Impact of an Alzheimer's Disease Education Program

This article reports on a multidimensional educational program for health care providers that provided information about Alzheimer's disease, and about cultural factors affecting how Hispanic families interpret this illness. The purpose was to disseminate current knowledge and then measure subsequent use of this knowledge in staff behaviors in their interactions with Hispanic Alzheimer's patients and their families. Health care workers who completed both pretest and post-test measures indicated an increase in both knowledge about Alzheimer's and about Hispanic beliefs, and demonstrated positive changes in self-reported patient care behaviors. Implications of these findings are discussed for health care practice.