General Public Perceptions and Attitudes toward Alzheimer's Disease from Five Cities in China

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Zeng, Fan^{a; b; 1} | Xie, Wan-Ting^{a; d; 1} | Wang, Yan-Jiang^b | Luo, Hong-Bo^e | Shi, Xiang-Qun^e | Zou, Hai-Qiang^f | Zeng, Yue-Qing^g | Li, Ya-Fei^h | Zhang, Shao-Rong^c | Lian, Yan^{a; *}

Affiliations: [a] Department of Medicine, Teaching and Science, Daping Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, China | [b] Department of Neurology, Daping Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, China | [c] Department of Nursing Education, Daping Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, China | [d] 201 Hospital of People's Liberation Army, Dalian, China | [e] Department of Neurology, The General Hospital of Lanzhou Military Command, Lanzhou, China | [f] Department of Neurology, The General Hospital of Guangzhou Military Command, Guangzhou, China | [g] Institute of Molecular and Clinical Medicine, Kunming Medical University, Kunming, China | [h] Department of Epidemiology, College of Preventive Medicine, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, China

Correspondence: [*] Correspondence to: Yan Lian, Department of Medicine, Teaching and Science, Daping Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing 400042, China. Tel.: +86 23 68757504/23 68711956; E-mail: yanlian96@126.com.

Note: [1] These authors contribute equally to this work.

Abstract: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common type of dementia affecting the aged population worldwide, yet its social perceptions have been less studied. To investigate the perceptions and attitudes toward AD in the Chinese population, a cross-sectional face-to-face survey of 2,000 randomly selected adults was conducted in five representative cities of China. This survey focused on the fear of AD, and the relationship between this variable and each studied factor was analyzed using univariate analysis and multivariate regression analysis. In general, 76.6% of the total respondents had personal fear of developing AD, and such fear was closely related to the proximity to AD and perceived severity of AD, as well as other factors such as gender and self-perceived health. The results strongly suggested that more attention should be paid to public health education of AD, which can only be achieved with the cooperation of government, media, medical institutions, and the community so as to eliminate people's confusion about AD, relieve their psychological burden, and optimize their health-seeking behavior.

Keywords: Alzheimer's disease, attitude, China, fear, perception

DOI: 10.3233/JAD-141371

Journal: Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, vol. 43, no. 2, pp. 511-518, 2015