Background: As Egypt is expected to maintain the highest rank of old populations in the
region; the increased understanding of public views to Alzheimer's disease (AD) becomes
a priority. Objective: To assess the reliability of Alzheimer's disease Knowledge Scale
(ADKS) and the level of knowledge about the disease among a sample of middle aged and
elderly people in Mansoura, Egypt. Methods: A cross-sectional survey conducted in two
stages. The first stage was the adaptation of the Arabic Alzheimer's disease Knowledge
Scale (ADKS-A) from the original English form by the translation process followed by a
pilot testing. The second stage was to test the reliability of the ADKS-A among a sample
of 442 apparently healthy middle aged and elderly in Mansoura, Egypt. Results:
reliability statistics for the overall scale were accepted: Cronbach's alpha = 0.710 and the
interclass correlation for the test-retest statistic was statistically significant (p=0.01). The
corrected inter-item correlation for the test–retest scores ranged from 0.31-0.77. Item
analysis didn't necessitate any omissions. The overall mean score of knowledge among the
studied elderly was 11.7±3.02 ranging from 3-28 with 38.9% accuracy on the scale.
Younger age, urban residence, higher education and living with family were significant
predictors for better knowledge on ADKS in Linear regression model (F=12.2, R2=0.406,
P<0.001). Conclusions: The ADKS-A was found to be reliable and acceptable tool.
Further study to complete validation of this scale was needed. Also, poor general
knowledge about AD among Egyptian middle aged and elderly points to an urgent need
for educational outreach programs and campaigns to improve AD knowledge.