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Background: General practitioners (GPs) play a significant role in dementia care. However, the knowledge and attitudes of them towards dementia care are poorly characterized. The present study aimed to investigate GPs' knowledge, attitudes and skills of dementia care in primary health settings in Beijing., Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted in 27 community health service centers (CHSCs) in Beijing. The GPs' knowledge, attitudes and skills were assessed utilizing the Alzheimer's Disease Knowledge Scale (ADKS), Dementia Care Attitude Scale (DCAS) and self-designed questionnaire, respectively., Results: A total of 341 participants returned the questionnaire. The overall mean score of GPs' dementia knowledge measured by the ADKS was 21.42 (SD = 2.73) out of 30 (71.4%), GPs' attitudes to dementia care was 36.25 (SD = 5.12) out of 50 (72.5%), and GPs' self-confidence on dementia care skills was 53.93 (SD = 9.57) out of 75 (71.9%). GPs' overall knowledge towards dementia care was limited and the attitudes were generally positive. They had low level recognition of their roles towards dementia care. The majority of GPs believed that dementia care was within a specialist's domain not that of general practice., Conclusion: GPs demonstrate low levels of dementia knowledge and skills, but express generally positive attitudes towards dementia in this study. It is much needed to translate detailed dementia care handbook, and adequate dementia knowledge training for GPs into practice to improve care outcomes for people with dementia in China. In addition, dementia management should be covered in the national basic package of public health services in primary care.

Background: Informal caregivers of people with dementia in Beijing are increasingly called upon to provide home-based care for their patients due to the increasing number of dementia patients and the shortage of standardized institutional solutions of care for patients in China. This study aimed to clarify the needs of informal caregivers and barriers of primary care workers toward dementia management in primary care in Beijing to provide references that may help to improve the care and services provided to individuals with dementia and their family caregivers residing in urban China., Methods: A mixed-methods approach was used in this study. We performed individual in-depth interviews with 10 informal caregivers. Moreover, we carried out focus group interviews with 29 primary care workers. Content analysis was used to separately identify themes and codes. Discrepancies were discussed until final agreement was achieved., Results: Three themes representing the core attitudes of informal caregivers and primary care workers were identified: care knowledge and skills, psychological counseling, and collaborative management. Most primary care workers believed that the management of dementia patients in primary care was necessary. However, due to the heavy work load and different medical specialties involved, these workers were unable to manage it., Conclusions: Professional training focused on dementia for primary care workers should be strengthened. At the same time, the establishment of a community-based dementia team management model that includes specialists, community health service centers (CHSCs), and community committees should be explored.