Knowledge and perception of dementia among healthcare professionals working in lagos, South West Nigeria: An online survey

Title : Knowledge and perception of dementia among healthcare professionals working in lagos, South West Nigeria: An online survey

Abstract:

Dementia remains a long term neurological disease condition and continue to get maximum attention in most advanced countries. In a developing Country-Lagos state Nigeria, an online survey was created to evaluate the knowledge and perception of dementia among health care workers using a validated dementia knowledge scale (DKAS) which was randomly sampled to 200 healthcare workers. Respondents provided detailed additional information of the disease, their experiences and also demographic information. The measured outcome on the dementia knowledge assessment scale was very low when compared to similar international cohort studies in most advanced countries. Knowledge of dementia disease condition was positively correlated with dementia education in this study and which was virtually lacking in most health facilities visited. In addition, this dementia education deficiency is also positively correlated with dementia differentiation, symptoms, perception and subsequent treatment. The overall result shows the need for policy shift and need for dementia education among our health work force.

Take Away Notes:

• Understanding of dementia Knowledge scale (DKAS)

• Break down of dementia knowledge by profession in Lagos, south west Nigeria

• Result outcome, interpretation and suggestion for improvement

Biography:

Afolakemi Olaleye is a young nurse practitioner/ researcher based in the south western part of Nigeria and working at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Lagos, Nigeria. From very early in life, she has shown her love for caring and nursing, leading her to study nursing and later midwifery as a profession. Her higher degree started at University of Winneba, Ghana and has led her to greater pursuit in the field of nursing and evidence based quality care. A Olaleye has been involved in lots of researches’ mostly surrounding her area of interest- evidence based nursing care in low resource communities. On the nursing professional front, she is passionate about providing client- centred quality and cost effective nursing care. She is a member of the National association of Nigerian nurses & midwives and other professional organisation. She enjoys gardening and trying new recipes in her spare time.