Caring for people with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) or other dementias is a major challenge for society since that the incidence and prevalence of this condition are increasing. Quality of care for people with dementia should be based on the recommendations of clinical guidelines, so an up-to-date knowledge of these recommendations and their context is an important issue for nursing practice.
A number of questionnaires and scales have been developed to measure knowledge about dementia care, but there are currently no questionnaires to measure the knowledge of nurses about dementia or Alzheimer’s disease care in the Spanish language. The PhD research of Dr Laura Parra from CuiDsalud research group (Knowledge about Alzheimer disease and dementia care) has carried out the validation of a scale of knowledge on dementia, Dementia Knowledge Assessment Tool 2 (DKAT2-Sp), in its Spanish version. Psychometric properties were assessed through an item analysis, a Rasch analysis, differential item functioning analysis, construct validity, and internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha).
The DKAT2-Sp shows acceptable consistency for professionals and nursing students, being a reliable and valid questionnaire to measure knowledge about dementia in this population in Spanish-speaking contexts. The DKAT2-Sp could be used for clinical, educational, or research purposes, and the data obtained can be comparable with studies using the original DKAT2.
The abstract of the article is available at: Parra-Anguita L, Moreno-Cámara S, López-Franco MD, Pancorbo-Hidalgo PL. Validation of the Spanish Version of the Dementia Knowledge Assessment Tool 2. Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease. 2018; 65 (4): 1175-83.