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Objectives: ‘Dementia Friends’ is a programme used to raise awareness of dementia, developed by the Alzheimer’s Society, which has been delivered across the UK to diverse populations, including adolescents. However, there is little evidence available with regards to adolescents’ perceptions of the programme and its impact. This study aims to explore this in a group of adolescents from the south of England. Design: Four focus group discussions Methods: 30 adolescents aged between 11 and 16 were recruited from two schools in East Sussex, England. All had participated in a Dementia Friends session in the past month. Focus group discussions were transcribed, coded and themes were created using inductive thematic analysis. Results: Four themes were identified: 1) perceptions and experiences of dementia, 2) outcomes and learning from Dementia Friends session, 3) reactions to the Dementia Friends session, and 4) identified future learning needs. Discussion: Adolescents had generally positive opinions about Dementia Friends, particularly the interactive nature of the session. Whilst they felt participating in Dementia Friends improved their attitudes and knowledge, they were often left wanting to learn more. Future research needs to empirically evaluate the extent to which Dementia Friends may improve attitudes and knowledge of dementia.

Background Current evidence suggests that negative and stigmatising attitudes towards dementia may develop at a young age. There are a number of dementia education and awareness initiatives aimed at reducing stigma, though they have not been robustly evaluated to establish the impact on dementia attitudes or suitability in adolescent populations. This study explored the efficacy and satisfaction of one such initiative (Dementia Friends) in a British adolescent sample. Methods 301 adolescents (M = 12.6 years old, SD = 0.73) were assigned to either receive Dementia Friends (a 60-min interactive class that teaches about dementia and its effects on people’s lives) or education as usual. All participants completed a series of validated questionnaires pre- and post-intervention, related to dementia attitudes (Brief A-ADS and KIDS). Results Adolescents in the dementia awareness group showed little to no improvements between time-points. The change scores in the dementia awareness group did not significantly differ to the control group based on both KIDS (d = − 0.003, p = 0.98) and Brief A-ADS (d = 0.14, p = 0.13) measures. There was no Group x Time effect after controlling for confounding variables. Conclusions Dementia Friends is successful in terms of reach and impact, though this study suggests that it may fall short of achieving its goal of improving attitudes towards dementia. Importantly, Dementia Friends did not have a negative effect on attitudes, and the majority of adolescents enjoyed the sessions. It is important that these findings are replicated in a larger randomised-controlled study.

Objectives: ‘Dementia Friends’ is a programme used to raise awareness of dementia, developed by the Alzheimer’s Society, which has been delivered across the UK to diverse populations, including adolescents. However, there is little evidence available with regards to adolescents’ perceptions of the programme and its impact. This study aims to explore this in a group of adolescents from the south of England. Design: Four focus group discussions Methods: 30 adolescents aged between 11 and 16 were recruited from two schools in East Sussex, England. All had participated in a Dementia Friends session in the past month. Focus group discussions were transcribed, coded and themes were created using inductive thematic analysis. Results: Four themes were identified: 1) perceptions and experiences of dementia, 2) outcomes and learning from Dementia Friends session, 3) reactions to the Dementia Friends session, and 4) identified future learning needs. Discussion: Adolescents had generally positive opinions about Dementia Friends, particularly the interactive nature of the session. Whilst they felt participating in Dementia Friends improved their attitudes and knowledge, they were often left wanting to learn more. Future research needs to empirically evaluate the extent to which Dementia Friends may improve attitudes and knowledge of dementia.

Background Frailty assessment has acquired an increasing importance in recent years and it has been demonstrated that this vulnerable profile predisposes elderly patients to a worse outcome after surgery. Therefore, it becomes paramount to perform an accurate stratification of surgical risk in elderly undergoing emergency surgery. Study design 1024 patients older than 65 years who required urgent surgical procedures were prospectively recruited from 38 Italian centers participating to the multicentric FRAILESEL (Frailty and Emergency Surgery in the Elderly) study, between December 2016 and May 2017. A univariate analysis was carried out, with the purpose of developing a frailty index in emergency surgery called "EmSFI". Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was then performed to test the accuracy of our predictive score. Results 784 elderly patients were consecutively enrolled, constituting the development set and results were validated considering further 240 consecutive patients undergoing colorectal surgical procedures. A logistic regression analysis was performed identifying different EmSFI risk classes. The model exhibited good accuracy as regard to mortality for both the development set (AUC = 0.731 [95% CI 0.654-0.772]; HL test chi(2) = 6.780; p = 0.238) and the validation set (AUC = 0.762 [95% CI 0.682-0.842]; HL test chi(2) = 7.238; p = 0.299). As concern morbidity, our model showed a moderate accuracy in the development group, whereas a poor discrimination ability was observed in the validation cohort. Conclusions The validated EmSFI represents a reliable and time-sparing tool, despite its discriminative value decreased regarding complications. Thus, further studies are needed to investigate specifically surgical settings, validating the EmSFI prognostic role in assessing the procedure-related morbidity risk.

