Guangzhou to screen all seniors in care homes for early signs of dementia

Guangzhou, capital of South China's Guangdong province, has screened some 400,000 people for cognitive conditions since April last year, utilizing a newly introduced digital dementia prevention and care network, according to the city's health commission.

For 2025-27, the Guangzhou Municipal Health Commission and the civil affairs bureau are running a screening program for the city's elderly care homes. The program aims to have screened all elderly care homes in the city by the end of 2027.

The commission disclosed the goal in a recent reply to proposals submitted by Ouyang Zhihong, a member of the standing committee of the Guangzhou Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, during the city's two sessions in January 2025.

Focusing on the prevention and treatment of Alzheimer's disease, Ouyang submitted two proposals offering suggestions from the perspectives of community screening and intervention, and the establishment of a three-tier medical consortium.

Ouyang, who is also executive president of the Guangdong Home-Care Services Association, called for comprehensive screenings among residents in communities across the city to achieve early and precise identification of people in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease and those at high risk. His proposals suggested that relevant departments establish a closed-loop system of "screening, intervention, publicity, education and promotion", and build a scientific, community-based screening framework.

At the community level, the proposals advocate conducting comprehensive screenings among residents across all communities by applying scientific assessment methods combined with professional clinical judgment. The goal is to enable early and precise identification of early-stage Alzheimer's disease patients and high-risk groups.

Through scientific evaluation and professional judgment, precise identification and dynamic tracking of these groups would be carried out, followed by the implementation of hierarchical, classified and diversified interventions, according to the proposals.

Specifically, personalized intervention plans would be formulated and implemented based on different disease stages — ranging from subjective cognitive decline and mild cognitive impairment to severe dementia — as well as different etiological types. This would form an interconnected closed loop of professional diagnosis in hospitals followed by continuous care in communities and families.

Ouyang said he hopes the efforts will help Guangzhou reach the target of there being no less than 80 percent of the city's elderly aware of dementia prevention.

According to the health commission, Guangzhou has established a solid top-level design for the prevention and treatment of Alzheimer's disease, with the initiative launched in April 2024.

One key achievement has been the widespread application of "Hui Ji Yi", or "Wisdom Memory", a smart screening mini-program. Integrated into the government's digital platform, the program provides convenient cognitive function screening services for elderly residents.

Using the mini-program, some 400,000 initial cognitive function screenings have been carried out, with 23,000 positive cases identified, enabling early warning and early intervention, the commission said.

At the community level, the city relies on family doctor service teams and integrates dementia prevention efforts into the national basic public health service for elderly health management.

Meanwhile, through the dementia prevention and treatment alliance in Guangzhou, a number of core hospitals have joined a regional responsibility system covering the city's 11 districts, coordinating dementia prevention and treatment efforts within their respective areas.

Chen Lingyi contributed to this story.

zhengcaixiong@chinadaily.com.cn