Worries about memory loss and knowledge on Alzheimer's disease in community-dwelling elderly from Brazil

Abstract

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia in the elderly. Efforts to determine risk factors for the development of AD are important for risk stratification and early diagnosis. Furthermore, there are no standardized practices for memory screening. Lack of knowledge on AD, perception of memory loss as part of normal aging, and poor socioeconomic conditions may also be implicated in the current situation of dementia.ObjectiveTo evaluate knowledge of AD in a literate population of elders and correlate these findings with sociodemographic characteristics.MethodsA descriptive survey design study enrolled 994 volunteers from September 2007 to May 2008 in the city of Santos, São Paulo, Brazil, to answer a brief questionnaire consisting of 8 simple questions about knowledge of AD and worries about memory loss.ResultsGreater knowledge about AD was associated with eight or more years of education, female gender and age between 60 and 70 years. Also, 52.8% of responders (95% CI - 49.5-56.0%) answered that memory loss is part of normal aging and 77.5% (95% CI - 74.7-80.1%) had never sought a doctor to evaluate their memories.ConclusionOur study results reinforced that the first line of preventing late diagnosis of dementia is to act in health promotion, especially by targeting subjects older than 70 years of male gender and with lower educational level. It also provided evidence that strategies to promote physician initiative in treating memory problems are also paramount.

Perceptions of dementia amongst the general public across Latin America: a systematic review

“…Two additional articles were identified through lateral searches. After screening, six papers reporting on four different studies met the inclusion criteria for this systematic review (Amado & Brucki, 2018;Blay, Furtado, & Peluso, 2008;, 2010Matioli et al, 2011;Schelp, Nieri, Hamamoto Filho, Bales, & Mendes-Chiloff, 2008). All the included studies were conducted in Brazil, were published in English, had a quantitative survey design, and sample sizes ranging from 73 to 1,414 (Mdn=722).…”

“…The authors somewhat unclearly state that one of their aims was to "evaluate expectancy from the healthy-old age and scope dementia". Matioli et al (Matioli et al, 2011) aimed to evaluate the worries about memory loss and knowledge of Alzheimer's Disease in a literate elderly population from Santos (Brazil), and to find the associations with some sociodemographic characteristics.…”

“…The characteristics of the study samples are given in Table 1. Four studies were conducted in Brazil, predominately in São Paulo state, including São Paulo , Botucatu (Schelp et al, 2008), and Santos (Matioli et al, 2011) cities. One study utilised an online questionnaire and so was not limited to São Paulo state, but its recruitment through A c c e p t e d M a n u s c r i p t memory clinics and social media makes it unlikely to be generalizable (36.4% were healthcare professionals, 13.9% were caregivers, and 87.3% were highly educated) (Amado & Brucki, 2018).…”

Knowledge about Alzheimer's disease in the Brazilian population

“…Schelp et al 30 conducted a study in which 73 people from a mid-size city in southeast Brazil (Botucatu) answered a questionnaire comprising seven 30 . Matioli et al 31 interviewed the population of Santos, São Paulo, Brazil and found that the majority (95%) of the elderly had heard of AD, but only 69.5% of the responders actually knew what AD was, despite the high percentage of individuals who affirmed that they knew of it 31 . Five hundred inhabitants of São Paulo had their knowledge about AD measured, in which only 39.4% recognized dementia as a mental disease, and 22% believed that those symptoms were part of natural aging.…”

Percepção De Idosos Sobre Alzheimer

“…Matioli et al found that the higher the level of education, being females aged between 60-70 years old, the higher the knowledge about AD. 11 From this, it is conceived that the prevention of late diagnosis of dementia is equivalent to acting on health promotion, especially aimed at people over 70 years old, male and less educated.…”