The associations of e-health perception and dementia knowledge with dementia public stigma in nursing students: A cross-sectional study

Background: Preparing nursing students for dementia care, a prevalent cause of mortality, disability, and dependency among older people, is essential. Positive perceptions of e-health are believed to be associated with better knowledge, attitude, and skills among nurses across various care contexts. However, the relationship between e-health perception and nursing students' dementia knowledge and stigma remains underexplored.

Aim: To investigate the relationship between e-health perceptions, dementia knowledge, and dementia stigma among nursing students.

Settings and participants: A total of 513 nursing students from a college in Hong Kong participated in an online survey.

Methods: A cross-sectional design.

Results: Students had an average age of 20.6 years, with the majority being females (69.8 %) and lacking experience in providing direct care for people with dementia (69.9 %). Most participants were in their first academic years (95.5 %) and had no family members with dementia (92.4 %). Students showed inadequate dementia knowledge (scoring indicator was 64.4 %) and a moderate stigma score (58.9 ± 9.0). Bivariate regression analysis indicated that e-health perception is significantly related to dementia knowledge but not to dementia stigma. Multiple regression analysis showed that being male (β = 0.520, p = 0.01) and having family members with dementia (β = 0.77, p = 0.03) were positively associated with dementia knowledge. Additionally, greater dementia knowledge (β = -0.53, p < 0.005) and senior-year bachelor programme entry were negatively associated with dementia stigma.

Conclusion: The curricula of pre-registration nursing education should be enhanced to improve dementia knowledge and reduce stigma. The lack of a significant correlation between e-health perception, experience in caring for individuals with dementia, and dementia knowledge and stigma underscores the need to improve the quality of dementia education by leveraging e-health opportunities and clinical practicum.