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A comparative study of the effect of the Time for Dementia programme on medical students

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posted on 2023-06-09, 23:15 authored by Sube Banerjee, Christopher Jones, Juliet Wright, Wendy Grosvenor, Molly HebditchMolly Hebditch, Leila Hughes, Yvonne Feeney, Nicolas Farina, Sophie Mackrell, Ramin Nilforooshan, Chris Fox, Stephen BremnerStephen Bremner, Stephanie DaleyStephanie Daley
Background Traditional healthcare education typically focuses on short block clinical placements based on acute care, investigations, and technical aspects of diagnosis and treatment. It may therefore fail to build the understanding, compassion, and person-centred empathy needed to help those with long-term conditions, like dementia. Time for Dementia was developed to address this. Method Parallel group comparison of two cohorts of UK medical students from universities, one participating in Time for Dementia (intervention group) and one not (control group). In Time for Dementia students visit a person with dementia and their family in pairs for two hours three times a year for two years, the control group received their normal curriculum. Results In an adjusted multilevel model of data (intervention group n=274, control n=112), there was strong evidence supporting improvements for Time for Dementia participants in: total Approaches to Dementia Questionnaire score (coefficient 2.19, p=0.003), and its person-centredness subscale (1.32, p=0.006), and weaker evidence in its hopefulness subscale (0.78, p=0.070); Dementia Knowledge Questionnaire score (1.63, p<0.001); and Dementia Attitudes Scale (total score 6.55, p<0.001; social comfort subscale 4.15, p<0.001; dementia knowledge subscale 3.38, p=0.001) scores. No differences were observed on the Alzheimer's Disease Knowledge Scale, the Medical Condition Regard Scale, or the Jefferson Scale of Empathy. Discussion Time for Dementia may help improve the attitudes of medical students towards dementia promoting a person-centred approach and increasing social comfort. Such patient-focused programmes may be a useful complement to traditional medical education.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Accepted version

Journal

International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry

ISSN

0885-6230

Publisher

Wiley

Issue

7

Volume

36

Page range

1011-1019

Department affiliated with

  • BSMS Neuroscience Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2021-03-10

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2022-03-09

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2021-03-10

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