title: [A survey on the attitudes and confidence of general practitioners in handling dementia and its related problems].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate general practitioners (GPs)' attitudes and confidence in handling dementia and its related problems.
  
  
  METHODS
  A questionnaire survey was conducted in GPs from Shanghai on 25th Sep, 2012. The questionnaire included the basic information of the GPs and their attitudes toward and confidence in handling dementia and its related problems.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 287 GPs from 73 hospitals participated in the survey.78.4% of them responded that they met fewer demented patients during their clinical practice and only 24.7% of them had attended some kinds of dementia-related knowledge training courses.Senior GPs were less enthusiastic than junior GPs in handling dementia and its related problems as they were more likely to think that dementia should be diagnosed by specialist (87.1% vs. 74.8%, OR = 2.28, 95%CI:1.14~4.57, P = 0.02), less likely to actively referral patients (22.0% vs. 10.1%, OR = 2.52, 95%CI:1.24~5.14, P = 0.01), and more likely to think about that GPs have very limited role in care of demented patients (9.7% vs. 0.7%, OR = 15.59, 95%CI:1.96~123.81, P = 0.00).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The GPs in Shanghai are lack of trainings about the dementia and its' related knowledge and their attitudes toward the care of dementia are pessimistic. Thus, it is necessary to train the GPs more to enhance their confidence and enthusiasm in care of dementia.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Ren Ji Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200127, China.
authors.forename: Ling
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Ren Ji Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200127, China.
authors.forename: Qun
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Ren Ji Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200127, China.
authors.forename: Zhi-ying
authors.initials: ZY
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Ren Ji Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200127, China.
authors.forename: Weng-wei
authors.initials: WW
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Ren Ji Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200127, China.
authors.forename: Jian-hua
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Mi
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Ren Ji Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200127, China. Email:lliyans@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Yan-sheng
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002681:China; D002983:Clinical Competence; D003704:Dementia / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005260:Female; D058005:General Practitioners / Q000523:psychology*; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires