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Attitudes, knowledge and beliefs about dementia: focus group discussions with Pakistani adults in Karachi and Lahore

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2019

Nicolas Farina Open the ORCID record for Nicolas Farina [Opens in a new window] ,
Asghar Zaidi ,
Rosalind Willis Open the ORCID record for Rosalind Willis [Opens in a new window]  and
Sara Balouch
Nicolas Farina*
Affiliation:
Centre for Dementia Studies, Brighton and Sussex Medical School, Brighton, UK
Asghar Zaidi
Affiliation:
Centre for Research on Ageing, Social Sciences, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK Department of Social Welfare, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea
Rosalind Willis
Affiliation:
Centre for Research on Ageing, Social Sciences, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK
Sara Balouch
Affiliation:
Centre for Dementia Studies, Brighton and Sussex Medical School, Brighton, UK School of Health, BPP University, London, UK
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

Pakistan is a lower middle-income country, which to date has had very little research and policy making to address the challenge of dementia. This study aims to explore the perceptions of dementia in a group of Pakistani adults. A series of focus group discussions were completed during 2017 with men and women in two metropolitan centres in Pakistan (Lahore and Karachi) (N = 40). Two vignettes, depicting someone with mild dementia and someone with severe dementia, were used to facilitate discussions. An induction-led thematic analysis was completed. Five themes were identified, reflecting (a) dementia awareness, (b) responsibility, (c) barriers to health care, (d) identified support needs, and (e) religion. Most participants had little awareness and knowledge about dementia, commonly understood to be a disease of forgetting or just normal ageing. Thus, there is an urgent need of a nation-wide campaign to raise dementia awareness in Pakistan, though this needs to be accompanied by improved, accessible health and social care services.

Keywords

awarenessstigmacognitive impairmentlower-middle incomereligion
Type
Article
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 40 , Issue 12 , December 2020 , pp. 2558 - 2573
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019

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