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A cross sectional survey on UK older adult’s attitudes to ageing, dementia and positive psychology attributes

Thelu, Madeleine; Webster, Bobbie; Jones, Katy; Orrell, Martin

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Authors

Madeleine Thelu

Bobbie Webster

Profile image of KATY JONES

Dr KATY JONES Katy.Jones@nottingham.ac.uk
Assistant Professor in Applied Psychology

MARTIN ORRELL M.ORRELL@NOTTINGHAM.AC.UK
Director - Institute of Mental Health



Abstract

Background
With an increasingly ageing population worldwide, the predominant attitude towards ageing is still negative. Negative stereotypes have detrimental effects on individuals’ physical and mental health. Evidence is required about factors that may predict and change these views. This study aimed to investigate if an older person’s attitude towards dementia, their belief in a just world and sense of coherence is associated with their attitudes to ageing.

Methods
A 25-min online survey was completed by 2,675 participants aged 50 or over who were current residents of the United Kingdom (UK). Questions included demographics, overall health, dementia carer, dementia relative status and retirement status. Standardised scales used were the Attitudes to Ageing Questionnaire (AAQ), Dementia Attitudes Scale (DAS), Just World Scale (JWS) and Sense of Coherence Scale-13 (SOC). Data was analysed with descriptive, two-tailed bivariate Pearson’s correlations, simple, and hierarchical regression analyses.

Results
Attitudes to dementia, just world beliefs, and sense of coherence were all significantly positively correlated with AAQ-Total, with SOC sub-scale “Meaningfulness” showing the strongest correlation. In a hierarchical regression model, higher scores on SOC-Meaningfulness, DAS-Total and belief in a just world for oneself all predicted more positive attitudes to ageing.

Conclusions
The more positive an individual’s attitude to dementia and the stronger they hold the belief that the world is just and coherent, the more likely they are to display positive attitudes to ageing. This initial evidence helps create a greater understanding of the factors that drive attitudes and stigma and may have implications for public health messaging.

Citation

Thelu, M., Webster, B., Jones, K., & Orrell, M. (2022). A cross sectional survey on UK older adult’s attitudes to ageing, dementia and positive psychology attributes. BMC Geriatrics, 22, Article 837. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12877-022-03539-w

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Oct 18, 2022
Online Publication Date Nov 5, 2022
Publication Date Nov 5, 2022
Deposit Date Jun 14, 2023
Publicly Available Date Jun 14, 2023
Journal BMC Geriatrics
Electronic ISSN 1471-2318
Publisher Springer Verlag
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 22
Article Number 837
DOI https://doi.org/10.1186/s12877-022-03539-w
Keywords Research, Ageing, Dementia, Attitudes, Belief in a just world, Sense of coherence, Positive psychology, Stigma
Public URL https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/13449689
Publisher URL https://bmcgeriatr.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12877-022-03539-w

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Publisher Licence URL
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Copyright Statement
Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.





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