With a mandate to improve the health care, protect the health and prevent disease among Canadians, the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) retained Nanos Research to conduct public opinion research among Canadians related to stigma associated with dementia. Specifically, to conduct a national survey which examines Canadians’ knowledge of and attitudes towards dementia and stigma related to dementia.
Dementia is an umbrella term that describes symptoms affecting brain function caused by neurodegenerative and vascular diseases and injuries and is characterised by a decline in cognitive abilities, including memory, language, judgment, and planning, as well as mood and behaviour.
Dementia has a significant impact on Canadians and the impact continues to grow, with about 6.5% of Canadians 65 years of age and older living with diagnosed dementia as of 2019-20, disproportionately impacting women. This figure excludes those under 65 who may have an early onset diagnosis or those not diagnosed but living with the symptoms – meaning its impact is likely even more significant. As Canada’s aging population continues to increase, the proportion of Canadians living with dementia is expected to increase as well.
PHAC plans to utilize the research findings to support the continued implementation of Canada’s first national dementia strategy, A Dementia Strategy for Canada: Together we Aspire, as required under the National Strategy for Alzheimer’s Disease and Other Dementias Act which came into effect in 2017.
The survey is comprised of 5,056 Canadians, 18 years of age and older, including 1,604 self-identified unpaid caregivers (defined as someone who provides or has provided unpaid care and support to someone living with dementia in the last five years)*, 756 Canadians who identify as members of Black (n=181), Hispanic (n=68), Southeast Asian (n=254), or South Asian (n=253) ethnic groups and 188 individuals who identify as Indigenous.
The survey was conducted across Canada in each province and territory between March 11th and 29th, 2023 and additional supplementary fieldwork was conducted between June 7th and 25th, 2023 in an effort to target more individuals in these key ethnic communities who are disproportionately impacted by dementia. There were 4,689 interviews conducted during the original fieldwork period, and an additional 367 interviews were completed during the supplementary June fieldwork.
The sample was drawn from two sources:
1) The Nanos Probability Panel, which contains about 50,000 Canadians who were randomly recruited to
join the panel by land- and cell-lines with live agents.
2) Random recruitment by land-and cell-lines and administered the survey online.
The resulting sample contains Canadians who were all randomly recruited by telephone, thus allowing a margin of error to be associated with the research. Of note, 2,406 interviews of the 5,056 total interviews were recruited from the Nanos Online Probability Panel and the other 2,650 interviews were recruited directly by a dual frame Random Digit Dialled sample of land- and cell-line numbers and administered the survey online.
The randomly recruited probability sample has a margin of error of +/-1.4% at a 95% confidence interval. The margin of error for each of the key target groups is between 2.4 (unpaid caregivers) and 12.1 (self-identified Hispanics) percentage points due to their varying and comparatively smaller sample sizes. All respondents self-administered the survey online.
The research was commissioned by the Public Health Agency of Canada and was conducted by Nanos Research.
This publication reports the findings of this research.
To view the full report in English, click here.
To view the full report in French, click here.