The Paul Baerwald School of Social Work and Social Welfare, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel.
Department of Community Mental Health, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel.
J Cross Cult Gerontol. 2024 Mar;39(1):73-88. doi: 10.1007/s10823-023-09494-2. Epub 2023 Dec 19.
The body of knowledge regarding dementia worry - people's sense of threat about developing dementia - is still limited. Additional studies are essential to better understand levels of dementia worry and its correlates, especially in cross-cultural contexts. To reach this goal, it is critical to use structured and valid measures to assess dementia worry and to verify these measures in different languages. Therefore, the aim of the current study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Hebrew version of the Modified Dementia Worry Scale (the H-MDWS). A cross-sectional study using an online survey was conducted with 368 Israeli laypeople who were 18 years of age or older (53% women, 76% Jewish, mean age = 40, average years of education = 14). In addition to the H-MDWS, participants were asked to report their fear of Alzheimer's disease (using a dichotomous single item), stigma, health anxiety, and demographic characteristics. Reliability analyses showed that the Cronbach's alpha for the H-MDWS was excellent (α = 0.95). The results of the factor analysis demonstrated that the scale has a unidimensional structure, explaining over 66% of the variance. In addition, we found significant correlations between fear of developing Alzheimer's disease, stigma, and health anxiety, on the one hand, and the H-MDWS on the other. The H-MDWS is a reliable and valid tool for assessing dementia worry. The validation of the tool not only allows expanding the body of knowledge related to dementia worry, but will also allow professionals and caregivers to identify people who are at risk of reporting dementia worry and develop interventions accordingly.
关于痴呆症担忧（人们对患痴呆症的威胁感）的知识体系仍然有限。需要进一步的研究来更好地理解痴呆症担忧的水平及其相关因素，尤其是在跨文化背景下。为了实现这一目标，使用结构化和有效的测量工具来评估痴呆症担忧并在不同语言中验证这些工具是至关重要的。因此，本研究的目的是评估希伯来语版修正痴呆症担忧量表（希伯来语版 H-MDWS）的心理测量特性。采用在线调查的横断面研究，共纳入 368 名 18 岁及以上的以色列普通民众（53%为女性，76%为犹太人，平均年龄为 40 岁，平均受教育年限为 14 年）。除 H-MDWS 外，参与者还被要求报告他们对阿尔茨海默病的恐惧（使用二分类单项）、污名化、健康焦虑和人口统计学特征。可靠性分析显示，H-MDWS 的 Cronbach's alpha 值非常高（α=0.95）。因子分析的结果表明，该量表具有单一维度结构，可解释超过 66%的方差。此外，我们发现对患阿尔茨海默病的恐惧、污名化和健康焦虑与 H-MDWS 之间存在显著相关性。H-MDWS 是评估痴呆症担忧的可靠和有效的工具。该工具的验证不仅可以扩展与痴呆症担忧相关的知识体系，还可以帮助专业人员和护理人员识别出可能报告痴呆症担忧的风险人群，并相应地制定干预措施。
