Effectiveness of an Interactive Approach to Educate Older Adults and Caregivers on Alzheimer’s Disease

Abstract

Objectives: To promote Alzheimer’s disease (AD) awareness in older adults and caregivers by creating and implementing an interactive educational program in several Southern Arizona senior centers, evaluate the helpfulness of the intervention, the confidence and the motivation of the participants. Methods: A 30-minute educational program consisting of a PowerPoint presentation with various interactive learning methods and a 10-minute question and answer session was delivered to those 55 years of age and older at senior centers across Southern Arizona. An anonymous questionnaire was conducted after each educational program to assess the helpfulness of the program, the subject’s familiarity with AD and their motivation to create a personal action plan after participation, and demographic information. Responses from the participants were compared with a priori alpha at 0.05. Results: A majority of participants in the study were female (69.9%) the median age was 75. One hundred (98%) of the participants strongly agreed or agreed that the interactive educational program was helpful in understanding AD, and 95 (96.9%) stated they were more motivated to create a personal care plan. There was no difference between the males or females’ self-reported familiarity with dementia (p = 0.25) or AD (p = 0.75) after program participation, but >50% of overall participants who were not already very familiar with Alzheimer’s disease increased in familiarity. Conclusions: An interactive approach to educating community-dwelling older adults and their caregivers on AD was helpful to the participants, and they were more motivated to create personal care plans.