Supplementary Material for: Evaluation of a dementia training course for staff of a center of dementia care

Introduction: Literature shows poor dementia training and competencies among health and social professionals. Due to the growing prevalence of people with dementia and all the related care demands, specialized training is increasingly needed but must be effective in terms of impact on knowledge, behaviours and attitudes. We aimed to analyse the impact of a first-level dementia training course for staff of a new specialized center for people with dementia, considering the first three levels of Kirkpatrick’s evaluation framework, namely staff reaction (satisfaction), skills and learning (knowledge and dementia attitudes), and behaviour changes. Methods: Single-center group pre-post design study of a 12-session online course. An online questionnaire was administered to measure satisfaction, expectations, knowledge/learning, attitudes (Dementia Attitude Scale) and new behaviours/practices. We compared perceived knowledge (Wilcoxon signed-rank test) and attitudes (paired T-test). Thematic analysis explored new behaviours/practices. Results: 85 professionals and 1 volunteer were included (median age 31, 92% female). Satisfaction with the training was high (median 4/5). Perceived knowledge improved (median 3 to 4; p˂0.001). The knowledge test median score was 70.8%. After training, participants showed better attitudes towards dementia (mean 116.5, SD 10.3 to mean 122.2, SD 11.5; p˂0.001). Most (93%) said their behaviour/practice changed. Thematic analysis yielded four new behaviour/practice dimensions: knowledge, care provision/interaction, communication, family/caregivers, self-confidence and importance of physical environment. Conclusions: The course improved all dimensions evaluated, suggesting it effectively provides first-level dementia training. This may be transferable to similar settings.