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Discriminatory behavior of family physicians toward a person with Alzheimer's disease

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2008

Perla Werner  and
Shmuel M. Giveon
Perla Werner*
Affiliation:
Department of Gerontology, Faculty of Social Welfare and Health Sciences, University of Haifa, Israel
Shmuel M. Giveon
Affiliation:
Department of Family Practice, Sharon Shomron District, Clalit Health Services and Sackler School of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Israel
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: Professor Perla Werner, Department of Gerontology, Faculty of Social Welfare and Health Sciences, University of Haifa, Mt. Carmel, Haifa 31905, Israel. Phone: 972-4-8249565; Fax: 972-4-8249946. Email: werner@research.haifa.ac.il.
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Abstract

Background: It has been anecdotally suggested that health care professionals have stigmatic beliefs about persons with Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, the nature and prevalence of those beliefs have yet to be elucidated. The aim of the present study is to examine stigma towards a person with AD among primary care physicians.

Methods: A nationally representative sample of 501 family physicians (54.1% female, mean age = 49, mean years in the profession = 21) were interviewed using a computer-assisted telephone interview and a structured questionnaire based on an expanded version of attribution theory.

Results: The findings showed that physicians' discriminatory behavior was especially high in the dimension of avoidance and coercion, but low in the dimension of segregation. Two central emotions (anger-fear and pity) were found to affect participants' tendency to discriminate, as were attributions of dangerousness.

Conclusions: Addressing these factors may require targeted education of health professionals as well as the enforcement of anti-discrimination policies.

Keywords

discriminationstigmadementiaprimary care physicians
Type
Research Article
Information
International Psychogeriatrics , Volume 20 , Issue 4 , August 2008 , pp. 824 - 839
Copyright
© International Psychogeriatric Association 2008

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