Dataset Information

Does more education mean less disability in people with dementia? A large cross-sectional study in Taiwan.

ABSTRACT:

Background

WHO Disability Assessment Schedule 2.0 (WHODAS 2.0) is a feasible tool for assessing functional disability and analysing the risk of institutionalisation among elderly patients with dementia. However, the data for the effect of education on disability status in patients with dementia is lacking. The aim of this large-scale, population-based study was to analyse the effect of education on the disability status of elderly Taiwanese patients with dementia by using WHODAS 2.0.

Methods

From the Taiwan Data Bank of Persons with Disability, we enrolled 7698 disabled elderly (older than 65 years) patients diagnosed with dementia between July 2012 and January 2014. According to their education status, we categorised these patients with and without formal education (3849 patients each). We controlled for the demographic variables through propensity score matching. The standardised scores of these patients in the six domains of WHODAS 2.0 were evaluated by certified interviewers. Student's t-test was used for comparing the WHODAS 2.0 scores of patients with dementia in the two aforementioned groups. Poisson regression was applied for analysing the association among all the investigated variables.

Results

Patients with formal education had low disability status in the domains of getting along and social participation than did patients without formal education. Poisson regression revealed that standardised scores in all domains of WHODAS 2.0-except self-care-were associated with education status.

Conclusions

This study revealed lower disability status in the WHODAS 2.0 domains of getting along and social participation for patients with dementia with formal education compared with those without formal education. For patients with disability and dementia without formal education, community intervention of social participation should be implemented to maintain better social interaction ability.

SUBMITTER: Huang SW

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5566594 | biostudies-literature | 2017 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Does more education mean less disability in people with dementia? A large cross-sectional study in Taiwan.

Huang Shih-Wei SW Chi Wen-Chou WC Yen Chia-Feng CF Chang Kwang-Hwa KH Liao Hua-Fang HF Escorpizo Reuben R Chang Feng-Hang FH Liou Tsan-Hon TH

BMJ open 20170504 4

<h4>Background</h4>WHO Disability Assessment Schedule 2.0 (WHODAS 2.0) is a feasible tool for assessing functional disability and analysing the risk of institutionalisation among elderly patients with dementia. However, the data for the effect of education on disability status in patients with dementia is lacking. The aim of this large-scale, population-based study was to analyse the effect of education on the disability status of elderly Taiwanese patients with dementia by using WHODAS 2.0.<h4> ...[more]

PMID: 28473510

Similar Datasets

Project description:BackgroundSince the declaration of COVID-19 as a pandemic, all scientific medical activities were shifted to an online format, in the form of webinars, to maintain continuing medical education (CME). We aimed to assess physicians' attitude among different medical specialties towards this sudden and unexpected shift of traditional face-to-face meetings into webinars, and to suggest future recommendations.MethodsWe conducted a cross-sectional, internet-based survey study using a 25-item questionnaire, from November 1 and November 15, 2020. The survey was created and distributed to physicians from different medical and surgical specialties and from different countries via several social media platforms, using a snowball technique.ResultsA total of 326 physicians responded; 165 (50.6%) were females, mean age of responders was 38.7 ± 7.5 years. The majority of responses (93.2%) came from Arab countries. Of them, 195 (59.8%) reported attending more webinars compared to the same period last year, with average of 3 per month. As regard to the general impression; 244 (74.8%) were "strongly satisfied" or "satisfied", with the most satisfaction for "training courses: by 268 (82.2%), and "International conferences" by 218 (66.9%). However, 246 respondents (75.5%) felt overwhelmed with the number and frequency of webinars during the pandemic, 171 (52.5%) reported attending less than 25% of webinars they are invited to, 205 (62.8%) disagreed that webinars can replace in-person meetings after the pandemic, and 239 (73.3%) agreed that online meetings need proper regulations.ConclusionsWebinars comprised a major avenue for education during COVID-19 pandemic, with initial general satisfaction among physicians. However, this paradigm shift was sudden and lacked proper regulations. Despite initial satisfaction, the majority of physicians felt overwhelmed with the number and frequency of webinars. Physicians' satisfaction is crucial in planning future educational activities, and considering that this current crisis will most likely have long lasting effects, webinars should be viewed as complementing traditional in-person methods, rather than replacement. In this study, we are suggesting recommendations to help future regulation of this change.

