Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of dementia literacy, internal health locus of control, and fear of dementia on dementia-preventive behaviors among middle-aged people with chronic diseases. The participants were middle-aged individuals with chronic diseases who had been taking medications for at least three months, recruited using convenience sampling. A total of 123 participants were recruited between 13 and 31 March 2020, using self-reported questionnaires. Data were then analyzed through independent t-test, one-way ANOVA, Pearson’s correlation coefficient, and multiple linear regression using the SPSS/WIN 25.0. The results showed that health condition perceived as healthy and dementia literacy were the leading factors influencing dementia-preventive behaviors. These variables showed a 16% explanatory power for dementia-preventive behaviors. Therefore, when the participants’ perceived health condition was healthy and the dementia literacy score was higher, the level of dementia-preventive behaviors was also higher. It is necessary to develop educational programs to increase dementia literacy as a major variable in dementia-preventive behaviors, and further research on its efficacy should be conducted. When providing dementia-preventive education programs to middle-aged people who have been exposed to chronic diseases, it is necessary to consider their level of perceived health condition and dementia literacy.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 2936 |
| Pages (from-to) | 1-9 |
| Number of pages | 9 |
| Journal | International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health |
| Volume | 18 |
| Issue number | 6 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2 Mar 2021 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
Keywords
- Dementia
- Fear of dementia
- Health behavior
- Health literacy
- Locus of control
- Middle-aged