Knowledge, attitudes, and qualification needs of primary health care professionals in the care of dementia.

OBJECTIVE To identify the knowledge and attitudes of doctors and nurses in tracking, diagnosing, treating, and monitoring dementias and their educational needs in this area. METHOD Cross-sectional study, carried out among 195 doctors and 274 nurses working in teams of the Family Health Strategy (FHS) in the city of Sao Paulo. The instrument used was Health Care for Dementia: the Primary Care perspective. The data were submitted for descriptive statistics. RESULTS Among physicians, 64.1% reported routinely diagnosing dementia, but only 23.1% in the mild phase; 89.2% mentioned difficulties in identifying cases of the disease; 94.9%, difficulties in the treatment and monitoring of patients, including the needs to support the caregiver (28.2%); 84.6% of doctors and 79.2% of nurses reported difficulties in monitoring severe cases of the disease. CONCLUSION Gaps in knowledge were identified regarding the tracking and diagnosis of dementia, patient monitoring, diagnostic information, and support for the caregiver.