Table 1.
Characteristics of the respondents (N = 394).
| Sociodemographic characteristics | Mean | SD | n | % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Age (in years) | 24.20 | 3.48 | ||
| Gender | ||||
| Male | 40 | 10.2 | ||
| Female | 354 | 89.8 | ||
| Academic year | ||||
| Second year (no exposure to theory or clinical experience in dementia) | 127 | 32.2 | ||
| Early third year (completed the theory only) | 57 | 14.5 | ||
| End of third year (completed the theory and clinical experience) | 210 | 53.3 | ||
| Participation in other training related to dementia care | ||||
| Yes | 7 | 1.8 | ||
| No | 387 | 98.2 | ||
| Preference for providing care for people with dementia in future | ||||
| Strongly agree | 32 | 8.1 | ||
| Agree | 185 | 47.0 | ||
| Not decided | 149 | 37.8 | ||
| Disagree | 26 | 6.6 | ||
| Strongly disagree | 2 | 0.5 | ||
Table 2.
Fit indices for CFA of the 18-item Si-DKAS
| Fit index | Values of Model 1 (25 items) | Values of Model 2 (21 items) | Value of Model 3 (18 items) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chi-square (χ2) | P < 0.001 | P < 0.001 | P < 0.001 |
| χ2/df | 2.541 | 2.450 | 2.116 |
| CFI | 0.611 | 0.698 | 0.809 |
| TLI | 0.567 | 0.653 | 0.773 |
| SRMR | 0.048 | 0.047 | 0.040 |
| RMSEA | 0.063 | 0.061 | 0.053 |
1 Note: CFA, confirmatory factor analysis; CFI, comparative fix index; RMSEA, root-mean-squared error of approximation; Si-DKAS, Sinhala version of dementia knowledge assessment scale; SRMR, standardized root-mean-squared residual; TLI, Turker–Lewis index; χ2/df, chi-square per degree of freedom ratio.
Figure 1.
Path diagram*: CFA. Note: *The number of items was labeled based on the original version of DKAS.
Note: CFA, confirmatory factor analysis; DKAS, Dementia Knowledge Assessment Scale.
Table 3.
Rotated component matrix: factor loading and item communalities by PCA (N = 394).
| Item No. (original version) | Item No. (Si-DKAS) | Item | Component (factor) | Name of factors | Item communality (h2) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |||||
| 22 | 15 | People with advanced dementia may have difficulty speaking. | 0.619 | Care considerations | 0.478 | |||
| 25 | 18 | Daily care for a person with advanced dementia is effective when it focuses on providing comfort. | 0.549 | Care considerations | 0.372 | |||
| 21 | 14 | Movement is generally affected in the later stages of dementia. | 0.549 | Care considerations | 0.332 | |||
| 17 | 12 | People experiencing advanced dementia often communicate through body language. | 0.541 | Care considerations | 0.465 | |||
| 23 | 16 | People experiencing dementia often have difficulty learning new skills. | 0.522 | Care considerations | 0.341 | |||
| 10 | 9 | Symptoms of depression can be mistaken for symptoms of dementia. | 0.474 | Care considerations | 0.316 | |||
| 24 | 17 | Difficulty eating and drinking generally occurs in the later stages of dementia. | 0.406 | Care considerations | 0.178 | |||
| 3 | 3 | People can recover from the most common forms of dementia. | 0.699 | Causes and characteristics of dementia | 0.489 | |||
| 6 | 5 | Blood vessel disease (vascular dementia) is the most common form of dementia. | 0.668 | Causes and characteristics of dementia | 0.469 | |||
| 2 | 2 | Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia. | 0.563 | Causes and characteristics of dementia | 0.387 | |||
| 1 | 1 | Dementia is a normal part of the ageing process. | 0.560 | Causes and characteristics of dementia | 0.340 | |||
| 12 | 11 | Early diagnosis of dementia does not generally improve quality of life for people experiencing the condition | 0.588 | Health promotion | 0.382 | |||
| 11 | 10 | Exercise is generally beneficial for people experiencing dementia. | 0.438 | Health promotion | 0.399 | |||
| 9 | 8 | Maintaining a healthy lifestyle does not reduce the risk of developing the most common forms of dementia. | 0.431 | Health promotion | 0.331 | |||
| 8 | 7 | Having high blood pressure increases a person’s risk of developing dementia. | 0.685 | Misconceptions about dementia | 0.492 | |||
| 4 | 4 | Dementia does not result from physical changes in the brain. | 0.647 | Misconceptions about dementia | 0.444 | |||
| 7 | 6 | Most forms of dementia do not generally shorten a person’s life. | 0.440 | Misconceptions about dementia | 0.340 | |||
| 20 | 13 | People experiencing dementia do not generally have problems making decisions. | 0.435 | Misconceptions about dementia | 0.356 | |||
| Eigenvalue | 3.395 | 1.908 | 1.633 | 1.425 | ||||
| % of the variance | 14.761 | 23.056 | 30.157 | 36.355 | ||||
Table 4.
Discriminant validity (N = 394).
| Variables (Kruskal–Wallis H test) | N | Total Si-DKAS | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mean rank | K-WH value | Sig. | ||
| Academic year | 86.015 | <0.001* | ||
| Early second year | 127 | 120.58 | ||
| Late second year | 57 | 226.80 | ||
| Third year | 210 | 236.07 | ||
| Preference for dementia care in future | 7.671 | 0.022* | ||
| Preference for providing dementia care | 217 | 186.71 | ||
| No preference for providing dementia care | 28 | 174.75 | ||
| Did not decided | 149 | 217.48 | ||
Table 5.
Total and item-level scores (N = 394).
| Scale or subscale/score | Mean of the scale | Standardized mean score/100 (%) | Cronbach’s alpha | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mean | SD | |||
| Total Si-DKAS/36 | 19.81 | 6.07 | 55.02 | 0.701 |
| Care consideration/14 | 7.78 | 3.08 | 55.57 | 0.631 |
| Causes of dementia/8 | 4.01 | 2.38 | 50.15 | 0.598 |
| Health promotion/6 | 3.73 | 1.67 | 62.10 | 0.347 |
| Misconceptions about dementia/8 | 4.28 | 2.11 | 53.50 | 0.487 |