Project description:Low education is considered an important modifiable risk factor for dementia worldwide, despite the lack of a formal consensus definition of low education. The primary aim of this systematic review was to document and address the inconsistency in measuring and operationalising education in dementia studies. A secondary aim was to consider the dose of education required to reduce dementia risk. The protocol was registered at PROSPERO with registration ID CRD42018096168. CINAHL, Cochrane, PsycInfo, and Pubmed databases were searched using terms related to education, dementia and/or MCI, and incidence. Studies were eligible for inclusion if a risk ratio for education and any dementia, Alzheimer's Disease (AD), Vascular Dementia (VaD) or Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) was reported in a population cognitively healthy at baseline. Sample sizes for 65 studies meeting selection criteria ranged from 152 to 12,881, representing populations from 24 countries. Risk of bias, assessed using a tool designed specifically for dementia risk studies, was found to be medium or low for all studies. There were 23 continuous, 29 dichotomous, and 31 categorical operationalisations of education reported. Random effects meta-analyses from continuous operationalisations suggested each year of education reduced risk by eight percent for AD (95% CI:5-12%) and seven percent for any dementia (95% CI:6-9%). Dichotomous operationalisations indicated an increased risk for low education of 45% (95% CI:29-63%) for any dementia and 85% (95% CI:56-118%) for AD, however definitions of low education were heterogeneous, ranging from zero to 12 years. There were too few studies to produce summary ratios for VaD or MCI. We conclude that, while the evidence of an association between low education and dementia incidence is robust, inconsistency in the definition, measurement and operationalisation of education hinders the translation of this evidence into practical policy recommendations to reduce dementia risk.

Project description:Animal group size distributions are often right-skewed, whereby most groups are small, but most individuals occur in larger groups that may also disproportionately affect ecology and policy. In this case, examining covariates associated with upper quantiles of the group size distribution could facilitate better understanding and management of large animal groups.We studied wintering elk groups in Wyoming, where group sizes span several orders of magnitude, and issues of disease, predation and property damage are affected by larger group sizes. We used quantile regression to evaluate relationships between the group size distribution and variables of land use, habitat, elk density and wolf abundance to identify conditions important to larger elk groups.We recorded 1263 groups ranging from 1 to 1952 elk and found that across all quantiles of group size, group sizes were larger in open habitat and on private land, but the largest effect occurred between irrigated and non-irrigated land [e.g. the 90th quantile group size increased by 135 elk (95% CI = 42, 227) on irrigation].Only upper quantile group sizes were positively related to broad-scale measures of elk density and wolf abundance. For wolf abundance, this effect was greater on elk groups found in open habitats and private land than those in closed habitats or public land. If we had limited our analysis to mean or median group sizes, we would not have detected these effects. Synthesis and applications. Our analysis of elk group size distributions using quantile regression suggests that private land, irrigation, open habitat, elk density and wolf abundance can affect large elk group sizes. Thus, to manage larger groups by removal or dispersal of individuals, we recommend incentivizing hunting on private land (particularly if irrigated) during the regular and late hunting seasons, promoting tolerance of wolves on private land (if elk aggregate in these areas to avoid wolves) and creating more winter range and varied habitats. Relationships to the variables of interest also differed by quantile, highlighting the importance of using quantile regression to examine response variables more completely to uncover relationships important to conservation and management.

Project description:BackgroundHealthcare professionals' attitudes to older people, and especially those living with dementia, may contribute to unsatisfactory healthcare. Despite repeated calls to address increasing need, training an adequate geriatric workforce remains an international concern. Of particular concern are the attitudes and knowledge healthcare workers may hold about people living with dementia. Students' knowledge of dementia has been found to be low at the beginning of their university education and has shown limited improvement throughout their coursework; greater understanding of students' attitudes to ageing and dementia, upon entry and throughout their degrees, may help inform targeted educational interventions to improve the healthcare delivered to older people.MethodsThis study measured knowledge of and attitudes toward dementia and ageing in an Australian university student sample (n = 183), comparing students from medical professional versus non-medical professional related fields at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. We examined diagnostic and prognostic biases through age manipulation of a vignette describing a hypothetical patient (aged 42 or 72 years), who was experiencing symptoms that were consistent with DSM-5 criteria for both dementia and depression. Based on information provided in the vignette, student participants were asked to select a primary disorder that they would assign to the patient.ResultsShowed that while medical professional students held significantly more positive attitudes toward ageing than 'other' students, average attitudinal scores indicated neutrality. Medical professional students indicated a diagnostic bias toward the older vignette patient, who was more likely to be diagnosed with dementia than depression. A history of geriatric-specific training did not predict dementia knowledge; however, having prior contact with people with dementia predicted both dementia knowledge and more positive prognoses.ConclusionsOverall, findings indicated medical professional students held neutral attitudes towards older people and showed deficits in knowledge of dementia. Educational interventions that introduce students to people living with dementia may improve knowledge, skills, and attitudes. All university students would benefit from education about dementia and inclusivity to reduce stereotyping and stigma.

Dataset Information

Does more education mean less disability in people with dementia? A large cross-sectional study in Taiwan.

Background

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Publications

Does more education mean less disability in people with dementia? A large cross-sectional study in Taiwan.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets