medical care. In this connection, people's knowledge about dementia is of great importance. To study people's knowledge about problems of dementia. The survey was carried out in September 2014 in 42 regions of the Russian Federation (130 survey sites) and comprised 1600 respondents. The survey has revealed that 48% of participants are afraid to have dementia, 47% are not aware of signs and symptoms of marked cognitive impairment and 54% have concerns about age-related memory impairment. A low percent of people who refer for medical care may be explained by the widespread opinion (37% of Russians) that dementia is not curable; 42% believe that there are no drugs for treatment of dementia. Only 5% of respondents would visit a doctor if their relative has dementia. The results of this survey highlighted the necessity of using special programs to improve people's knowledge about problems of dementia.

A multi-themed and multi-format intervention program for improving dementia literacy among Chinese older adults: Study protocol for a non-randomized controlled trial

“…The results are consistent with those from Australia , Hong Kong, Macao , Cambodia, Fiji, and the Philippines [16][17][18]. A study conducted in Russia demonstrated that approximately 40-50% of the participants were unaware of the signs and symptoms of dementia [19]. A systematic review of 40 studies conducted revealed that participants in these studies only possessed moderate knowledge of dementia [8].…”

“…The results showed that only 22.30% of the participants could identify dementia at an early stage, and only 24.4% of the participants knew how to prevent and treat dementia. The older adults in Shanghai were generally less aware of cognitive impairment, with only 7.61% of respondents being familiar with the disease [19]. In 2012, a survey of 4634 participants in Shijiazhuang found that the knowledge rates of early identi cation and prevention of dementia were 14.44% and 13.62%, and the awareness rate of caregiving knowledge was only 4.64% [24].…”

Development of Financial Service Methods for People with Dementia during Digitalization: A Partnership between Citizens and the Russian State

“…This problem is fully comprehended in Russia only by the experts and members of the families who have relatives with dementia. The survey, whose results were published by Bogolepova (2015), shows that about:  One-fifth of the respondents do not think about the problems of old age;  The ratio of those who are apprehensive about dementia and those who are not apprehensive is 46:48;  People evaluating their material status as unsatisfactory are apprehensive about dementia, while students, men, and those who evaluate their material status as very satisfactory, are not afraid of dementia. However, the problem of organization of the servicing of the elderly should be tackled with the participation of citizens themselves.…”

“…Their number will reach 65.7 million by 2030 and roughly 115 million by 2050. The frequency of registration of new cases of dementia in the world is once every four seconds (Bogolepova, 2015). According to this trend, growth can be forecasted in:  The costs that households bear to service patients with dementia;  The share of employable people that have to quit their jobs or transfer to part-time jobs because of a need to provide 24-hour care to dementia patients.…”