Impact of Alzheimer's Disease in Nine Asian Countries

Background: Asia will soon have the majority of demented patients in the world. Objective: To assess dementia using a uniform data system to update the current status of dementia in Asia. Methods: A uniformed data set was administered in Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, Korea, Japan, Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, and Indonesia to gather data with regard to Alzheimer's disease (AD) and its related issues for these countries. Results: In total, 2,370 AD patients and their caregivers were recruited from 2011 to 2014. The demographic characteristics of these patients and the relationships between patients and caregivers were different among individuals in these countries (p <0.001). Of note, the family history for having dementia was 8.2% for females in contrast to 3.2% for males. Conclusion: Our study highlighted the differences in dementia assessment and care in developing versus developed countries. Greater effort with regard to studying dementia, especially in developing countries, is necessary.