Grant Proposal- Peer Review

Misperception and Representation of People with Alzheimer Disease

Name

University

Professor

Date

Misperception and Representation of People with Alzheimer Disease

Specific Aims

It is common knowledge that most of the people with Alzheimer disease have been misunderstood and continually misrepresented in the society all over the world. This has been the phenomenon since neuropsychologist discovered the disease in more than a century ago. Misrepresentation and misperception of people living with Alzheimer's disease (AD) have not just sent the patients to isolation but it has also contributed to the fewer acceptances of the people with the mental disorder. most of the people with the disorder have been dismissed from their workplace and discriminated against in most social places by the people who have low knowledge on the disorder as most of them whose mental fitness are yet to be discovered have been deemed misfit in the society and condemned to their houses and homes (Alzheimer's Association. 2013). Most of the developed nations have developed frameworks which have been used to detect this neurodegenerative disease which start as a normal disease and worsen the condition of the patient when it becomes chronic. However, this is not the case among most of the developing nations and even the structures in the developed nations are not sufficient which has made most of the people not to have sufficient knowledge on the cause, symptoms, and diagnosis of the mental illness. most of the people with Alzheimer's, usually become withdraw as most of the people in the society discriminate and stigmatize against them through misrepresentation and perceiving them in a wrong perspective. The study will seek to bring at an end the experience that people with Alzheimer face when they are misunderstood and misperceived in the society and develop health programs that can be used to eliminate the phenomenon.

Background to the Study

Studies have revealed that 60-70% of dementia is as a result of Alzheimer and the most common symptom of the disease is short-term memory loss which makes the patients not to remember events that took place recently. however, the symptoms and effects of the disease increase as the mental illness become more chronic and other symptoms may include and not limited to problems with language, disorientation which result to the patient getting lost, develop mood swings, lack self-care among other (Fratiglioni et al, 2009). The end of it is that the patients isolate and withdraw from the society. The fact that most of the patient loses their body functions and eventually dies has been a reason why most of the people in the society have distanced themselves with people with Alzheimer disease. The understanding of the disease is that one will have a life expectancy of fewer than nine years has also been an issue as it has caused much harm to the patients and the patients' families (Herrmann et al, 2017). It is because of the effects that result from misunderstanding, discrimination, stigmatizing of these group of small interests that it has merited this study proposal. It should be understood that the social phenomenon directed at these people result to labeling, stereotyping among other social problems, which affect the families of the patients more so children of the patients. It is very clear from the study by (Susan, 2012) that it becomes very difficult to deal with the stress resulting from withdrawal, discrimination, misrepresentation, and misperception of these patients. It is there for important that people with the mental disorder should not be subjected to stress since it only adds to the psychological problems already torturing them.

The significance of the Study

One of something that has caused misrepresentation and stigmatization among the people with Alzheimer's disease is lack of understanding of the illness. About 70% of the risk of the illness is associated to a genetic cause; others believe that it is caused by the history of head injury, hypertension, and depression (Chandra et al, 2001). Other relates the disease to plagues and tangles in the brain of the patients. The myths surrounding the cause of the disease has been the major reasons that have contributed to misperception and misrepresentation of the patients with the disease resulting to stigmatization and discrimination of the patients as people in the society have less knowledge on the illness (Werner, & Hess, 2016). It was important that a study proposal is done to create more knowledge on the cause, symptoms, and diagnosis of the Alzheimer disease so as to reduce the cases of stigmatization and discrimination that result from lack of information and knowledge on the illness. Understanding the cause and symptoms related to the disease will help to develop a program that will help to reduce the psychological problems and other health-related issues that face this special group of people (Evans et al, 2009). The additional findings from the study will also help to educate the family and the community on how they can deal with people with the mental problem so that are not stigmatized and misperceived in the society. It is important that the society is educated about their role to help the people living with Alzheimer's disease in the society that they can help them live a long and healthy life.

Proposed Study

Participants:

The proposed study will target hospitals, research centers, clinics, and community groups that deal with people with Alzheimer’s disease in the area. The study participants will be male and female who will be selected in the ratio of 45-55 respectively given that women are likely to be more of volunteers and nurses or rather medical practitioners in these identified centers. All the study participants should be of sound mind and will be aged between 18-50 years cutting across all continents, and social statuses.

Procedures:

For every long time, scientific research has employed different research technique to collect data and get more insight of the data that was collected something that is contrary to other sampling methods. The best-known technique that has been used in the past is the snowball technique (Casado et al, 2017). The study will be aimed at collecting primary data which will be used to generate findings and it is because of this that deep face-to-face interviews will be used to collect the data in the study. The questions that will be used will be open-ended. It is important to use open-ended questions in this study as they will allow the researcher develop a question that will be used in probing. The interviews are designed to last for 30-40 minutes and it will be repeated until saturation is reached. The target sample in the study will be 107 participants all selected randomly.

