Perceived rights of and social distance to people with Alzheimer's disease

The present study investigated how laypeople and professionals (N = 185) judge the rights of a person affected with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and whether social distance exists towards this person. Participants completed a questionnaire after reading a vignette describing a target person with an early stage of AD. Half of the participants responded to a female target, the other half responded to a male target. Results showed that rights and competencies of the persons are rated high and social distance is exhibited only to a lesser degree, although there was a significant difference between the male and female target. Furthermore, health professionals approved more rights than laypeople, which suggests that there is a need for more detailed information about this disease in the general population.