journal articles
KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND PREVENTIVE PRACTICE ON DEMENTIA CARE AMONG PRIMARY HEALTH PROFESSIONALS IN MACAO
I.L. Lo, W. Zeng, C.I. Lei, C. Lam, H.L. Lou
J Prev Alz Dis 2020;7(2):83-86
The Macao Dementia Policy was recognized by Alzheimer Disease International as the 27th globally and one of the highest stage 5 to develop dementia friendly community and primary health professionals are in a pivotal position to enhance community-based dementia prevention and care quality. This study aimed to investigate the knowledge, attitude and preventive practice on dementia care among primary health professionals in Macao. A specially designed 30-item questionnaire was developed and validated for the study. The Content Validity Index (CVI) and Cronbach’s α of the questionnaire were 0.973 and 0.808. The questionnaires were distributed to all 375 primary health professionals from 8 Health Centers throughout Macao and 234 valid questionnaires (62.4%) were returned. The score for dementia care knowledge was 87.02+14.01; attitude was 69.52+5.83; preventive practice was 77.88+13.18, of which doctors (79.89+13.77) was significantly higher (t=2.29, p=0.023) than nurses (75.91+12.33). There were positive relationships between preventive practice and attitude (r=0.163, p=0.014), and age (r=0.212, p=0.002), and a negative relationship between knowledge and age (r=-0.139, p=0.040). These findings have significant implications that most primary health professionals in Macao had sufficient knowledge, a positive attitude and appropriate preventive practice on dementia care. However, enhanced dementia education to improve knowledge and preventive practice was a strong agenda for the training for senior staff and nurses.
CITATION:
I.L. Lo ; W. Zeng ; C.I. Lei ; C. Lam ; H.L. Lou (2020): Knowledge, Attitude and Preventive Practice on Dementia Care among Primary Health Professionals in Macao. The Journal of Prevention of Alzheimer’s Disease (JPAD). http://dx.doi.org/10.14283/jpad.2020.10