Public Concerns about Alzheimer's Disease in Old Age

Alzheimer's disease is a degenerative brain disease that causes a gradual decline in memory, thinking abilities, and behavioral changes. One of the contributing factors is old age.

A Kompas Research and Development (Litbang Kompas) survey shows that the majority, or 82.3%, of respondents admitted to being worried about experiencing memory loss in old age.

"In fact, almost a third of that number (31.7%) felt very worried about experiencing a decline in memory," wrote the Kompas Litbang researchers in their report on Tuesday (September 10, 2024).

Conversely, 16.1% of respondents stated they were not worried about future memory loss, and another 1.6% responded "don't know."

Although public concern about this disease is high, Litbang Kompas found that 89.8% of respondents felt they had not received sufficient education about Alzheimer's.

"The high proportion of respondents who are unaware of Alzheimer's is influenced by the factor of exposure to education," wrote Litbang Kompas.

Meanwhile, only 9.5% of respondents felt they had received sufficient education, and 0.7% answered "don't know."

This Litbang Kompas survey involved 536 respondents from 38 provinces, randomly selected from the Litbang Kompas panel, in accordance with the population proportion in each province.

Data collection was conducted from June 19-21 via telephone interviews. The survey's margin of error is approximately 4.23%, with a 95% confidence level, under conditions of simple random sampling.