Purpose

The purpose of this study was to investigate nursing students' knowledge about behavioral and biopsychosocial domains of dementia and the factors associated with nurses' knowledge.

Methods

A cross-sectional, predictive study was conducted using a web-based survey. A convenience sample of 356 nursing students from a large public university completed an anonymous online survey comprising 25 Likert-scale items. Univariate analyses (two-sample t tests and one-way ANOVA) were used for model selection at the cutoff level of 0.20 in producing a multivariate linear regression model. Multiple linear regression analysis was conducted to predict a given student's score using the demographic variables selected. The regression model was used to infer pairwise demographic group comparisons while controlling for other demographic variables.

Findings

The mean score of students' knowledge about dementia was 24.53 ± 7.81 out of 48 (52%). Students scored the lowest scores on knowledge about communication with and behaviors of people with dementia and the risk factors and health promotion areas in dementia care. Students' gender, current grade point average (GPA), family history with dementia, and education level had statistically significant effects on the mean total dementia knowledge score and respective subscales (p < 0.05). The model predicting the total dementia knowledge score explained the most variation among all five models conducted (29%).

Conclusions

The findings indicate that nursing curricula should introduce educational programs related to all aspects of dementia knowledge earlier on.

Implications for nursing practice

The survey findings suggest raising standards of dementia knowledge and implementing educational strategies in clinical settings that adequately prepare nurses to interact with or care for people with dementia.