Research on the etiological characteristics of Alzheimer's disease has yielded inconsistent results. It is suggested that this may be due to the unidirectional focus on biomedical attributes, and the failure to consider psychosocial factors in combination with the biomedical characteristics. A biopsychosocial model of Alzheimer's disease, which integrates the biomedical dimension with psychosocial stressors and social support is proposed and tested in a sample of 172 geriatric patients using polychotomous logistic regression. Results find support for the implication of stress in the disease process, but fail to find a relationship between social support and Alzheimer's disease. It is concluded that the ultimate value of a biopsychosocial model of Alzheimer's disease rests in its identification of psychosocial factors, that could result in the prevention of the development of the disease.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.59861 |
| Date | January 1990 |
| Creators | Tepper, Sherri |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Arts (Department of Sociology.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001171779, proquestno: AAIMM66499, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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