Older adults are less accurate than younger adults at identifying cardiovascular disease as a cause of dementia in the Chinese American community

This article presents a study which aims to show that Asian Americans, who tend to see dementia as a natural part of aging and are at an increased vulnerability to the stigma of mental illnesses, and minority groups tend to have a lower level of dementia literacy as compared with Caucasian Americans, which prevent Asian Americans from acquiring early diagnosis and treatment for dementia. This study targeted the Chinese American population to understand where the knowledge gap lies and compared dementia knowledge of elderly Chinese Americans with those of younger, who served as the control. The result of the study showed that both younger and older adults showed misconceptions that dementia is due to old age and cannot be treated, which is consistent with prior research. The study concluded that Chinese Americans, like the general Asian American community, are known to be poorly educated on the causes and treatments of dementia. The study revealed that the younger adults showed a significantly higher level of understanding that dementia could result from cardiovascular disease (CVD). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved).