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Perspective of caregivers towards early signs of memory decline in their elderly relatives among the Saudi population

Objectives: World aging poses a big challenge with the rise of people with cognitive impairment. We aim in this study to understand the perspective of the caregivers towards the early signs of memory decline and cognitive impairment in their elderly relatives; we also aim to understand the impact of culture on their perspective. Methods: This is a cross-sectional, descriptive study with a quantitative approach. It was approved by the Institutional Review Board prior to data collection, using a survey containing 41 items of collected data from 101 caregivers. We obtained signed written informed consent from each subject. Results: A sample of 101 participants enrolled in this study, of whom about 60.4% (n=61) were males and 39.6% (n=40) were females. The mean age of the elderly relatives of the caregivers was (73.5±10.0) years and mean years of education was (6.5±7.5) years. Significant differences between males and females were found in terms of driving and using public transportation as this might alert the caregiver about early signs of memory decline (2=6.785, p=0.009). Conclusion: Some cultural perspective could be identified that could help earlier detection of cognitive impairment in elderly people who rely largely on their caregivers. Caregivers are the first people to encounter the early changes in the behavior of the demented elderly; understanding their perspective can help providing more efficient health care. Key words: dementia, caregivers, perspective, memory decline, culture