Analysis of Feasibility and Toxicity of Radiotherapy in Centenarians

nicate with people with dementia (85.4%); most employers will fire a 65-year-old employee with dementia (76.4%); individuals with dementia would not understand other people’s concern or worry (68.5%); individuals with dementia are impulsive and unpredictable (62.9%). These attitudes prevent the Chinese-American general public from encouraging older adults to seek early treatment and hinder public acceptance of individuals with dementia. Discrimination and shame can have a devastating effect on Chinese-Americans with dementia. Several areas of the lives of individuals with dementia would be affected, including employment and social relationships. Because community support is necessary for dementia treatment, participation of the general public remains crucial to overcoming the stigma of dementia, but lack of understanding of dementia in the Chinese community may contribute to social exclusion and discrimination toward individuals with dementia. An antistigma campaign, especially for Chinese-American immigrants, should focus on clarifying that people with dementia are neither dangerous nor unpredictable and that people with dementia are still functional, productive, and independent citizens in the Chinese-American community and on putting a human face (e.g., recruiting speakers with dementia) to inform the Chinese-American lay public that individuals with dementia understand other people’s concerns and worries. Future studies examining the relationship between knowledge about dementia and the shame associated with it in the Chinese American general public will better illustrate how to alleviate negative stereotyping of dementia. Because the media can play an important role in reaching out to this ethnic minority group, it is important to work on media interventions to prevent shame regarding dementia in the Chinese-American general public.