Asian Dementia: A Public Poster on Prevention and Warning Signs
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Abstract
Introduction/Background
Dementia affects 55 million people worldwide, with 10 million patients added each year, and 60% of the global burden in Asia.
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is traditionally thought to be the main agent of dementia, but there is growing evidence of vascular dementia (VD) (“silent strokes”) being the driving agent of dementia, especially among East Asians.
This is an important geriatrics issue as there is lack of awareness of dementia within Asia and an even poorer understanding of VD.
Objectives
This poster aims to raise awareness of dementia in the Asian context, its prevention and early warning signs to educate the public.
We aim to share prevention strategies including diet, exercise and cognitive stimulation measures, while also sharing VD-specific preventive measures including reduction in smoking, adequate management of diabetes and hypertension.
Detection of early warning signs are crucial as patients who seek early interventions have shown to have reduced mortality and enhanced quality of life. We aim to raise awareness of early symptoms such as memory impairments, impaired judgement and confusion. We would also discuss AD-specific signs like gradual decline of short-term memory; VD-specific signs like rapid decline of memory and associated subtle physical signs like numbness in parts of the body.
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
© Journal of Asian Medical Students’ Association (JAMSA). Released under a Creative Commons license.
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