Action Plans on Dementia from the WHO and 25 Countries (Regions) and Implications for China

Abstract

Dementia is a major public health challenge associated with population aging. This paper introduces the background of the development of WHO "Global Action Plan on the Public Health Response to Dementia 2017—2025", with a focus on targets set across seven areas: dementia as a public health priority, dementia awareness and friendliness, dementia risk reduction, dementia diagnosis, treatment, care and support, support for dementia carers, information systems for dementia, and dementia research and innovation. We found 25 countries (regions) who have developed policies, strategies, plans or action frameworks on dementia since 2009, with targets involving areas of prevention, intervention, research, support, implementation, legislation and evaluation. As China still lacks a national dementia action plan, we put forward the following recommendations on the development of a China's national action plan on dementia: referring to the action priorities and specific measures for containing dementia of the WHO and 25 countries (regions) ; appropriately drawing lessons from successful experiences of WHO Member States in early screening for dementia in high-risk groups, reducing dementia risk factors, developing long-term dementia care insurance, creating a dementia friendly social environment, and building a national dementia monitoring system.

Keywords

• dementia|alzheimer disease|national health programs|health services for the aged|health information systems|insurance, long-term care|review