Menstrual knowledge, attitudes and behaviours among secondary school students in Uganda: a longitudinal study.

Dementia in older adults is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by cognitive decline, memory impairment, and abnormal behavior. It has an insidious onset, a long course, and progressive aggravation, and currently has no effective cure []. In recent years, the global number of older adults with dementia has continued to rise. It is estimated that by 2050, this number will reach 152 million, imposing an increasingly severe caregiving and economic burden on families and society []. In response to this challenge, global evidence indicates that strengthening prevention efforts can help maintain cognitive function or slow its decline [, ], while early diagnosis facilitates timely intervention []. Furthermore, early and comprehensive intervention can effectively delay cognitive deterioration [], and continuous professional support services can significantly reduce the burden on caregivers while improving the quality of life for patients and their families []. Therefore, to systematically address the multiple burdens brought by dementia, it is necessary to adopt a comprehensive, continuous, and integrated health service model. Such a model should promote the seamless integration of medical resources across the entire continuum from prevention, screening, and diagnosis to intervention and chronic management, and rely on multi-sector collaboration and strong system support to achieve service integration [, ]. For decades, policies worldwide have championed people-centered integrated care and the development of cohesive health service delivery systems [–]. However, dementia care for older adults continues to confront critical challenges: inefficient medical resource allocation and insufficient implementation of tiered healthcare arrangements [, ]; fragmented coordination across hospitals, communities, and families, which undermines the continuity and integrity of care []; and insufficient provision of essential services spanning early prevention, screening, and long-term support of elderly dementia is insufficient [–]. Collectively, these deficiencies highlight a substantial gap between the current service performance and policy aspirations for dementia care. Consequently, a well-defined and operationally feasible integrated health service model for elderly dementia remains to be established [–].