Department of Community Mental Health, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel.
Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, USA.
BMC Geriatr. 2020 Mar 14;20(1):104. doi: 10.1186/s12877-020-1505-4.
Research in the area of public stigma and Alzheimer's disease (AD) is limited to examining stigmatic beliefs towards persons aged 65 and over (i.e., persons with late-onset dementia). The aim of the present study was to compare college students' stigmatic attributions towards an older and a younger person with AD, using an attributional model of stigma.
A cross-sectional study was conducted with 375 college students (mean age = 25.5, 58.9% female, 64.3% Jewish) who answered a computerized, self-administered, structured questionnaire after being presented with one of two randomly distributed vignettes varying in the age of the person with AD - 80 or 50 years of age. Cognitive, emotional and behavioral attributions of stigma were assessed using an adapted version of the Attribution Questionnaire. Other variables examined included background information, experiences and concerns about developing AD. T-tests and Ordinary Least Square (OLS) hierarchical regressions were used to analyze results.
Similar to previous studies, students' levels of dementia stigma were low to moderate. Negative attributions were consistently and significantly higher (β = .17 to .33, p < .01), and positive attributions were significantly lower (β = -.26, p < .01) when the target person was younger rather than older.
The differences in stigmatic beliefs towards a younger and older person with AD point to the theoretical and practical importance of clearly stating the age of the target person in stigma studies as well as in programs aimed at reducing public stigma towards persons with AD.
公众污名化与阿尔茨海默病（AD）领域的研究仅限于检验人们对 65 岁及以上人群（即迟发性痴呆患者）的污名化观念。本研究的目的是使用污名归因模型，比较大学生对患有 AD 的老年人和年轻人的污名归因。
采用横断面研究设计，对 375 名大学生（平均年龄 25.5 岁，女性占 58.9%，64.3%为犹太人）进行了研究。他们在回答一个电脑化、自我管理的结构化问卷时，被呈现了两个随机分配的情景，一个情景中的 AD 患者年龄为 80 岁，另一个情景中的 AD 患者年龄为 50 岁。使用经过改编的归因问卷评估认知、情感和行为的污名归因。还检查了其他变量，包括背景信息、对患 AD 的经历和担忧。使用 t 检验和普通最小二乘法（OLS）分层回归分析结果。
与之前的研究相似，学生的痴呆症污名水平较低至中等。当目标人群较年轻而非年长时，负性归因始终显著更高（β=0.17 至 0.33，p<.01），而正性归因显著更低（β=-.26，p<.01）。
对患有 AD 的年轻和年长个体的污名化信念存在差异，这表明在污名研究以及旨在减少公众对 AD 患者污名化的项目中，明确指出目标人群的年龄具有理论和实践重要性。
