Awareness about Alzheimer's Disease and the Prevalence of its Preventive Behaviors among Elderly Referred to Health Centers in Tehran, 2012

Background: Alzheimer's disease is a chronic progressive disease disturbing cognitive, perceptual and behavioral functioning of elderly and affects their quality of life. The aim of this study was to determine the awareness and performance of elderly referred to health centers of Tehran 6th district in regard to Alzheimer's disease and its prevention. Methods: This was a descriptive and analytical cross-sectional study in which the awareness and performance of 363 elderly visiting the health centers of Tehran 6th district in regard to Alzheimer's disease was evaluated. Data were collected through a researcher-made questionnaire including 28 questions. The reliability and validity of the questionnaire were evaluated and the questionnaires were completed by trained persons. Data were analyzed using descriptive and analytic statistical methods and through SPSS16 software. Results: Mean age of subjects was 69.7 (SD=7.1) years. From all, 201 ones (55.4%) had the necessary knowledge about Alzheimer’s disease and its prevention and 105 ones (28.9%) had good preventive behavior. Mean score of preventive behavior was 1.0 (SD=0.9) in males and 1.3 (SD=1.2) in females that shows significant difference between the two sexes. Conclusion: Based on the obtained results that show inadequate performance of subjects, implementing health educational programs is necessary to improve the performance of elderly in control of Alzheimer’s disease. Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease, Elderly, Knowledge, Preventive behavior