Acceptability and feasibility of a community dementia stigma reduction program in Kenya

Musyimi, Christine W., Muyela, Levi A., Ndetei, David M., Evans-Lacko, Sara ORCID: 0000-0003-4691-2630 and Farina, Nicolas (2024) Acceptability and feasibility of a community dementia stigma reduction program in Kenya. Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, 100 (2). 699 - 711. ISSN 1387-2877

	Text (Supplementary Materials_Feasibility manuscript) - Accepted Version Download (484kB)
	Text (Main Manuscript_accepted) - Accepted Version Download (689kB)

• Scopus publication
• Author

Abstract

Background: Dementia stigma has adverse effects on people with dementia and their carers. These effects can lead to poor quality of life among other negative impacts. Objective: The aim of this study is to develop and pilot a novel dementia stigma reduction intervention in rural Kenya, leveraging existing Community Health Workers (CHWs) for its delivery. Methods: The pre-post pilot study was conducted, utilizing a parallel mixed-methods design. Ten CHWs were trained to deliver a contextually developed dementia anti-stigma intervention. These CHWs delivered four workshops to 59 members of the general public in Makueni County, with each workshop lasting between 1.5 to 2 hours. Focus group discussions and pre/post surveys were used as measures. Results: The intervention was well received amongst the participants, particularly in terms of its format and accessibility. We observed the largest effects in reducing negative beliefs related to treatment (η2 = 0.34), living well with dementia (η2 = 0.98), and care (η2 = 0.56) for the general public post intervention. Improvements to attitudes were also observed in the CHWs, but the effect sizes were typically smaller. Conclusions: The intervention was accessible and feasible in rural Kenya, while also showing preliminary benefits to stigma related outcomes. The findings indicate that culturally sensitive interventions can be delivered in a pragmatic and context specific manner, thus filling an important knowledge gap in addressing stigma in low-resource settings. Future research is needed to ascertain the intervention's long-term benefits and whether it tackles important behavioral outcomes and beliefs deeply ingrained within communities.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	https://content.iospress.com/journals/journal-of-a...
Additional Information:	© 2024 - IOS Press. All rights reserved.
Divisions:	Care Policy and Evaluation Centre
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HV Social pathology. Social and public welfare. Criminology R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine
Date Deposited:	05 Aug 2024 09:54
Last Modified:	26 Nov 2024 01:48
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/124463

Actions (login required)

View Item