Fear of Dementia among Middle-Aged and Older Adults in Germany.

INTRODUCTION

The objective of this study was to clarify the frequency of fear of dementia and the factors associated with it.

METHODS

Data were taken from a nationally representative sample ( = 4,000; average age was 54.9 years, SD: 8.5 years, age ranges from 40 to 70 years, 49.6% of the respondents were women). Similar to prior research, fear of dementia was quantified using a tool ranging from 1 (no fear of dementia) to 4 (severe fear of dementia).

RESULTS

In sum, 19.0% reported no fear of dementia, 34.6% reported a little fear of dementia, 33.8% reported some fear of dementia, and 12.7% reported severe fear of dementia. Regressions showed that greater fear of dementia was significantly associated with being female, being younger, poorer self-rated health, the presence of at least one chronic disease, not living in the same household with a partner or not being in a relationship at all, having depressive symptoms and anxiety symptoms.

CONCLUSION

Study findings showed that fear of dementia is particularly associated with health-related factors, age and gender. Lifestyle factors and other socioeconomic factors were only occasionally significant. Future research should explore the reasons for such a higher frequency of people's fear of dementia. It would also be interesting to find out new factors associated with the fear of dementia. Furthermore, further research could focus on cross-country comparisons and could stratify the results by important groups, e.g., by sex or education, but also cultural and ethnic aspects.