Zeitschrift für Alzheimer-Krankheit und Parkinsonismus

Abstrakt

Knowledge of Alzheimer's Disease Among Health Care Providers and Medical Students in Sudan

Ismat Babiker, Awab K. Elnaeim, Mohamed K. Elnaeim, Awab H. Saad

Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess knowledge of Alzheimer's disease among medical students and healthcare providers in Sudan.

Methods: In this cross-sectional study conducted in Sudan from July to De­cember 2020, we used Google forms to collect data from 212 medical students and healthcare provid­ers using Alzheimer's Disease Knowledge Scale (ADKS). ADKS is a widely used validated instrument that measures what people know about Alzheimer's disease using a 30-item true/false questionnaire across seven critical knowledge domains: Risk factors, symptoms, assessment and diagnosis, disease trajectory, life impact, treatment, and management, and caregiving.

Results: Our studied population consisted of doctors (n=106), medical students (n=23), Nursing staff (n=09), and other hospital staff (n=74). 76.9% were females. When rating their knowledge from 0 to 10, our participants' mean value was 5.3 ± 2.1. Regarding ADKS, the mean knowledge score (out of 30) is 20.6 ± 2.8. Regarding ADKS domains, the best average scores were treatment and management 86.8%, followed by life impact 78.3%, assessment, and diagnosis 72.4%, course 71.5%, symptoms 62.7%, caregiving 59.2%, and risk factors 59%. We did not detect any significant association between the average overall score, occupation, source of infor­mation, or having a relative with Alzheimer's disease.

Conclusion: Specific knowledge deficits were observed in domains focusing on risk factors, symptoms, and caregiving for Alzheimer's disease.