The Drivers of Conversations About Dementia Risk Reduction: A Qualitative Study

Dementia prevention is an area of health where public knowledge remains limited. A growing number of education initiatives are attempting to rectify this, but they tend to reach audiences of limited size and diversity, limiting intervention-associated health equity. However, initiative participants tend to discuss these initiatives and the information they contain with members of their social network, increasing the number and diversity of people receiving dementia risk reduction information. In this qualitative study, we sought to understand the drivers of this information sharing. We interviewed 39 people from Tasmania, Australia who completed the Preventing Dementia Massive Open Online Course in May 2020. We identified themes from responses to semi-structured interview questions using reflexive thematic analysis. We identified three key drivers of information sharing: participants' personal course experiences; participants finding information sharing opportunities with people they expected to be receptive; and conversation partners' responses to conversation topics. These drivers aligned with existing communication theories, with dementia-related stigma effecting both actual and perceived conversation partner receptivity. Understanding the drivers of information sharing may allow information about dementia risk reduction, and other preventative health behaviors, to be presented in ways that facilitate information diffusion, increasing equity in preventative health education.