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Published on: January 24, 2020
Perceptions of risk and prevention of dementia in the healthy elderly
L H Joyce Yeo1, Michael A Horan, Maureen Jones
1Department of Geriatric Medicine, Hope Hospital, Manchester, UK. linhse@yahoo.com
Objectives:
(1) To determine the attitudes and perceptions of the elderly with regard to dementia. (2) To correlate these beliefs with demographic variables of age, sex, intelligence scores and social class.
Method:
A postal questionnaire survey of a sample of 562 subjects of the Manchester University Age and Cognitive Performance longitudinal study group.
Results:
The response rate was 95%. Most responders (69%) did not worry about dementia, although they were more likely to think about it if they had a family member with dementia (p < 0.005). There is no link between social class, sex, intelligence scores and age with regard to worries and concerns of dementia. The majority of responders (82%) took action to maintain their health but demonstrated poor awareness of risks or protective factors for dementia.
Conclusion:
The elderly on the whole were not fearful of dementia or of acquiring it. There was poor awareness of risks or protective factors for dementia.
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