Factors Affecting Intention to Undergo Dementia Screening

Background: In the present study, we focused on the main perception-related factors that affect people's intention to undergo dementia screening.

Methods: The 344 subjects that answered all the survey questions were included in the analysis. Data on the following variables were collected: Basic attributes such as age, sex, years of education, and number of people in the household; degree of intention to undergo dementia screening; degree of awareness of the seriousness of the consequences of dementia; degree of awareness that the person may someday develop dementia; degree of awareness of their ability to prevent dementia; availability of social support; degree of knowledge of lifestyle habits that can prevent dementia; role in the community and purpose in life.

Results: There were 110 people in the strong intention group and 234 people in the weak intention group. On univariate analysis, awareness of seriousness, awareness of morbidity, preventability, and knowledge of preventative lifestyle were statistically significant at a significance level of 5%, and these variables tended to be higher in the strong intention group as compared to that in the weak intention group. These were entered in the logistic regression analysis as the explanatory variables, and intention to undergo screening was entered as the objective variable. The results indicated that awareness of seriousness and knowledge of preventative lifestyle had significant influence on intention to undergo screening.

Conclusion: The above results suggested that to increase the intention to undergo dementia screening, psychoeducation that encourages people to understand the serious consequences of dementia, efforts to spread awareness of the risk factors for dementia, and promotion of lifestyle factors that are preventative may be effective.