A confidence interval analysis of three studies using the Alzheimer's disease knowledge test

It has been suggested that community awareness of Alzheimer's disease (AD) has increased over recent years. This claim has been difficult to evaluate given the lack of systematic research in this area however, despite some recent attempts at monitoring changes in knowledge about AD. To address the question of change in awareness about AD, the present study compared results from three studies that have investigated the level of AD knowledge among undergraduate students, using confidence intervals. Consistent with previous findings, the results of this study suggest that more recent cohorts of undergraduate students are more knowledgeable about some aspects of AD, although to an extent that is much less marked than previously thought. Importantly, there are also a number of areas in which there appears to have been little or no change in community awareness about AD, and these are highlighted as issues that may need to be specifically addressed as part of future career education programs.