Validation of Croatian Version of Dementia Attitudes Scale (DAS)

Dementia significantly impairs cognitive and behavioral functioning of the person, and in recent years there has been a significant increase in the number of patients suffering from dementia. In Croatia, such patients are often placed in retirement homes, non-specialized institutions for elderly and infirm, often without adequately educated employees. Attitudes toward dementia seem to be an important factor for adequate care of people with dementia, but there was no previous research on this topic in Croatia. Dementia attitudes scale (DAS) developed by O'Connor and McFadden (2010) provides to be a useful tool in research of attitudes toward dementia. The aim of the study was to translate the scale into Croatian language and validate it on the Croatian sample. Participants were employees and retirement home users, other health care workers and general population. Validation made just on samples that were in everyday contact with dementia patients showed consistent factors (social comfort and dementia knowledge) as in the original scale, so the conclusion was that the questionnaire could be used in that population. Still, overall results that included general sample showed different factors when compared to the original scale, since the Croatian version did not show standard factors, but rather positive and negative attitudes factors. Results could be seen as highly suggestive and emphasize the need to distinguish and separate research on attitudes toward dementia in different populations.