The relative contributions of biomarkers, disease modifying treatment, and dementia severity to Alzheimer's stigma: A vignette-based experiment.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

The symptoms and prognosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) dementia contribute to the public's negative reactions toward individuals with AD dementia and their families. But what if, using AD biomarker tests, diagnosis was made before the onset of dementia, and a disease-modifying treatment was available? This study tests the hypotheses that a "preclinical" diagnosis of AD and treatment that improves prognosis will mitigate stigmatizing reactions.

Methods

A sample of U.S. adults were randomized to receive one vignette created by a 3 × 2 × 2 vignette-based experiment that described a person with varied clinical symptom severity (Clinical Dementia Rating stages 0 (no dementia), 1 (mild), or 2 (moderate)), AD biomarker test results (positive vs negative), and disease-modi

SUBMITTER: Stites SD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8748419 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature