[Attitudes toward persons with dementia : A population survey from Switzerland]

Dementia diseases, primarily Alzheimer's disease, are on the rise worldwide. Adequate management of this development requires the involvement of the general population in appropriate measures; it also requires knowledge of the attitudes of the population with respect to the disease and the people it affects. A survey was thus conducted to discover the Swiss population's attitude towards people with Alzheimer's disease or related forms of dementia (ADRD) and identify the factors that influence this attitude.

A nationwide standardized telephone survey of 862 people aged 18 years and older was conducted in German, French, and Italian between July and September 2018.

Age and attitude toward age were found to be significant predictors of attitudes towards people with ADRD. Subdividing this attitude into a cognitive and an affective conative component helped to more precisely assign the influences of independent variables. Regression models showed a positive effect on the affective conative component for contact with people with ADRD, being well informed, experienced pleasures, and a positive attitude toward age, while education, gender, and age had a positive impact on the cognitive component. Nevertheless, the independent variables could explain only part of the variance.

Despite the overall positive attitude toward people with ADRD in the Swiss population, the results of this study have certain practical implications: in addition to being well informed, experience with people with ADRD has a positive influence on attitudes toward persons with this disease. Therefore, such contact should be encouraged to revise any negative perceptions of people with ADRD.