Efficacy of an 8-hour education intervention on dementia knowledge, attitude and skills in healthcare professionals in regional hospitals: a nation-wide study from Uganda.

Journal: The Pan African medical journal

Volume: 44

Issue: 

Year of Publication: 2023

Affiliated Institutions:  KU Leuven, Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, Leuven, Belgium. Kyambogo University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Kampala, Uganda. Butabika National Referral Mental Health Hospital, Kampala, Uganda. Division of Mental Health, Ministry of Health, Kampala, Uganda. KU Leuven, Leuven Brain Institute, Department of Neurosciences, Leuven, Belgium.

Abstract summary 

dementia imposes an enormous burden, mainly in low-income countries (LICs). Due to lack of well-trained healthcare professionals, 70-90% of people with dementia do not receive adequate care in LICs. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether a one-day, 8-hour medical education intervention on dementia care improves the knowledge and attitude about and confidence in providing dementia care among healthcare professionals in 8 referral hospitals in Uganda in this pre-test/post-test study without a control group, participants completed the Alzheimer´s Disease Knowledge Scale (ADKS), Dementia Care Attitude Scale (DCAS), and 9 visual analogue scales (VAS) regarding confidence in specific dementia care skills pre- and post-medical education intervention.in one hundred twelve healthcare professionals (age = 41.7±10.2 years; 54.5% women), the ADKS, DCAS, and VAS scores for recognizing and assessing core dementia symptoms, communicating effectively, providing psycho-education, activating patients mentally and physically, managing behavioral and psychological symptoms, and involving carers in the treatment improved significantly (P < 0.001) post-medical education intervention.our study demonstrates that brief educational interventions are efficacious in strengthening the dementia literacy among healthcare professionals in a low-income country. Future research should explore whether such brief educational interventions also result in implementation of efficacious dementia care into routine clinical practice and whether it ultimately may lead to improved health outcomes in patients and formal and informal caregivers.

Authors & Co-authors:  Vancampfort Davy D Mugisha James J Kimbowa Samuel S Lukwata Hafsa H Van Damme Tine T Vandenbulcke Mathieu M

Study Outcome 

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Statistics
Citations :  Livingston G, Huntley J, Sommerlad A, Ames D, Ballard C, Banerjee S, et al. Dementia prevention, intervention, and care: 2020 report of the Lancet Commission. The Lancet. 2020 Aug 8;396(10248):413–446. Epub 2020 Jul 30.
Authors :  6
Identifiers
Doi : 165
SSN : 1937-8688
Study Population
Male,Female
Mesh Terms
Humans
Other Terms
Competences;dementia;education;low-income country
Study Design
Case Control Trial,Cross Sectional Study
Study Approach
Country of Study
Uganda
Publication Country
Uganda