Social Marketing and Dementia Care in Ethnic Elders

University Of Southern California, Los Angeles CA

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Ethnic elders have been found to wait to access services for dementia care until symptoms become severe. This is in contrast to Caucasians, who have been found to be served by dementia care at an earlier stage, where some dementia symptoms can potentially be reversed (e.g., B12 deficiency, medicinal side effects, infections). Hence, the long-term goal of this research proposal is to acquire information regarding the delay in accessing dementia care services, and then to promote behavior change using social marketing and stages of change models. The research proposal has four objectives: 1) to understand the reasons behind the delay in accessing dementia care, factoring in ethnic elders' and their caregivers' stage of behavior change, as well as their knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and practices (KABP) towards delayed dementia-care seeking; 2) to segment the sample, creating a target audience based on their stage of change; 3) to develop stage-specific key messages with the involvement of ethnic elders and their caregivers to address different KABPs; and 4) to disseminate and evaluate the effectiveness of these key messages among the target audience. Data will be collected via university-based and community partnering organizations utilizing focus groups and surveys. Analyses will include factor analysis, multiple regression models, and hierarchical linear modeling.