Disclosure of the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease: caregivers' opinions in a Brazilian sample

Disclosure of the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) remains a contentious issue, and has been little studied in developing countries. To investigate the influence of socio-demographic factors and the experience of being a caregiver on opinion about disclosing AD diagnosis to the patient in...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Arquivos de neuro-psiquiatria 2008, Vol.66 (3B), p.625-630
Main Authors: Shimizu, Marta Maria, Raicher, I, Takahashi, Daniel Yasumasa, Caramelli, Paulo, Nitrini, Ricardo
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Alzheimer Disease - diagnosis
Alzheimer Disease - psychology
Attitude to Health
Caregivers - psychology
Disclosure - statistics & numerical data
Female
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
NEUROSCIENCES
PSYCHIATRY
Socioeconomic Factors
Surveys and Questionnaires
Young Adult
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Summary:Disclosure of the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) remains a contentious issue, and has been little studied in developing countries. To investigate the influence of socio-demographic factors and the experience of being a caregiver on opinion about disclosing AD diagnosis to the patient in a Brazilian sample. Caregivers of 50 AD patients together with 50 control participants that did not have the experience of being a caregiver of AD patient were interviewed using a structured questionnaire. Most of the participants (73.0%) endorsed disclosure of the diagnosis, while caregivers were less prone to disclose (58.0%) than controls (88.0%; p=0.0007). Logistic regression confirmed that only the experience of being a caregiver was associated with a lesser tendency for disclosure endorsement. The majority of participants was in favor of disclosing the diagnosis, but caregivers were less willing to disclose the diagnosis to the AD patient.
ISSN:0004-282X
1678-4227
1678-4227
0004-282X
DOI:10.1590/S0004-282X2008000500004