Nearly 400,000 Elderly with Dementia in Taiwan Experts Urge Hearing Screening in Adult Health Checks

According to estimates from the 'National Community Dementia Epidemiological Survey' and demographic structure, nearly 400,000 people aged 65 and above in Taiwan have dementia. Lin Yueh-chin, convener of the 'Dementia Initiative Promotion Committee' of the Legislative Yuan's Hou Sheng Association and Democratic Progressive Party legislator, along with Wang Cheng-hsu, deputy chair of the association and also a DPP legislator, convened today a panel of experts, scholars, and representatives from the Ministry of Health and Welfare to hold an expert meeting on the 'Policy Guidelines and Basic Law for Dementia.'

Yang Yuan-han, Director of the Neuroscience Research Center at Kaohsiung Medical University, pointed out that international studies have identified 14 major modifiable risk factors for dementia, with hearing loss and high LDL cholesterol being particularly critical. Taiwan has four additional risk factors: chronic kidney disease, heart failure, atrial fibrillation, stroke, and epilepsy.

Yang recommended including low-cost, high-impact hearing screening—strongly linked to dementia risk—into adult preventive healthcare to significantly enhance early prevention. He also noted that the current Long-Term Care Needs Level (CMS) assessment overly emphasizes physical disability, often underestimating the care needs of dementia patients with complex behavioral and psychological symptoms, leading to inadequate access to long-term care resources and systemic gaps.

Kuo Tzu-an, Deputy Superintendent of the Dementia Co-care Center at Chung Shan Medical University Hospital, stated that while recent years have seen efforts to promote dementia-friendly residents, organizations, and environments, implementation models and outcomes vary widely across counties and cities due to the lack of consistent evaluation standards and indicators. He recommended establishing national dementia-friendly community indicators and a rating system, and gradually developing specific benchmarks for dementia-friendly transportation, hospitals, financial institutions, and public service procedures.

Regarding the CMS scale, Chu Chien-fang, Director-General of the Long-Term Care Administration at the Ministry of Health and Welfare, explained that the original development process considered the needs of various disability groups, including weighted scoring for intellectual disabilities. She added that current policy emphasizes supporting dementia patients to continue living in the community, making functional disability assessments potentially misaligned with modern approaches. Whether CMS adjustments are needed will be further discussed with experts.

On the timeline for the release of the Dementia Prevention, Care, and Policy Framework 3.0, Chu said that due to calls for elevating the initiative from the Ministry level to the Executive Yuan level, the final decision awaits reporting to and approval by the Executive Yuan. (Edited by Su Lung-chi)