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China: How to deal with dementia during the COVID-19 pandemic

November 10, 2020

dementia during the COVID-19 pandemic, frost and sullivan — © Imtmphoto

Cecilia Van Cauwenberghe from Frost & Sullivan’s TechVision Group, focuses on China, in terms of how to deal with dementia during the COVID-19 pandemic

According to World Health Organization (WHO) estimates, the number of Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) lost due to neurological diseases is expected to rise from 95 million worldwide in 2015 to 103 million in 2030. DALYs lost in connection with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia will rise in the main part by around 28%. Equivalent years lost due to infectious neurological diseases are expected to fall by 37%.

In particular, China accounts for the largest population of patients with dementia in the world (Jia et al., 2020). Indeed, dementia constitutes one of the most notable reasons for disability in people older than 65. This situation led the Chinese Government to issue new health policies that enhance care systems, including new facilities, for citizens older than 65. In fact, the Chinese 13th Five-Year Plan was speciﬁcally designed to manage dementia by increasing the access of patients with dementia to healthcare services, including the availability of neuroimaging technologies, as well as, to educate doctors and caregivers.

Double pandemic: Dementia + COVID-19

With dementia emerging as a pandemic illness in an ageing society, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has generated a signiﬁcant concern for people living with dementia, particularly in China (Wang et al., 2020). From inconveniences in remembering precaution procedures, including wearing masks and washing hands, to diﬃculties in the understanding of the public health information provided to them, people suﬀering from dementia may be exposed to a higher likelihood of infection.

Furthermore, lockdown and other preventive measures implemented to prevent the broad spread of the outbreak have aﬀected patients with dementia even more adversely by being isolated from their regular support healthcare systems and caregivers (Canevelli et al., 2020).

Diagnostic and therapeutic aspects for dementia in China

The early detection and management of dementia before their onset is being facilitated through a variety of diagnoses and treatment methods. Positron Emission Tomography (PET) imaging of certain protein tangles in the brain, using new PET tracers, is playing an important role in early diagnostics, as well as, in assessing clinical trials for disease-modifying therapies. Artiﬁcial intelligence (AI) and deep learning (DL) approaches have started empowering neuroimaging solutions by perceiving complex patterns. Moreover, DL is projected to constitute a useful tool in the current search for biomarkers (Lal, 2018).

Regarding therapeutics, China utilises medication approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Chinese National Medical Products Administration (NMPA). Cholinesterase inhibitors, including donepezil and rivastigmine, both FDA approved, and the receptor antagonist memantine, NMDA approved, represent the ﬁrst line of medication administered (Jia et al., 2020).

Final remarks

Beyond local new policies attempting to help people with dementia in China, prolonged self-isolation due to the COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly impacted the access of patients to healthcare systems. Moreover, lockdown has contributed to adverse eﬀects including feelings of loneliness, behavioural modiﬁcations and routine disruptions, in addition to acute events that would require hospitalisation. Important modiﬁcations in the delivery of care in the post-emergency phase are crucially necessary in China for people with dementia.