Distinguishing Between Knowledge Gaps and Misconceptions of Alzheimer’s Disease Among Caregivers in the UK - Distinguishing Between Knowledge Gaps and Misconceptions of Alzheimer’s Disease Among Caregivers in the UK - Open Access Pub

A popular scale for assessing knowledge about Alzheimer’s disease is the Alzheimer’s Disease Knowledge Scale (ADKS). The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of adding ‘don’t know’ to the original ‘true’ or ‘false’ response option. It was assumed that this modification would provide insight into the reasons underlying incorrect responses and could distinguish between misconceptions and knowledge gaps. To investigate this, carers (care home carers and informal carers) and members of the general population were recruited. The results showed that percentage correct responses was lower than previously reported, suggesting potential inflation of knowledge by guesses without the ‘don’t know’ option. Moreover, care-home workers were more likely to select the incorrect response than ‘don’t know’ compared to informal carers for several items related to the earlier stages of AD, suggesting a higher level of misconceptions around this topic and highlighting potential training needs for care home carers. DOI10.14302/issn.2474-7785.jarh-16-1128 With a growing global population, prevalence of dementia is increasing world-wide. It is estimated that approximately fifty percent of all residents in long-term care settings have dementia 1, 2 and the resulting heterogeneity in behaviours of residents can challenge the demands on knowledge and skills of carers in residential care homes 3, 4, 5. Knowledge of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) has been shown to vary among caregivers in residential settings and among informal carers 6, 7. Poor understanding of the impact of dementia on patient behaviour can result in suboptimal care-choices and can increase agitation or anxiety unnecessarily 8, 9, 10. Reliable assessment of knowledge among carers is therefore paramount for patient well-being and for guiding decisions about training strategies by residential care homes or for development of training programs for informal carers 8, 11. A popular scale for assessing knowledge and misconceptions of Alzheimer’s disease is the Alzheimer’s Disease Knowledge Scale (ADKS 11). The ADKS consists of 30 ‘true/false’ statements related to seven ‘knowledge domains’: risk factors, symptoms, assessment and diagnosis, course of the disease, treatment and management, caregiving and life impact. So far, the questionnaire has been used to assess knowledge in the general population or among students (UK 12; Norway 13; USA 14, 15, 16; South Korea17 among health professionals and care staff 18, among psychologists 19 and it has been used as an outcome measure for validation of an online