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Elderly Persons' Perceptions and Knowledge of Alzheimer's Disease

1986; SAGE Publishing; Volume: 58; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2466/pr0.1986.58.2.419

1558-691X

Joy A. Price, P. Shanahan, James H. Price, Sharon M. Desmond,

Health and Wellbeing Research

The intent of this study was to obtain data on elderly persons' beliefs and knowledge of Alzheimer's disease. Participants were 148 elderly subjects (At age of 70.9 yr.) who responded to an Alzheimer's disease survey consisting of 20 knowledge questions, two belief questions, and one question on sources of Alzheimer's information. Chi-squared analysis of perceived susceptibility to Alzheimer's and belief about developing Alzheimer's, when compared to education and having a friend or relative with the disease, indicated no significant differences. Analysis of variance of education and having a friend or relative with Alzheimer's by the respondents' knowledge of Alzheimer's did yield significant differences. Only 8 of the 20 knowledge questions were correctly answered by 50% or more of the respondents. Finally, the four most commonly identified sources of information on Alzheimer's were television, articles, friends, and talks. Over-all, the respondents (70%) did not believe they were susceptible to Alzheimer's although the majority (84%) were, either concerned, worried, frightened, or scared stiff about developing the disease. The respondents' knowledge of Alzheimer's disease was poor.