Adaptation of the Dementia Attitudes Scale into Turkish

Introduction: The aim of this study was to assess psychometric properties of the Turkish version of the Dementia Attitudes Scale which is developed to determine attitudes towards dementia. Methods: 326 volunteered students between the age of 20-44 years, studying in Manisa Celal Bayar University Faculty of Medicine and Faculty of Health Sciences are included in this methodological study. Data of the study were collected with "Demographic Data Form", "Dementia Attitudes Scale" and "UCLA-Geriatrics Attitudes Scale". For the analysis of the data, the SPSS and Lisrel software were used. Results: The Cronbach's alpha coefficient of the Dementia Attitudes Scale is 0.84 which is quite high. Confirmatory factor analysis has supported three factor-structure of the scale: "Supporting attitude", "Accepting attitude" and "Exclusionary attitude". Confirmatory factor analysis revealed goodness of fit coefficients as 0.076 for RMSEA, 2.86 for the chi-square/sd, and 0.93 for CFI. The analysis showed that the adapted scale fits the model very well. The scale can discriminate between demographic characteristics and attitudes to dementia. The scale significantly correlates with UCLA-Geriatric Attitudes Scale measuring attitude towards the elderly. Conclusion: Dementia Attitude Scale is a valid and reliable scale that can be used in studies evaluating the attitude towards dementia.