Date of Award

Winter 10-31-2018

Author's School

Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

Author's Department

Psychology

Degree Name

Master of Arts (AM/MA)

Degree Type

Thesis

Abstract

Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) accounts for about 10 percent of dementia cases and is a common cause of early-onset dementia. Although knowledge about the symptoms and course of FTD has expanded in the past decade, there exists no well-validated instrument to measure FTD knowledge. As a step toward that goal, this study sought to create a scale to measure knowledge of FTD based on contemporary understanding of the disease. Standard scale development methods were used to create items, and their psychometric properties were evaluated in a sample of 174 healthcare providers and caregivers of people with FTD. The resulting scale (Frontotemporal Dementia Knowledge Scale; FTDKS) contains 18 items and takes approximately five minutes to complete. The FTDKS displays good psychometric properties in terms of reliability (internal consistency and split-half reliability) and validity (content, predictive, concurrent, convergent, and divergent) in the current sample. The FTDKS can be used with healthcare providers and caregivers of people with FTD to assess their knowledge in clinical care and program evaluation. Further research is needed to examine the psychometric properties in more diverse samples and to evaluate its utility in educational initiatives.

Language

English (en)

Chair and Committee

Dr. Brian D. Carpenter

Committee Members

Dr. Denise Head, Dr. David Balota

Comments

Permanent URL: https://doi.org/10.7936/25f2-2e78

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