Makara Journal of Health Research
Vol. 28, No. 1

Investigating Nursing Students’ Levels of Knowledge about Alzheimer’s Disease

Kondakci, Dilek Doruk (Unknown)
Mandiracioğlu, Aliye (Unknown)



Article Info

Publish Date
30 Apr 2024

Abstract

Background: Given that Alzheimer’s disease (AD) has become a major public health problem, this study aimed to investigate the AD knowledge level of nursing students who are health professional candidates. Methods: The population of this cross-sectional study consisted of 346 nursing students taking up a 4-year program. They were asked to fill out a sociodemographic information form and answer questions from the Alzheimer’s Disease Knowledge Scale (ADKS). Results: Among the participants, 67.6% were female and 98.8% were single. The mean age of the students was 20.55 ± 2.05 years. Their general knowledge about AD was low, with a mean ADKS score of 17.6 ± 2.85. The scores of the 4th year students (p = 0.035) and those who received education about the disease beforehand (p = 0.015) were statistically significantly higher than those of the other participants (p < 0.05). No significant relationship with ADKS score was observed for the factors of gender, whether they had elderly relatives, and whether they visited nursing homes. Conclusions: The participating students had a low level of knowledge about AD. Increasing disease-specific education and practices for nursing students and including discussions on AD in compulsory courses is necessary to fill in the knowledge gaps.

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Journal Info

Abbrev

publication:mjhr

Publisher

Subject

Description

Makara Journal of Health Research (MJHR) is a peer-reviewed and scientific journal published by Universitas Indonesia. Starting from 2019 onwards, MJHR is redirecting its scope, focusing on publishing research articles relevant to non-communicable diseases (NCDs) addressing issues of surveillance, ...