Perceived Stigma Against Alzheimer’s Disease in the Turkish Population

Abstract

Objective: Cognitive, behavioral, and psychiatric disorders that are associated with dementia cause stigma against Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in patients and caregivers as well as in healthy individuals in public. To the best of our knowledge, stigma against AD is not investigated in the Turkish population; therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the stigma of healthy Turkish people according to their demographic characteristics. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional observational study included a total of 439 healthy participants without any history of neurological and/or systemic disease. Demographic characteristics and AD-related knowledge of participants were recorded. A 10-item questionnaire survey was applied to the participants to assess the stigmatization against AD. Factors associated with the stigma score were evaluated in regression analysis. Results: This study included 253 males and 186 females (mean age: 35.7±9.8 years). Most of them had knowledge about AD (94.3%). Only 18.5% had a family history of AD, and 65% were married. Of 439 persons, 95 (21.6%) worked in healthcare fields. Of the healthy participants, 60.6% had a moderate-high stigma against AD. The mean stigma score was 8.95±4.79. The total stigma scores were higher in females and singles (p=0.001 and p