Hypothesis and Analysis:

The primary data from the interviews will be coded in the computer system using the available data collecting supplications and software. Coding is important to studies as they help to separate the most relevant interview texts that are important to the study findings as compared to others. The data collected in this study will be qualitative applications which can be done through structural coding (Abojabel, & Werner, 2016). This is done in a clear way depending on the number of the participants involved, for instance, varying code occurrences could be determined with an aim to help in identifying the ideas commonly seen in many of the participants distinguishing them from those that are seldom mentioned to a group of respondents.

Budget Justification

Direct Costs:

Personnel:

To ensure the study is conducted in a professional manner, special and qualified research helper will be hired and is expected to work for 3 hours daily from Monday-Saturday for 12 months and will be paid USD$24 per hour. The total allocation to the specialized researcher will be USD$23040 since he will work for 48 weeks only. The specialized will be charged with the task of overseeing what takes place daily.

Another specialist who will investigate the study at an interval of 12 weeks to ensure that the progress is fine will be paid USD$215 per interval of 12 weeks which will add up to USD$860 to complete the proposal.

Equipment:

The research will require two laptops one for each specialized professional to ensure that data is shared constantly as it is collected. Two Smartphone, a video camera, online video editing software, pens, books, and files.

2 laptops @ $1800 = $3600

2 Smartphone @ 70 = $140

Video camera $1000

Video editing software $300

1 packet of pens $30

A dozen of files $20

Travel Expenses:

Traveling expenses will be incurred when traveling to meet the potential study participants and the total cost has been estimated at $16000 since distance will vary.

Participant Support

Participants will be reimbursed each $100 as a token of appreciation for participation summing up to $10700.

Miscellaneous Expenses

$1500 will be allocated for photocopying, phone bills, and postage.

Indirect Costs:

Total Costs = 57190

Indirect Cost = 57190*0.37 = $21160.3

References

Abojabel, H., & Werner, P. (2016). Exploring family stigma among caregivers of persons with Alzheimer's disease: The experiences of Israeli-Arab caregivers. Dementia, 1471301216673920.

Alzheimer's Association. (2013). 2013 Alzheimer's disease facts and figures. Alzheimer's & Dementia, 9(2), 208-245.

BMC Health Serv Res. 2017; 17: 125. Published online 2017 Feb 10.

BMC Med Ethics. 2013; 14(Suppl 1): S6. Published online 2013 Dec 19.

Casado, B. L., Hong, M., & Lee, S. E. (2017). Attitudes Toward Alzheimer’s Care-Seeking Among Korean Americans: Effects of Knowledge, Stigma, and Subjective Norm. The Gerontologist, gnw253.

Chandra, V., Pandav, R., Dodge, H. H., Johnston, J. M., Belle, S. H., DeKosky, S. T., & Ganguli, M. (2001). The incidence of Alzheimer's disease in a rural community in India The Indo–US Study. Neurology, 57(6), 985-989.

Evans, D. A., Funkenstein, H. H., Albert, M. S., Scherr, P. A., Cook, N. R., Chown, M. J., ... & Taylor, J. O. (2009). Prevalence of Alzheimer's disease in a community population of older persons: higher than previously reported. Jama, 262(18), 2551-2556.

Fratiglioni, L., Grant, M., Forsell, Y., Viitanen, M., Grafström, M., Holmen, K., ... & Winblad, B. (2000). Prevalence of Alzheimer's disease and other dementias in an elderly urban population Relationship with age, sex, and education. Neurology, 41(12), 1886-1886.

Harris, P. B., & Caporella, C. A. (2014). An intergenerational choir formed to lessen Alzheimer’s disease stigma in college students and decrease the social isolation of people with Alzheimer’s disease and their family members: A pilot study. American Journal of Alzheimer's Disease & Other Dementias®, 29(3), 270-281.

Herrmann, L. K., Welter, E., Leverenz, J., Lerner, A. J., Udelson, N., Kanetsky, C., & Sajatovic, M. (2017). A Systematic Review of Dementia-Related Stigma Research: Can We Move the Stigma Dial?. The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry.

Merriam, A. E., Aronson, M. K., Gaston, P., Wey, S. L., & Katz, I. (1988). The psychiatric symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 36(1), 7-22.

Reducing Stigma and Discrimination to Improve Child Health and Survival in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Promising Approaches and Implications for Future Research.

Sosa-Ortiz, A. L., Acosta-Castillo, I., & Prince, M. J. (2012). Epidemiology of dementia and Alzheimer's disease. Archives of medical research, 43(8), 600-608.

Vos, S. J., Verhey, F., Frölich, L., Kornhuber, J., Wiltfang, J., Maier, W., ... & Frisoni, G. B. (2015). Prevalence and prognosis of Alzheimer’s disease at the mild cognitive impairment stage. Brain, 138(5), 1327-1338.

Werner, P., & Hess, A. (2016). Examining courtesy stigma among foreign healthcare workers caring for persons with Alzheimer's disease: A focus group study. Home health care services quarterly, 35(2), 69-85.