The number of people with dementia in Taiwan is estimated to grow to more than 930,000 by 2061, the Taiwan Alzheimer’s Disease Association, along with several non-governmental organizations, said yesterday, calling on the government, presidential candidates and political parties to take the issue seriously.
Association chairman Lai Te-jen (賴德仁) said the number of people with dementia, about 240,000, is equal to the population of Changhua City, and they estimate that the number is expected to increase rapidly in the coming years, possibly reaching its peak in 2041 with an average increase of 63 people per day.
Early symptoms of dementia include delusions of being robbed, jealousy or suspicions of infidelity, which cause patients to worry about their possessions getting stolen and to carry them around at all times, and to question whether their spouse is cheating on them, Lai said, adding that some behaviors might cause their family members to quit their jobs to take care of them.
The average prevalence of dementia in the six special municipalities is 6.57 percent, said Hsu Wen-chuin (徐文俊), association executive and director of Linkou Chang Gung Memorial Hospital’s dementia center, adding that the number increases to 14.03 percent in areas beyond the six special municipalities, which shows that medical resources for dementia prevention and care in areas outside of the municipalities are insufficient and in need of support.
In addition to differences in resources, the gap between the two rates might be attributed to differences in educational background, he said, adding that people should continue to keep learning new things throughout their lives, so that the brain can be continuously stimulated.
The diagnosis rate of the illness is less than 30 percent in the nation, because many patients seek medical treatment only when symptoms become serious, association secretary-general Tang Li-yu (湯麗玉) said.
Dementia can have serious consequences, such as people with dementia driving motor vehicles, people going missing and people with dementia trying take care of small children on their own, she added.
“Older people with dementia are like children, but are even more difficult to take care of, because you cannot reprimand them,” Tang said, adding that as the population is rapidly aging; dementia prevention measures must be taken as early as possible, because studies have shown that after the age of 70, the risk of dementia doubles every five years.
The association urged the Executive Yuan to establish an inter-departmental task force for dementia prevention and care, to plan preventive strategies, to promote a dementia-friendly society and to reinforce the training of primary medical personnel and caregivers for dementia treatment and care, as well as increase funding for dementia research.
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:
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