The DAS-6: A Short Form of the Dementia Attitudes Scale

Abstract

Attitudes toward persons with dementia (PWD) are important predictors of emotional and behavioral outcomes for PWD and their caregivers. It is often desirable to have short, psychometrically-sound measures of such attitudes for inclusion in large community-based surveillance surveys and quick training assessments. The Dementia Attitudes Scale (DAS) is a 20-item scale that examines person-centered knowledge and perceptions of comfort working with PWD. Shorter versions of this scale have been used in various settings, although the psychometric properties of this abbreviated scale are unknown. This study used a principal components analysis to examine the properties associated with scales using a reduced number of items. Our final scale, the DAS-6 includes three items in each of the comfort and person-centered knowledge subscales.