Page 45 - 2022 Taiwan Health and Welfare Report

Chapter 3 Active Aging and Prevention of
Noncommunicable Diseases
Taiwan has become an aged society by 2018. An aging population, a sedentary lifestyle and Western diets have increased the number of people suffering from chronic illness. To raise the quality of life of elderlies, the MOHW promotes health awareness among elderly persons, age- friendly cities, and the prevention of major chronic diseases and cancer.
▏Section 1 Health Promotion for Middle- Aged and Older People
1. In order to achieve early identification of risk factors for chronic illness so that early intervention and treatment can be implemented, the MOHW offers a free preventive health service for adults (once every three years for people aged 40-64 and annually for people aged 65 and over) available at more than 7,000 health institutions and via community screening services. In 2020, a total of 1.93 million people utilized the screening service.
2. For our promotion of dementia-friendly communities, the MOHW has referred to WHO's "Global action plan on the public health response to dementia 2017-2025" in the formulation of Taiwan's" Dementia Prevention and Care Guidelines 2.0". The guidelines featured seven major areas of action, including "Boosting dementia awareness and dementia- friendliness" and "Lowering risks of incidence".
(1) The MOHW offered subsidies to local governments for the establishment of 76 dementia-friendly communities and recruited 516,000 "dementia- friendly angels" (residents) and 12,000 organizations were brought together to form dementia-friendly community networks. Meanwhile, workshops and events were organized over 1,700 such sessions with more than 320,000 attendees.
(2) During 2018-2021, over 1.56 million citizens and professionals attended the aforesaid sessions and events. The MOHW towards
the goal of creating a dementia-friendly country by 2025 and having more than 7% of the population build an accurate understanding and adopt a friendly stance toward dementia.
3. Under the Integrated Program for Preventing Dementia, local health bureaus are designated as resource integration workstations. They are responsible for checking community health resources and services and building interagency or cross-sector partnerships with the relevant medical care network, hospitals, village heads, and community offices. They are to draw on resources linkage and transfer to help people with problems secure resources or services.
4. In 2021, the handling of the Senior Age- Friendly City and Community Plans by 22 cities/ counties health bureaus and 166 communities were subsidized.
5. In line with the MOHW's policy adjustment in response to the pandemic, the handling of elderly friendly health care certification was suspended in 2021 and certification validity extended by two years; promotion by clinic self-assessment was developed, with 107 clinics passing self-assessment.
6. The results of the Taiwan Longitudinal Study on Aging by the HPA, MOHW in 2015 showed that around 60% of people aged 65 and over have two or more chronic diseases. From 2019, elderly friendly hospital care has been promoted. In 2021, 52 hospitals were subsidized to assist elderly people reduce incapacity during acute treatment and build a transition network with community resources, to allow elderly people to receive continuous integrated assessment and care services.
7. To prevent and delay elderly incapacity, functional assessment services covering cognition, movement, nutrition, hearing, vision and depression for elderly aged 65 and over have been trialed. In 2021, 77,000 people were served and around 12,000 were found to have functional abnormality. Also, in 2020, The Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program- Urban-Rural Construction 2.0 Public Service Location Preparation- Elderly Fitness Center Subsidy program was handled, subsidizing local government to use idle
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An Environment Conducive to Health