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K
nowledge
and
attitudes
towards
dementia
among
final
-
year
medical
students
in
B
razil
R
ev
A
ssoc
M
ed
B
ras
2017; 63(4):366-370
367
In Brazil, the National Policy for the Elderly has
among its main guidelines the promotion of healthy ag-
ing including assistance to obtain specific necessities for
the health of the elderly together with training of special-
ized human resources. Despite this law, there is a notori-
ous lack of professionals with specialized training for
attending the demands of this population.
9
The Brazilian government has invested in the reorga-
nization of basic medical attention, trying to make aca-
demic products (professionals, knowledge and services)
adequate for social needs.
10
In this context, the present study aimed to evaluate
the knowledge about dementia and students’ attitude
towards it during the last semester of the medical course
in two of the most important Brazilian medical schools.
M
ethod
The project was approved by the Committee for Research
Ethics of the two institutions involved.
A sample of 189 students included 74 students from
Faculdade de Medicina de Botucatu, São Paulo State Uni-
versity (FMB-Unesp), and 115 from Escola Paulista de
Medicina, Federal University of São Paulo (EPM-Unifesp).
Five students from FMB-Unesp were lost (who did not
sign the Free and Informed Consent Term), as well as 29
students from EPM-Unifesp (ten with whom contact could
not be made and 19 who alleged lack of time for data col-
lection). The final sample included 155 (89%) students, 69
from FMB-Unesp (93% of FMB population) and 86 from
EPM-Unifesp (75% of EPM population).
The inclusion criterion was to be properly enrolled
in the undergraduate medical course of one of the two
medical schools; there were no criteria for exclusion.
The participants were invited to answer three question-
naires: 1) Demographic and professional questionnaire de-
veloped by the researchers for this specific study, which de-
scribes the profile of medical training and their prior training
to detect cognitive alterations; 2) Questionnaire of the knowl-
edge of the physician with respect to cognitive alterations in
the elderly; and 3) Questionnaire on attitudes in dealing with
an elderly patient with dementia.
8,11
Questionnaires 2 and 3
were culturally adapted to Brazil and published elsewhere.
11
The responses to questionnaire 1 were displayed as
absolute and relative numbers. The frequencies of correct
responses regarding general knowledge (questions 1 to
14), epidemiological knowledge (questions 1 to 5), diag-
nostic knowledge (questions 6 to 11) and management
knowledge (questions 12 to 14) were obtained from ques-
tionnaire 2. Questionnaire 3 provided frequencies of re-
sponses for each question.
R
esults
The total of students evaluated was 155. Their mean age
was 25.20 at FMB-Unesp (SD = 1.8) and 25 years at EPM-
-Unifesp (SD = 1.8).
According to Table 1, 92 (59.74%) considered that they
had good training in cognitive alterations during their
undergraduate medical course, while 67 (58.8%) of them
declared having had only theoretical training. As to extra-
curricular courses, 142 (93.42%) reported taking them
during their undergraduate course.
According to Table 2, questions 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 11 and
12 yielded a higher percentage of correct answers. The
students obtained a mean of 6.9 points in the general
knowledge section of the questionnaire, based on a total
scoring scale from 0 to 14 points.
According to Table 3, the students agreed that they
can contribute to the quality of life of both patient and
caregiver, and that it is useful to provide the diagnosis to
the family.
D
iscussion
The present study is pioneering in the verification of the
knowledge about dementia and Brazilian medical students’
attitude towards it. We observed that most students re-
called having had good fundamental knowledge in cogni-
tive alterations during their undergraduate medical course,
which would have been essentially theoretical, while almost
all reported taking extracurricular courses on the subject
during their undergraduate course.
We did not find any research studies in the literature that
dealt with the study of knowledge and attitudes of students
in the final year of medical school regarding patients with
dementia. A single Brazilian study has investigated knowl-
edge and attitudes towards dementia by medical residents.
12
The results of our study regarding the profile of train-
ing received by the students during the medical course
contrast with other studies in the area, given that 92
(59.74%) of the students analyzed reported having received
good training in cognitive alterations, whereas in the
other studies, there was variation from 29 to 47.6%.
8,13,14
The medical students analyzed achieved a mean of 6.9
in the general score of the knowledge questionnaire (on a
scale ranging from 0 to 14 points), with the highest percent-
age of correct answers being in questions on epidemiology.
A study
15
from 2010 that compared general practitioners
who graduated in 1990 and those recently trained revealed
that, in general, the score of correct answers was low (between
zero and two out of 10 questions), observing that the gap
in graduation time did not determine significant differ-
ences in relation to knowledge in dementia. Similarly, an-