Skip to main content

Dementia prevention and therapies

Guest Editors:
Shanquan Chen: The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, UK
Feng Sha: Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, China 
Zhirong Yang: Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, China 

Submission Status: Closed   |   Submission Deadline: 30 April 2024


BMC Medicine called for submissions to our Collection on Dementia prevention and therapies.

Dementia refers to syndrome associated with a decline in memory and neurocognitive function. The Global Dementia Observatory estimates that there are currently 55.2 million people living with some form of Dementia. Aging tends to be a major risk factor for development of Dementia with risk increasing from 1 in 14 for those aged over 65 to 1 in 6 for those over the age of 80. Partially because of individuals living longer lives this poses a major concern for society. As such the number of people living with Dementia are predicted to rise from 55 million to 139 million by the year 2050. This presents a major threat to health globally as recognised by the UN’s aim of 2021-2030 decade of improving the lives of older people. There is a clear need for a focus on interventions across the board which can help to address dementia progression.

Meet the Guest Editors

Back to top

Shanquan Chen: The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, UK
Dr. Chen has a Master’s degree in health economics and a Doctorate degree in public health with a focus on epidemiology and health economics. Dr. Chen has been working as a post-doctoral researcher at the Department of Psychiatry in University of Cambridge and followed by an Assistant Professor at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. Their research focuses on psychiatry and geriatrics. All are interpreted broadly to include well-being related to mental health and cognitive/aging health, rather than only disease meeting diagnostic criteria. From a clinical view, Dr. Chen is primarily focusing on the diagnosis, prognosis, and medicine management of mild cognitive disorders and dementia. In the public health and global health view, They are also especially focusing on social support and health service utilization, as well as corresponding equity, for people with cognitive disorders.

Feng Sha: Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, China 
Feng Sha is an associate professor at Shenzhen Institute of Advanced technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. As a health data scientist in the field of neuroepidemiology and population health, he focuses on using mathematical models, statistics methods and machine learning techniques to conduct epidemiological studies on dementia, mild cognitive impairment and mental health. His recent work includes AI-based screening models for mild cognitive impairment, exploring modifiable risk factors for dementia and epidemiological issues in using routine healthcare data to conduct medical research.

Zhirong Yang:  Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, China
Dr. Zhirong Yang is an Assistant Professor and Research Associate Professor in Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He obtained a PhD degree in public health and primary care from University of Cambridge, continuing as a Visiting Researcher there with his research on cardiovascular disease and dementia. He also holds a bachelor’s degree in medicine and master’s degrees in epidemiology and in primary care research. He was a Visiting Research Fellow in the Department of Population Medicine at Harvard University in 2018. During two years before his PhD, he worked as a Biostatistician in Shantou-Oxford Clinical Research Unit and then as a Research Associate in Peking University School of Public Health. He has been serving as an Editorial Board Member for BMC Medicine since 2020. He has published over 100 research papers. His current research interests are in the use of routine healthcare data and evidence synthesis to inform the prevention and management of cardiovascular disease and dementia.

About the collection

BMC Medicine called for submissions to our Collection on Dementia prevention and therapies.

Dementia refers to syndrome associated with a decline in memory and neurocognitive function. The Global Dementia Observatory estimates that there are currently 55.2 million people living with some form of Dementia. Aging tends to be a major risk factor for development of Dementia with risk increasing from 1 in 14 for those aged over 65 to 1 in 6 for those over the age of 80. Partially because of individuals living longer lives this poses a major concern for society. As such the number of people living with Dementia are predicted to rise from 55 million to 139 million by the year 2050. This presents a major threat to health globally as recognised by the UN’s aim of 2021-2030 decade of improving the lives of older people. There is a clear need for a focus on interventions across the board which can help to address dementia progression.

Dementia may primarily comprise a collection of negative neurological symptoms including memory loss, cognition, and mood. Impact on the ability to function adequately in these capacities can have secondary effects on wellbeing in the form of the loss of ability to socialize, movement disorders, compromised judgment, etc. Research which attempts to implement interventions or reveal gaps in which therapies are needed, which address all or some aspects of Dementia are and will be incredibly important in society moving forward.

Recognizing the importance of interventions targeting and addressing Dementia, BMC Medicine invited submissions of:

  • Trials, cohort studies, nested case-control studies, and systematic reviews and meta-analysis looking at interventions aimed at Dementia symptom therapy (pharmacological)
  • Studies addressing secondary effects of Dementia (non-pharmacological, psycho-social interventions, behavioral)
  • Studies looking at global/local healthcare gaps in Dementia therapy
  • Improvements in preventative Dementia Therapies

Image credit: ThitareeSarmkasat / Getty Images / iStock

  1. Benzodiazepine use is common, particularly in older adults. Benzodiazepines have well-established acute adverse effects on cognition, but long-term effects on neurodegeneration and dementia risk remain uncertain.

    Authors: Ilse vom Hofe, Bruno H. Stricker, Meike W. Vernooij, M. Kamran Ikram, M. Arfan Ikram and Frank J. Wolters
    Citation: BMC Medicine 2024 22:266
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  2. Interest in modifiable risk factors (MRFs) for dementia is high, given the personal, social, and economic impact of the disorder, especially in ageing societies such as the United Kingdom. Exploring the popula...

    Authors: Shanquan Chen, Benjamin R. Underwood, Rudolf N. Cardinal, Xi Chen, Shu Chen, Jay Amin, Huajie Jin, Jing Huang, Christoph Mueller, Lijing L. Yan, Carol Brayne and Hannah Kuper
    Citation: BMC Medicine 2024 22:268
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  3. Peripheral glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and neurofilament light chain (NfL) are sensitive markers of neuroinflammation and neuronal damage. Previous studies with highly selected participants have sho...

    Authors: Xiaofei Wang, Ziyan Shi, Yuhan Qiu, Dongren Sun and Hongyu Zhou
    Citation: BMC Medicine 2024 22:192
    Content type: Research article Published on:

Submission Guidelines

Back to top

This Collection welcomes submission of Research Articles. Should you wish to submit a different article type, please read our submission guidelines to confirm that type is accepted by the journal..

To submit your manuscript to this Collection, please use our online submission system and indicate in your covering letter that you would like the article to be considered for inclusion in the "Dementia prevention and therapies" Collection.

All articles submitted to Collections are peer reviewed in line with the journal’s standard peer review policy and are subject to all of the journal’s standard editorial and publishing policies. This includes the journal’s policy on competing interests. 

The Guest Editors have no competing interests with the submissions which they handle through the peer review process. The peer review of any submissions for which the Guest Editors have competing interests is handled by another Editor or Editorial Board Member who has no competing interests.