Authors: Brina Felc.
Objective: For adolescents who want to be part of a community that supports people with dementia, knowledge of dementia and a positive attitude towards behavioral and psychological changes in people with dementia are important.
Aim: Our aim was to evaluate adolescents’ knowledge of dementia and attitudes towards behavioral and psychological changes in persons with dementia.
Methods: 1128 students of Slovenian non-medical secondary schools completed a series of questions that assessed their dementia knowledge and among them 335 those with a relative with dementia to further describe their attitude towards in a relative with dementia.
Results: Regarding the knowledge of dementia, students scored an average of 14.30 points (standard deviation = 2,56) out of a possible 20 points, while students with a relative with dementia demonstrated a higher level of knowledge (M = 14.73; standard deviation = 2.44; p<0.05). Of the 335 respondents with a relative with dementia, 279 described their attitude towards their behavioral and psychological changes. Furthermore, it turned out that almost two-thirds (64.5 %) of students with a relative with dementia show a negative attitude towards them due to their behavioral and psychological changes due to dementia.
Conclusions: To make life easier for an adolescents with a relative with dementia, there should be regular formal and informal training sessions in which professionals from different disciplines should clearly describe the course of dementia, focusing on behavioral and psychological changes during the disease and how to easily deal with these changes.
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