Objective: Dementia is a neuro-psychiatric disorder often caused by an underlying brain disease. The disease is particularly prevalent in developing countries where people affected by dementia are very unlikely to receive treatment, according to WHO. "Our biggest challenge is to de-mystify dementia to make people understand that there is nothing supernatural about it," said WHO. In developed nations there is more awareness regarding dementia.
Design: To study the knowledge, awareness and attitude regarding dementia in the western part of India, a study was carried out on 1000 subjects selected randomly from the general population, including the relatives of dementia patients at Kothari Medical and Research Institute, Bikaner, "A Western most part of India" in September, 2001.
Materials and Methods: This study was conducted on a study sample (n=1000) selected randomly from general population including relatives of dementia patients. Age group of sample was 18-70 years and education standard was varied from illiterate to postgraduate. 70% were male and rest of them were female. This study sample was subjected to a 20-item Self Designed Performa which includes sociodemographic data, questions regarding cause, diagnosis, treatment and myths of dementia (Knowledge and Attitude Questionnaire) and asked the sample group to fill this with their knowledge about dementia.
Results: Results of this study shows that only 6% of participants have complete knowledge about etiology and treatment of dementia and these all were from highly educated group, and most of them were male (88%). 15% of sample have partial knowledge of dementia. Most of the people believed that dementia is caused by mental tension, stress, excessive work, poor intelligence and senility, while some thought it is due to some supernatural forces and it cannot be treated by medicines only and require the treatment of a faith healer. Only 2% of sample have knowledge about the complete course of management.
Conclusion: In the view of this study, we can conclude that the perception of dementia in developing country like India is very distorted and negative and it becomes even more obvious when causality of dementia is considered.
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