Over 90% of dementia cases in China are undetected

A survey of 7,072 older adults in six provinces across China, with one rural and one urban community in each province, has identified 359 older adults with dementia and 328 with depression. There were only 26 participants who had doctor-diagnosed dementia reported and 26 who had doctor-diagnosed depression. Overall, 93% of dementia cases and 93% of depression were not detected.

Undetected dementia was strongly associated with low socioeconomic status such as a low educational and occupational class, and living in a rural area.

In comparison, research in high income countries has found that about 60% of older adults with dementia are not diagnosed, and generally there has not been a strong association between low socioeconomic status and undetected dementia. One factor in China’s high rate may be that most older Chinese live with their families, who may be inclined to see dementia as a normal part of aging.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-07/kcl-o9072413.php

 

New estimates of dementia in China

A new review of 89 studies, involving more than 340,000 participants in total, has estimated that 9.19 million people in China had dementia in 2010, of whom 5.69 million had Alzheimer’s disease. Previous studies appear to have considerably underestimated the true burden of dementia in China, largely due to limited data availability. However, this study examined a much wider range of data sources than earlier studies, including many Chinese-language reports.

Of the 340 247 participants, 6357 had Alzheimer's disease (1.87%). Of 254,367 assessed for other forms of dementia, 3543 (1.4%) had vascular dementia, frontotemporal dementia, or Lewy body dementia.

Total dementia prevalence in 1990 was 1·8% at 65-69 years, and 42·1% at age 95-99 years; in 2010, prevalence had increased to 2·6% and 60·5%, respectively.

Prevalence was higher for women than men, but didn't differ significantly between urban and rural residents.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-06/l-mco060513.php

[3561] Chen, R., Hu Z., Chen R-L., Ma Y., Zhang D., & Wilson K.
(2013).  Determinants for undetected dementia and late-life depression.
The British Journal of Psychiatry. 203(3), 203 - 208.

[3559] Chan, K Y., Wang W., Wu J J., Liu L., Theodoratou E., Car J., et al.
(2013).  Epidemiology of Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia in China, 1990–2010: a systematic review and analysis.
The Lancet. 381(9882), 2016 - 2023.

Related News

In the past few months, several studies have come out showing the value of three different tests of people's sense of smell for improving the accuracy of

A study comparing the language abilities of 22 healthy young individuals, 24 healthy older individuals and 22 people with

Following on from a previous study showing that such a virtual supermarket game administered by a trained professional can detect

Data from the Women's Health Initiative Memory Study, involving 6,467 postmenopausal women (65+) who reported some level of caffeine consumption, has found that those who consumed above average amounts of coffee had a lower risk of developing dementia.

Our bodies’ ability to regulate its temperature gets worse with age, along with a slowing metabolism. We also become more vulnerable to Alzheimer's as we age. A study compared mice genetically engineered to manifest Alzheimer's symptoms as they age with normal mice.

People with Alzheimer's disease develop problems in recognizing familiar faces. It has been thought that this is just part of their general impairment, but a new study indicates that a specific, face-related impairment develops early in the disease.

Data from 876 patients (average age 78) in the 30-year Cardiovascular Health Study show that virtually any type of aerobic physical activity can improve brain volume and reduce Alzheimer's risk.

A study involving 100 older adults (aged 80-99) with hearing loss has found that those who used a hearing aid performed significantly better on a cognitive test (MMSE) than those who didn't use a hearing aid, despite having poorer hearing.

A study involving 65 older adults (average age 66), of whom 35 had type 2 diabetes, has found that after two years, those with diabetes had decreases in their ability to regulate blood flow in the brain, and a reduced ability to regulate blood flow was associated with lower cognitive scores.

A small study that fitted 29 young adults (18-31) and 31 older adults (55-82) with a device that recorded steps taken and the vigor and speed with which they were made, has found that those older adults with a higher step rate performed better on memory tasks than those who were more sedentary.

Pages

Subscribe to Latest newsSubscribe to Latest newsSubscribe to Latest health newsSubscribe to Latest news
Error | About memory

Error

The website encountered an unexpected error. Please try again later.