What Non-Professional Community Members From Minority Groups in Israel Think About Alzheimer’s Disease: A Comparative Perspective

Abstract

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia worldwide, yet awareness, diagnosis-seeking, and caregiving practices are strongly shaped by cultural and social contexts. Minority groups often face compounded barriers due to stigma, limited knowledge, and systemic inequalities. In Israel, a multicultural society, little is known about how non-professional community members from different minority groups perceive AD, seek diagnosis, and conceptualize appropriate care. We conducted a qualitative comparative study using six focus groups with 43 non-professional community members from three minority groups in Israel: Israeli Arabs (n = 14), immigrants from the Former Soviet Union (FSU; n = 15), and Ethiopia (n = 14). Discussions were conducted in Arabic, Russian, and Hebrew, audio-recorded, transcribed, and analyzed thematically. Three overarching themes emerged across groups: (1) Stigma: across all groups, participants demonstrated limited knowledge and misconceptions about AD, accompanied by stigmatizing stereotypes, fear, and behavioral responses such as social distancing, with variations in how stigma was expressed; (2) Diagnosis-seeking patterns: Participants from Arab community and Ethiopian descent reported delayed help-seeking linked to low awareness, stigma, and cultural or spiritual interpretations, whereas FSU participants more often emphasized consulting physicians, despite ongoing confusion between normal aging and AD; (3) Care preferences: Participants from Arab community and Ethiopian descent strongly preferred family-based home care, reflecting cultural and religious obligations, whereas FSU immigrants expressed greater support for institutional care, shaped by medicalized perceptions of dementia, their older age profile, and smaller family caregiving networks. The findings highlight both shared and culturally specific perceptions of AD among minority groups in Israel and demonstrate how stigma, diagnosis-seeking, and care preferences are closely interconnected. These insights underscore the need for culturally responsive public education, stigma-sensitive communication in primary care, and efforts to support earlier recognition and engagement with diagnostic services that account for diverse understandings of aging and dementia. At the system level, the findings point to the importance of targeted community outreach, culturally adapted information and interpretation services, and flexible care arrangements that better align formal dementia services with family-based caregiving norms across minority communities.