More than 100 people yesterday participated in a day-long program of free dementia screenings at Taipei Medical University’s Shuang Ho Hospital that aimed to raise awareness of a syndrome expected to become more prevalent as the nation ages.
The program, which attracted about 150 participants, included a dementia questionnaire, the Montreal Cognitive Assessment test and a memory test, as well as measurements of blood cholesterol, blood pressure and blood sugar, hospital Department of Medical Administration official Hsieh Heng-ju (謝亨如) said.
“Taiwan’s transition into an aging society has brought about an increase in the number of patients with dementia, with about 8 percent of the nation’s population of people aging 65 or older — which equals nearly 150,000 individuals — suffering from dementia or minor cognitive impairment,” hospital Department of Geriatric Psychiatry physician Lee Yao-tung (李耀東) said.
Lee said there are two types of dementia: primary degenerative dementia, which accounts for 70 to 80 percent of cases; and secondary dementia, which is responsible for 10 to 20 percent of cases.
In addition to the common early dementia symptom of memory loss, Lee said prolonged behavioral or emotional changes, such as depression or an inclination to get angry, could also be warning signs.
Hospital Department of Neurology director Hu Chaur-Jong (胡朝榮) said awareness of dementia is still relatively low in Taiwan, which could impede early diagnosis and treatment.
“The earlier the disease is caught, the more likely sufferers can control and assuage their conditions, maintain their cognitive function, have a better quality of life and reduce the burden on their caregivers,” Hu said.
Frequent engagement in brain-based activities, regular exercise and a balanced diet are keys to preventing dementia, Hu said.
The hospital plans to open special wards at the end of the year to provide comprehensive care for dementia patients.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching