Attitude Towards Alzheimer's Disease Among Undergraduate Students of University of the West Indies, Trinidad and Tobago.

BACKGROUND: Alzheimer's disease is most common among the dementias and is characterized by gradual declines in functional and cognitive abilities. Caregivers including family members play a key role in providing critically needed care for these patients. OBJECTIVE: This study compared the knowledge and attitudes of pre-healthcare and non-medical undergraduate students towards patients with Alzheimer's disease. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted involving quota sampling of 691 undergraduate students (369 pre-healthcare and 322 non-medical). A 28-item questionnaire was utilised comprising of closed-ended questions and some based on a scale rating. The students' knowledge of Alzheimer's disease was arranged into categories such as: 0 for no knowledge about Alzheimer's disease, 1 for very little knowledge about Alzheimer's disease, 2 for fair knowledge about Alzheimer's disease and 3 for great knowledge about Alzheimer's disease. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: The data was analysed using the computer software SPSS and the Chi squared test of independence was also used to determine which knowledge variables were independent of student's status. RESULTS: Overall, 40.01% of the students have great or fair knowledge of Alzheimer's disease, with that of pre-healthcare students being satisfactory (54.47%). Pre-healthcare students have a more positive attitude towards Alzheimer's disease and 82.2% of students wished to take advantage of predictive test for Alzheimer's disease. Age and genetics were identified as risk factors of the disease. CONCLUSION: Pre-healthcare students had greater understanding of Alzheimer's disease and depicted a more empathetic and caring attitude towards patients. This can be attributed mainly to their knowledge and exposure toward the disease.

The church's response to sexual reproductive health issues among youths: Jamaica's experience.

This study evaluated the response of religious denominations to sexual reproductive health issues among youths using a close-ended, structured, 32-item questionnaire and an interview. The majority (71% men, 71% women) of the respondents attended church regularly; were unmarried (92% men, 83% women); were sexually active (71% men, 45% women); used drugs (65% men, 62% women). The majority of the respondents (46% men, 63% women) were reprimanded and/or ostracized by the Church. The findings suggest that issues encompassing sexuality and drugs among youth do not resonate well with the conventional religious practice of the Church, hence a significant incidence of ostracism and the likelihood of premarital sex and drug use.

Report on the conference on ageing: maturing at a healthy pace: appreciating the older years, March 31-April 1, 1999, Eric Williams' Medical Sciences Complex, Mt. Hope

The conference organizers, ... had the following as the main conference objectives: (i) the formulation of strategies which would positively influence the main factors impacting on the life of older persons (ii) the dissemination of information about positive ways in which the needs of the elderly are being approached (iii) the creation of a policy on ageing which would embrace a gender-sensitive approach to the delivery of services (Executive Summary)

Women's health: hormone replacement therapy - what women know and do about it

The aims of the study reported on in this paper were to determine the health status of a group of Trinidadian women age 40-64 years; to ascertain how informed they were about the "change of life", and determine the sources from which they had received their information. The study also sought to discover what women knew about hormone replacement therapy(HRT) and what had been their personal experience of it. Data for this study were obtained through self administered questionnaires to fifty (50) women. The women were chosen, half from a working class community and the others from a middle class commumnity in urban Trinidad. The women were chosen by simple quota sampling which sought to select women in the age group 40-64. The questionnaires were self administered. Additional data were gathered from discussions held in three focus groups, with approximately ten women in each group. Discussions were also held with two physicians and two pharmaceutical representatives to attempt to gain information on the role of professionals like themselves in the promotion of HRT in Trinidad. The research showed the majority of the women reporting themselves to be in good health. In relation to hormone replacement therapy, the middle-class women were significantly more informed than were the working-class. The women's knowledge of HRT though was not reflected in their patterns of usage

Transformations in maternity services in Jamaica

Analysis of the current organization and delivery of maternity care in Jamaica profits not only from an assessment of recent health issues but from considerations of the development of maternity services over the past century. Historical analysis indicates that a critical element in public health policy has been the effort to encourage use of biomedical obstetrical care and to eliminate the lay midwife. However, while women increasingly patronize hospitals, the delivery of services has deteriorated, resulting in widespread client dissatisfaction. Economic contingencies have contributed to the decline in maternity services, but health personnel manifest the ideology prevalent throughout the colonial era equating social irresponsibility with health complications. The cultural construction of illegitimacy and maternity is shown to be a dimension of class relations having an impact on health policy throughout Jamaica's history (AU)

Widowhood: the social and economic consequences

Widowhood marks an important point in the life cycle of many older women and is a reality with which the majority of women in Jamaica can expect to contend in their old age. The reasons are that women tend to outlive their spouses (life expectancy was 72.6 years for women and 68.1 years for men in 1982), and that wives are typically younger than their husbands and therefore have a greater probability of outliving them. Consequently, there are more widows than widowers in Jamaican society, and the same holds true not only for Jamaica but for most developing and developed countries. .... This paper intends to show that Jamaican women over the age of 60 years suffer severe hardships socially and especially economically as widows