Authors: Brina Felc.
Objectives: Although the number of people with dementia is growing due to the aging population, knowledge of dementia among adolescents is unknown, as are their suggestions for how to acquire knowledge.
Aim: To determine the knowledge of dementia among students and to identify their suggestions on to acquire dementia-related knowledge.
Methods: An online cross-sectional study was conducted in order to determine the knowledge of dementia among students of non-medical high schools in Slovenia. The gender comparison of the knowledge and proposals for a way of educating were obtained.
Results: A total of 1128 students (770 girls and 348 boys) aged 14 -19 participated in this study. The results indicated that of 20 claims of dementia, participants were on average able to answer 71.5% correctly (M = 14.30; SD = 2.56), girls better than boy (p<0.05), students with relative with dementia better than others (p<0.05). Proposals for ways of future dementia education did not differ between the sexes (p>0.05). Both, girls and boys in the same percentage indicated future priority learning methods namely: use of the Internet, learning in school lessons and from books and textbooks, learning from medical staff.
Conclusions: Organizers and providers of dementia education for adolescents should organize as much education as possible via the Internet. Further research on the most appropriate form of dementia education among high school students is recommended.
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