Stigma and GPs' perceptions of dementia

Area of Science:

• Gerontology
• Medical Sociology
• Psychiatry

Background:

• General practitioners (GPs) play a vital role in early dementia diagnosis.
• Understanding GPs' perceptions of dementia and potential stigma is crucial.
• Little is known about how GPs view dementia and its associated stigma.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore how GPs' perceptions of dementia align with stigma concepts.
• To investigate if GPs believe stigma impacts timely dementia diagnosis.
• To identify specific elements of stigma in GPs' views on dementia.

Main Methods:

• Telephone interviews conducted with 23 GPs in England.
• Content analysis used for data analysis, including open coding.
• A coding framework from existing literature was applied to assess perceptions and stigma.

Main Results:

• Three key themes emerged: understanding dementia, self-relation to dementia perceptions, and considering dementia's consequences.
• GPs' views on dementia correlated with stigma concepts, particularly existential anxiety and perceived self-similarity.
• GPs acknowledged dementia stigma but believed it still impeded timely diagnosis, citing health service discrimination (e.g., time constraints, training deficits).

Conclusions:

• Training GPs to explore their dementia perceptions is recommended.
• Addressing structural discrimination within healthcare is essential.
• Support for GPs is needed to tackle dementia-related stigma and improve diagnosis.