Older Primary Care Patients’ Attitudes and Willingness to Screen for Dementia
Table 2
Bivariate comparison of the sociodemographic characteristics and experience with Alzheimer’s disease of study participants who accepted and refused screening for dementiaa at St. Vincent Health and Community Health Network.
St. Vincent Health ()
Community Health Network ()
Number (%) accepted
Number (%) refused
value
Number (%) accepted
Number (%) refused
value
Overall
173 (62.2)
105 (37.8)
78 (63.9)
44 (36.1)
Age, years
0.780
0.071
65–69
55 (61.8)
34 (38.2)
19 (76.0)
6 (24.0)
70–74
39 (68.4)
18 (31.6)
18 (66.7)
9 (33.3)
75–79
34 (59.6)
23 (40.4)
16 (66.7)
8 (33.3)
≥80
45 (61.6)
28 (38.4)
25 (54.4)
21 (45.6)
Gender
0.844
0.292
Female
115 (61.8)
71 (38.2)
60 (66.7)
30 (33.3)
Male
58 (63.0)
34 (37.0)
18 (56.2)
14 (43.8)
Race
0.541
0.748
White
137 (63.1)
80 (36.9)
75 (63.6)
43 (36.4)
African American
35 (60.3)
23 (39.7)
2 (66.3)
1 (33.3)
Other
1 (33.3)
2 (66.7)
1 (100.0)
0 (0.0)
Education, years
0.007
0.814
0–11
3 (25.0)
9 (75.0)
10 (66.7)
5 (33.3)
≥12
170 (63.9)
96 (36.1)
68 (63.6)
39 (36.4)
Housing status
0.733
0.063
Living alone
57 (61.3)
36 (38.7)
29 (54.7)
24 (45.3)
Living with someone
116 (63.4)
67 (36.6)
49 (71.0)
20 (29.0)
Marital status
0.550
0.865
Married
98 (63.6)
56 (36.4)
37 (67.3)
18 (32.7)
Widowed
48 (61.5)
30 (38.5)
33 (62.3)
20 (37.7)
Divorced
17 (53.1)
15 (46.9)
6 (60.0)
4 (40.0)
Never married
9 (75.0)
3 (25.0)
2 (50.0)
2 (50.0)
Income ()
0.122
0.205
<$10,000
5 (62.5)
3 (37.5)
4 (80.0)
1 (20.0)
$10,000–$19,999
18 (52.9)
16 (47.1)
15 (75.0)
5 (25.0)
$20,000–$39,999
41 (73.2)
15 (26.8)
20 (52.6)
18 (47.4)
≥$40,000
73 (73.7)
26 (26.3)
25 (71.4)
10 (28.6)
Do you have a relative or friend with Alzheimer’s disease?
0.003
0.074
No
83 (54.2)
70 (45.8)
44 (57.9)
32 (42.1)
Yes
89 (71.8)
35 (28.2)
34 (73.9)
12 (26.1)
Do you believe that you are at higher risk of Alzheimer’s disease than others of your same age?
0.106
0.511
No
144 (61.0)
92 (39.0)
69 (62.7)
41 (37.3)
Yes
27 (75.0)
9 (25.0)
8 (72.7)
3 (27.3)
Do you think you have more memory problems than others of your same age?
0.653
0.896
No
158 (61.7)
98 (38.3)
73 (64.0)
41 (36.0)
Yes
14 (66.7)
7 (33.3)
4 (66.7)
2 (33.3)
Has a doctor told you that you have memory problems?
0.917
0.679
No
170 (62.3)
103 (37.7)
77 (64.2)
43 (35.8)
Yes
3 (60.0)
2 (40.0)
1 (50.0)
1 (50.0)
Are you taking medication to help with memory?
0.821
0.679
No
169 (62.1)
103 (37.9)
77 (64.2)
43 (35.8)
Yes
4 (66.7)
2 (33.3)
1 (50.0)
1 (50.0)
Because our early work indicated that patients more readily understood the term “Alzheimer’s disease” than the term “dementia,” in this study we used Alzheimer’s disease as a proxy for dementia.
