Table 2.
Summary of measures that have been validated or pilot tested in samples with Alzheimer's disease dementia
| Scale | Description | Content assessed | Reliability (Cronbach's α)∗ | Items assess clinical symptoms |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Family Stigma in Alzheimer's Disease Scale (FS-ADS) [17] | 42 items, five-point Likert scales | Stereotypes; prejudice (emotional reactions); discrimination. Includes three scales: caregiver, lay person, and structural | 0.97 to 0.41 for 8 theoretical subscales† | True |
| The Social Impact Scale [114], [115] | 24 items, four-point Likert scale | Experience of social rejection; social and psychological feelings regarding experience of stigma | 0.87 Full scale; subscales 0.76 to 0.87 | True |
| The Stigma Scale for Chronic Illness (SSCI) Revised [113] | Eight items, five-point Likert scale; standardized t-scores | Six items about experience of treatment by others; two items about experience of embarrassment | 0.89 | False |
| Stigma Experience Scale [116], [125] | 19 items; yes or no responses | Nine items about experiences of stigma and 10 items about experiences with discrimination | 0.67 Full scale; subscales 0.70 and 0.50 | False |
| Weiner et al. scale [22] | 13 items, nine-point Likert scale | Beliefs about stability-controllability of disease; affective and behavioral consequences of disease; and stability of the disease (improvability) | DNR | True |
| Fernando et al. [41], [108] | Eight items, five-point Likert scale | Stigmatizing attitudes including those related to being unpredictable, to blame, hard to talk to | DNR | False |
| Kubiak et al. [110], [111], [112] | 11 items, six-point Likert scale | Medical Condition Regard Scale assessing clinicians' views of patients with a given medical condition as enjoyable, treatable, and worthy of medical resources | 0.86 | False |
| DNR, six-point Likert scale | Attributions of stability and pity toward clients with the four conditions. Items obtained from the Psychiatric Disability Attribution Questionnaire (PDAQ) | DNR | True | |
| Low et al. 2010 [109] | Seven items, agreed (coded 1) or disagreed (coded 2) | Attitudes toward people with dementia were assessed by asking them whether they agreed or disagreed with a series of statements | DNR | True |
Abbreviation: DNR, data not reported.
∗
In samples with Alzheimer's disease.
†
Modified version of the FS-ADS was used to derive seven empirical scales: Structural discrimination; negative severity attributions; negative esthetic attributions; antipathy; supportiveness; pity; and social distance [16].