House Officers' Perspectives on Dementia: Evaluating the Effectiveness of Dementia Education Program.

Background: The global elderly population is on the rise, leading to a significant increase in dementia cases. Despite general practitioners play a crucial role in managing dementia, several obstacles hinder their implementation of clinical practice guidelines for dementia diagnosis and management in primary care settings. Consequently, effective medical education programs utilizing impactful educational strategies are essential to overcome these barriers and enhance the dementia management process. Objective: This research aimed to evaluate how effectively a dementia education program improves knowledge, attitudes, and practices related to dementia among house officers. Methods: This quasi-experimental study was conducted on 116 house officers while their rotation. Knowledge, practice and attitude among the house officers was assessed before and after the dementia education program.Results: 116 house officers’ responses were analyzed. The house officers demonstrated statistically significant increase in their Perceived competency and knowledge in dementia care before and after the course with the mean ± SD of the total score being 3.64±1.68 before the course and 6.25±1.61 after the course. Total score of practices regarding cognitive evaluation shows statistically significant increase after the course with the mean± SD being 4.33±2.40 and 8.91±2.74 before and after the course respectively. Practices of house officers toward dementia diagnosis and management shows statistically significant increase after the course with the mean± SD being 2.16±1.48and 4.83±1.43before and after the course respectively. Conclusions: Our study emphasizes the necessity of ongoing education and training initiatives to equip healthcare providers with the necessary skills and knowledge for effective dementia management.