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Background: There is a dearth of information on male dementia caregivers in Asia and, in particular, on the factors relating to caregiver burden. We aimed to identify factors that may be associated with burden among male caregivers of people with dementia (PWD)., Methods: Data were collected from a national dementia registration survey. The caregiver burden was measured with the short version of the Zarit Burden Interview (ZBI). We analyzed the correlation between ZBI scores and variables, such as demographic data of PWD and their male caregivers, caregivers' monthly income, the relationship between PWD and caregivers, the severity of dementia, physical comorbidities and activities of daily living (ADL) of PWD, and neuropsychiatric symptoms assessed by the Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI)., Results: A total of 509 PWD and their male caregivers were included. The majority of caregivers were sons (72.1%) and husbands (22.0%). Sons had higher ZBI scores than husbands (28.5 ± 15.2 vs 22.0 ± 17.0; p < 0.001). Multivariable linear regression showed that sons as caregivers (β = 7.44, p = 0.034), ADL (β = 0.52, p = 0.002), and NPI&#95;severity subscore of apathy (β = 2.74, p = 0.001) were positively associated with ZBI scores., Conclusion: Poor ADL and apathy in PWD and being a patient's son were associated with higher levels of burden among male dementia caregivers. Effective interventions are needed to assist male caregivers in accomplishing their caregiving role and at the same time to alleviate their caregiver burden., Competing Interests: Conflicts of interest: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest related to the subject matter or materials discussed in this article., (Copyright © 2022, the Chinese Medical Association.)

Background: Previous studies in western countries have shown that about 30%-50% of patients with frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) have a positive family history, whereas the few epidemiological studies on FTLD done in Asia reported much lower frequencies. It is not clear the reason why the frequencies of FTLD with positive family history were lower in Asia. Furthermore, these findings were not from studies focused on family history. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct further studies on the family history of FTLD in Asia. This international multi-center research aims to investigate the family histories in patients with FTLD and related neurodegenerative diseases such as progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), corticobasal syndrome (CBS), and motor neuron diseases in a larger Asian cohort., Methods: Participants were collected from five countries: India, Indonesia, Japan, Taiwan, and Philippines. All patients were diagnosed with behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD), semantic dementia (SD), progressive non-fluent aphasia (PA), frontotemporal dementia with motor neuron disease (FTD/MND), PSP, and corticobasal degeneration (CBD) according to international consensus criteria. Family histories of FTLD and related neurodegenerative diseases were investigated in each patient., Results: Ninety-one patients were included in this study. Forty-two patients were diagnosed to have bvFTD, two patients had FTD/MND, 22 had SD, 15 had PA, one had PA/CBS, five had CBS and four patients had PSP. Family history of any FTLD spectrum disorder was reported in 9.5% in bvFTD patients but in none of the SD or PA., Conclusion: In contrast to patients of the western countries, few Asian FTLD patients have positive family histories of dementia.

The Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI) was introduced in 1994 and has since become a standard instrument for clinical trials and other types of behavioral research in dementing disorders. Its reliability and validity have been confirmed. The NPI was the subject of a workshop in Asia in conjunction with the International Workgroup on Dementia Drug Guidelines (IWG). Investigators using the NPI from 4 Asian areas--Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, Thailand--presented conclusions from their research. A high prevalence of behavioral disturbances across Asian countries was found and the rates are similar to those observed in Western countries. Apathy is more difficult to detect and characterize in Asian populations. Neurobiologic studies show an excess of some serotonin receptor gene polymorphisms in patients without behavioral disturbances and positron emission tomography reveals reductions in frontal lobe metabolism in patients manifesting depression as measured by the NPI. Studies in Thailand show relationships among verbal fluency, activities of daily living, and neuropsychiatric symptoms particularly agitation, apathy, and disinhibition. This suggests a triad of symptoms of behavioral abnormalities, executive dysfunction, and abnormalities of activities of daily living that impugn frontal lobe function. The NPI is a reliable and useful instrument to characterize behavioral changes in Asian and Western populations.

We conducted the first population-based migraine survey in Taipei, Taiwan, using a validated questionnaire administered by interviewers during the period from August 1997 to June 1998. Our target population comprised all individuals (age > or = 15 years) in 1400 randomly selected households. Migraine diagnoses were made according to the classification criteria of migraine without aura proposed by the International Headache Society, 1988, except that attacks with a duration of between 2 h and 4 h were also included. Of the 4434 eligible subjects in the 1211 respondent households, 3377 (76%) completed the questionnaire. After adjustment for age and sex distribution according to the population structure, the prevalence of migraine was 9.1% (F/M 14.4%/4.5%). Fifty-four percent of the subjects with migraine had consulted a physician about their headaches in the past year. However, only 18% of them reported that their migraine had been diagnosed by physicians. This study found that Taipei residents have the highest migraine prevalence of all Chinese populations studied, although it is still in the low range of prevalence compared with the results from Western countries.