Awareness of putative risk factors for Alzheimer's disease among elderly Koreans.
OBJECTIVE
Although there are rapidly growing concerns about the high rates of cognitive dysfunction in Korea, the knowledge of risk factors for Alzheimer's disease (AD) among the general public in Korea remains to be elucidated.


METHODS
A total of 2767 randomly selected subjects from the Ansan Geriatric Study were questioned on their knowledge of putative risk factors for AD. Their answers were compared with their sociodemographic data and other variables.


RESULTS
The most common stated risk factor was being older (59.6%), followed by head trauma (33.6%) and cerebrovascular disease (30.4%). However, a substandard education, which is a known risk factor, was considered significant by only 9.5% of the subjects. Predictors for a worse knowledge of the risk factors for AD were being older, a lower level of education, lower economic status and the attitude that dementia is not curable.


CONCLUSIONS
This study revealed that misunderstanding about AD is more prevalent in older subjects and those with a lower level of education, and so public health education on the basic concepts of AD should be targeted at this population.
1Department of Neurology, Korea University Medical College, 516 Gojan-1-dong, Danwon-gu, Ansan-si, Gyeonggi-do 425-707, Republic of Korea.
Moon Ho
MH
Park
3Center for Biomedical Sciences, National Institute of Health, 194 Tongillo, Eunpyung-gu, Seoul 122-701, Republic of Korea.
Sangmee Ahn
SA
Jo
3Center for Biomedical Sciences, National Institute of Health, 194 Tongillo, Eunpyung-gu, Seoul 122-701, Republic of Korea.
Inho
I
Jo
3Center for Biomedical Sciences, National Institute of Health, 194 Tongillo, Eunpyung-gu, Seoul 122-701, Republic of Korea.
Eunkyung
E
Kim
3Center for Biomedical Sciences, National Institute of Health, 194 Tongillo, Eunpyung-gu, Seoul 122-701, Republic of Korea.
Eun Kyung
EK
Woo
3Center for Biomedical Sciences, National Institute of Health, 194 Tongillo, Eunpyung-gu, Seoul 122-701, Republic of Korea.
Sung-Soo
SS
Kim
3Center for Biomedical Sciences, National Institute of Health, 194 Tongillo, Eunpyung-gu, Seoul 122-701, Republic of Korea.
Su-Yong
SY
Eun
2The Geriatric Health Clinic and Research Institute, Korea University Medical Center, 516 Gojan-1-dong, Danwon-gu, Ansan-si, Gyeonggi-do 425-707, Republic of Korea.
Changsu
C
Han
1Department of Neurology, Korea University Medical College, 516 Gojan-1-dong, Danwon-gu, Ansan-si, Gyeonggi-do 425-707, Republic of Korea.
Min Kyu
MK
Park