Can attitudes of students with little interest in dementia be changed by university classes?

We offer a class at university that teaches students understanding and support for people with dementia. The purpose of this study is to examine the effectiveness of the class in promoting concern among students for people with dementia. We analyzed pre-test and post-test responses for 35 student subjects and found that, regardless of initial degree of interest in dementia, the students taking the class became more knowledgeable of dementia, and their attitudes toward people with dementia markedly improved. The results suggest that general college or university education classes could contribute to better regional support systems for people with dementia