Objectives: There is a lack of understanding about how adolescents perceive dementia, and what their dementia related experiences are. Without such information, it is hard to make a case for the need to raise awareness of dementia in adolescents, and the best strategies to achieve this. Methods: In a cohort of 901 adolescents (aged 13-18) from the South East of England, we explored what the experiences and perceptions of dementia were using a series of questionnaires. Descriptive data of individual items were reported, comparing differences between genders. Results: The adolescents within this study tended to have positive or neutral attitudes towards dementia, though there was evidence that a proportion of adolescents had misconceptions or held negative attitudes (e.g. 28.5% of adolescents disagreed with the statement “In general, I have positive attitudes about people with dementia”). We also identified that the adolescents had a range of experiences of dementia including providing some form of care for someone with dementia (23.2%), though most had indirect contact with dementia through TV and movies (77.3%), or adverts (80.2%). Females nearly always had better attitudes towards dementia and had significantly more contact with dementia. Conclusions: Considering that adolescents are already forming negative attitudes and misconceptions of dementia, it is important that we raise awareness about dementia in this age group.

Objectives: There is a lack of understanding about how adolescents perceive dementia, and what their dementia related experiences are. Without such information, it is hard to make a case for the need to raise awareness of dementia in adolescents, and the best strategies to achieve this. Methods: In a cohort of 901 adolescents (aged 13-18) from the South East of England, we explored what the experiences and perceptions of dementia were using a series of questionnaires. Descriptive data of individual items were reported, comparing differences between genders. Results: The adolescents within this study tended to have positive or neutral attitudes towards dementia, though there was evidence that a proportion of adolescents had misconceptions or held negative attitudes (e.g. 28.5% of adolescents disagreed with the statement “In general, I have positive attitudes about people with dementia”). We also identified that the adolescents had a range of experiences of dementia including providing some form of care for someone with dementia (23.2%), though most had indirect contact with dementia through TV and movies (77.3%), or adverts (80.2%). Females nearly always had better attitudes towards dementia and had significantly more contact with dementia. Conclusions: Considering that adolescents are already forming negative attitudes and misconceptions of dementia, it is important that we raise awareness about dementia in this age group.

The development of dementia friendly communities is a current global and national priority for the UK. As a response to policy, there have been a number of dementia awareness initiatives disseminated with the aim of reducing the stigma associated with a diagnosis of dementia. The inclusion of adolescents in such initiatives in imperative in order to sustain dementia friendly communities. With this is mind, the aim of this study was to establish the dementia education needs of adolescents and effective dissemination strategies to convey key messages. A total of 42 adolescents aged 12 to 18 years participated in eight focus group discussions. Key themes to emerge from discussions included: the importance of dementia awareness, topics of interest within dementia, preferred methods of learning, the inclusion of the person living with dementia and the use of social media. The findings of the study will enable the development of appropriate dementia awareness initiatives for adolescents and thus facilitate the sustainability of dementia friendly communities.

The development of dementia friendly communities is a current global and national priority for the UK. As a response to policy, there have been a number of dementia awareness initiatives disseminated with the aim of reducing the stigma associated with a diagnosis of dementia. The inclusion of adolescents in such initiatives in imperative in order to sustain dementia friendly communities. With this is mind, the aim of this study was to establish the dementia education needs of adolescents and effective dissemination strategies to convey key messages. A total of 42 adolescents aged 12 to 18 years participated in eight focus group discussions. Key themes to emerge from discussions included: the importance of dementia awareness, topics of interest within dementia, preferred methods of learning, the inclusion of the person living with dementia and the use of social media. The findings of the study will enable the development of appropriate dementia awareness initiatives for adolescents and thus facilitate the sustainability of dementia friendly communities.

We discuss theoretical calculations of electron- and neutrino-nucleus scattering, carried out using realistic nuclear spectral functions and including the effect of final state interactions. Comparison between electron scattering data and the calculated inclusive cross sections off oxygen shows that the Fermi gas model fails to provide a satisfactory description of the measured cross sections, and inclusion of nuclear dynamics is needed. The role of Pauli blocking in charged-current neutrino induced reactions at low $Q^2$ is also analyzed., Comment: To be published in the Proceedings of NUFACT05 (Nucl. Phys. B, Proceedings Supplements)

We discuss theoretical calculations of electron- and neutrino-nucleus scattering, carried out using realistic nuclear spectral functions and including the effect of final state interactions. Comparison between electron scattering data and the calculated inclusive cross sections off oxygen shows that the Fermi gas model fails to provide a satisfactory description of the measured cross sections, and inclusion of nuclear dynamics is needed. The role of Pauli blocking in charged-current neutrino induced reactions at low $Q^2$ is also analyzed., Comment: To be published in the Proceedings of NUFACT05 (Nucl. Phys. B, Proceedings Supplements)