engleski

Should we enhance undergraduate education in dementia?

Introduction: Due to the growing number of older people with dementia worldwide, an increasing number of people will participate in their care, so do health professionals. The main goal of this research was to get an insight into the level of knowledge and attitudes towards dementia among medical students. Methods: This is a cross- sectional study. A total of 231 final-year medical students at the School of Medicine, University of Zagreb were recruited. The paper-and-pencil questionnaire included six categories of questions on demographic data (I.), success during medical studies (II.), personal interests (III.), personal attitudes towards dementia and experiences with people with dementia (IV.), two dementia knowledge exams (V.) and personal opinion on the prevalence of dementia in the undergraduate curriculum (VI.). Results: Students had relatively neutral attitudes towards working with people with dementia and a rather poor theoretical knowledge of dementia. The best theoretical knowledge was about the symptoms of dementia, and the weakest were in the field of differential diagnoses, epidemiology and pathogenesis of dementia. Every 11th final-year medical student had never had contact with a person with dementia. Medical students should spend more time with people with dementia during their medical education was predominant opinion. The higher grade point average in the study and the higher grade in Neurology were significantly correlated to the better result on the dementia knowledge exam. Conclusion: There is the need to broaden the current educational program in dementia from the earliest student days in order to increase knowledge and attitudes towards dementia.

attitudes ; dementia ; knowledge ; medical students

nije evidentirano