Skip to main content

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Children and Health
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1401806
This article is part of the Research Topic How School Health and Nutrition Interventions are Reshaping the Global Public Health Narrative View all 6 articles

"Establishing healthy habits and lifestyles early is very important": Parental views on brain health literacy on dementia prevention in preschool and primary school children

Provisionally accepted
Joyce Siette Joyce Siette 1*Tayla M. Chalhoub Tayla M. Chalhoub 1Erin Mackenzie Erin Mackenzie 2
  • 1 The MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development, Western Sydney University, Penrith, New South Wales, Australia
  • 2 School of Education, Western Sydney University, Penrith, New South Wales, Australia

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Parents have the potential to drive healthy lifestyle behaviors through educational initiatives. This study aims to understand the prevalent thoughts and perceptions parents have towards brain health educational programs for preschool and primary school settings, whilst also contributing to a comprehensive understanding of the role parents can play in the broader context of dementia reduction strategies and the cultivation of brain health awareness among children.Parents with children aged between two and eleven years old were interviewed about their current knowledge of dementia, prior beliefs, current lifestyle factors and opinions on educating their children from a young age on the topic of dementia literacy. Thematic deductive analysis was employed to systematically categorize and interpret the qualitative data obtained from these interviews.Thirty parents (Mage = 38.6, SD = 4.9, Range = 32 -48) identified three core themes on nurturing bodies and minds (e.g., conceptualizing the link between intellectual engagement, continuous learning, and the prevention of cognitive decline), brain health literacy (e.g., current knowledge and awareness of brain health, dementia and associated stigma, and provision of ageappropriate health literacy) and parental concerns (i.e., barriers to initiating conversations about dementia with children and strategies to address and alleviate parental concerns). Parents possessing prior knowledge of dementia and its modifiable risk factors exhibited greater propensity to educate their children on the associated risk factors.Our study highlights the vital influence of parents' experiences, health literacy, and education on the acceptance of brain health education for children. Future interventions should target stigma reduction, enhance awareness, and offer accessible information on modifiable dementia risk factors, fostering a conducive environment for active parental involvement in educating children about brain health and contributing to future well-being.

    Keywords: Dementia, Parents, barriers, Acceptability, Facilitators

    Received: 16 Mar 2024; Accepted: 26 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Siette, Chalhoub and Mackenzie. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Joyce Siette, The MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development, Western Sydney University, Penrith, New South Wales, Australia

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.