Health Checking

Participants will receive a free cognitive and mental health assessment which helps them understand their physical and mental status. Each participant will receive a brief report of the assessment results and HKD 200 supermarket shopping coupon. For participant who are identified to have dementia or mental disorders but not yet assessed under clinical settings, our research team will prepare written referral letters for consultation, assessment and care at appropriate settings after obtaining the consent of the participants or their caregivers.

Why detecting dementia early?

Hong Kong enjoys the world's longest life expectancy. In 2018, woman in Hong Kong is expected to live till 87.66 and an average man is expected 81.7. While many elders enjoy healthy lives, a proportion will develop dementia, a neurodegnerative condition that gets increasing common with advancing age.

Dementia is a chronic disease that span over decades of life. It causes cognitive impairment, affect mood and behavior, leading to loss of ability to live independently. Because of the subtle and insidious changes in memory and other functioning, dementia frequently escapes attention.

Early identification of symptoms of dementia may not totally cure the disease, but will help to treat other health conditions that may aggravate the degenerative process. Drugs and no drug interventions may also help to optimise our brain's ability to cope with degeneration.

Psychological health for everyone

Being healthy is a basic requirement for life with quality. However, it is frequently missed that psychological health is equally important as physical health. Without good psychological health, it is extremely hard to enjoy a state with subjective well being. Also, ample research suggest that people with chronic physical health problems are at higher risks of having mental illnesses.

Depression and anxiety are common in older people. They may aggravate cognitive problems and pose additional risks to the person. For example, depression is associated with poor prognosis after cardiac attacks or strokes.

As mental disorders are highly treatable conditions, early recognition will have significant positive impact to quality of life and functioning.