Understanding what influences people’s attitudes towards individuals with dementia

Abstract

Stigmatisation of people with dementia is a problem that affects people’s quality of life. This is an increasing problem due to the growing numbers of people diagnosed with dementia as indicated by dementia being the leading cause of death in the UK (Starr, 2017). Identifying the causes behind negative perceptions should help remove, or reduce, stigma. This study investigated how a person’s age, familiarity, knowledge, or fear, of dementia influenced their attitudes towards people with dementia. Findings from 130 participants aged 18 to 64 years old showed that fear of dementia ha,d a significant negative correlation with attitudes towards people with dementia. However, age, familiarity and knowledge, did not have a significant effect on participant’s attitudes. Overall, regression analysis indicated that these predictor variables only explained six per cent of variance in attitudes toward people with dementia. This indicates that interventions focused on reducing fear ofdementia may have a positive effect on public attitudes towards people with dementia, but clearly there are more complex explanations that need to be sought to explain the current levels of stigma seen.