KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND PREVENTIVE PRACTICE ON DEMENTIA AMONG COMMUNITY-DWELLING OLDER PEOPLE IN MACAO

Abstract

Alzheimer Disease International ranked Macao as the highest stage five to develop dementia-friendly community globally. Awareness of dementia care among older people was of great significance for the prevention and early detection of dementia. This study aimed to investigate the awareness of dementia care among community-dwelling older people in Macao. The validated questionnaires investigating the awareness of dementia care, in terms of knowledge, attitude and preventive practice domain, were distributed to older people from 14 randomly selected day centres and community rehabilitation wards in Macao and 408 public samples were collected. The score of the knowledge domain was 58.15+20.95, the attitude was 75.34+7.99, and the preventive practice was 76.10+12.48. Older people’s knowledge (58.15+20.95) was significantly less than the health professionals working in Health Centers (p<0.001) and the staff working in day-care centres and nursing homes in Macao (p<0.001). Older people’s preventive practice (76.10+12.48) was significantly less than the health professionals working in Health Centers in Macao (p<0.01). These findings demonstrated that community-dwelling older people in Macao had less knowledge and less preventive practice of dementia care. More public lectures and education for community-dwelling older people in Macao were recommended strongly to improve their knowledge and preventive practice of dementia care.