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Review
. 2018 Nov;47(11):1615-1626.

The Prevalence of Alzheimer's Disease in China: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Kanglan Li  1 , Shouchao Wei  2 , Zhou Liu  1 , Li Hu  2 , Jiajing Lin  2 , Shiting Tan  2 , Yingren Mai  2 , Wanjuan Peng  2 , Hui Mai  1 , Qi Hou  2 , Guifeng Tu  2
Affiliations
Review

The Prevalence of Alzheimer's Disease in China: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Kanglan Li et al. Iran J Public Health. 2018 Nov.

Abstract

Background: Several studies have investigated the prevalence of Alzheimer's disease (AD) among the general population in several parts of China. However, the results have been inconsistent. This meta-analysis was conducted to estimate the overall prevalence of AD between 2007 and 2017 in China.

Methods: English and Chinese electronic databases were searched with a date range from Nov 2007 to Nov 2017 and the reference lists of the included studies were screened as well. Cross-sectional studies addressing the prevalence of AD among the general Chinese population were retrieved irrespective of the age, location or sex of the participants. Study quality was assessed using the recommended checklist of STROBE.

Results: Overall, 184058 subjects and 7445 patients with AD were included from 17 studies in this meta-analysis. The overall prevalence of AD in China was calculated to be 0.04(95% CI:0.04-0.05). The prevalence was higher in older age groups, among females, and in the rural areas of the country, with an increasing trend in recent years.

Conclusion: AD is a common problem among those in the Chinese population older than 65 yr. Furthermore, an increasing trend of the disease over the past 10 years is indicative of a critical public health problem in China in the near future. Further evidence based on a national survey is needed to estimate the exact prevalence of the disease in the country.

Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease; China; Dementia; Meta-analysis; Prevalence; Systematic review.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests.

Figures

Fig. 1:
Fig. 1:
Flow diagram of the study identification process
Fig. 2:
Fig. 2:
Forest plot for the pooled prevalence and confidence intervals of AD in China obtained from the meta-analysis (arranged by survey chronologically from 2007 to 2017)
Fig. 3:
Fig. 3:
A forest plot displaying the pooled prevalence of AD in rural regions in China
Fig. 4:
Fig. 4:
A forest plot displaying the pooled prevalence of AD in urban regions in China
Fig. 5:
Fig. 5:
A forest plot displaying the risk of AD among females vs. males in China
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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