阿茲海默症又稱退化性老年失智症，是一種漸進性腦部退化的疾病，好發於老年人。隨著人口快速老化，台灣已邁入高齡化社會，老年人的疾病日漸增多，因此阿茲海默症也成為重要研究課題之一。至目前為止針對民眾對此症認知的研究甚少，因此我們以結構式問卷針對台南市民眾對阿茲海默症的認知進行調查。認知內容包括四個部份：對阿茲海默症疾病的認識、阿茲海默症的徵兆與治療、對患者家屬的社會支援與正確預防阿茲海默症行為的暸解程度。
結果發現台南市民眾對於阿茲海默症疾病的認識、阿茲海默症的徵兆與治療的認知程度均不及格，認知最差的是社會對患者家屬的支援，正確比率僅有36%。正確預防阿茲海默症行為的暸解程度較高，但亦僅有61%。40歲以下或教育程度大學以上的民眾對阿茲海默症的認知顯著較高。
受訪民眾目前有家人罹患阿茲海默症的佔5.1%，其他親戚朋友的長輩有罹患阿茲海默症的佔10.2%。只有約兩成民眾在所接受的學校教育中曾介紹過阿茲海默症，高達85.9%的民眾認為應加強此方面的教育，而民眾覺得最需要阿茲海默症的相關資訊是如何預防罹患阿茲海默症。因此建議學校教育應儘速介入，以提升民眾對此症的認知。 Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), the major disease in dementia, also known as Senile Dementia, is found mainly in the elderly. As the senile population is blooming promptly, Taiwan encounters a greatly aging era, and AD becomes a challenge. To investigate the integral understanding of AD among people in Tainan city, we used a structured questionnaire which was composed of four domains: “dementia related knowledge”, “the sign and cure of AD”, “support for the family members” and “preventives for AD”.
Results showed that the understanding of AD was very low, even below 60%. The worst part was “social support for the family members”, the score was only 38%. Though the best part was “preventives for AD”, the score was 61%. People under 40 or above college had better knowledge of AD.
There were 5.1 % of people whose family had AD, and 10.2% whose elderly members of relatives or friends had AD. Only about 20% of people had learned AD in their academic education. Up to 85.9% of people were concerned with this issue, and believed that integral knowledge of AD should be added in academic education. The most needed information for AD was how to prevent suffering from this disease. Our results suggested schooling should intervene promptly for the education of AD so as to promote people’s cognition of AD.
