摘要：雅思中國網雅思君這里跟大家分享一篇雅思課外讀物：China is ill prepared for a consequence of ageing: lots of people with dementia？人口老齡化集中表現在老年癡呆的人越來越多，關于這個現狀，《經濟學人》怎么看呢，一起來探個明白吧！

很多備考雅思的同學回去看《經濟學人》，這對我們雅思的學習有很大的幫助！今天這里分享一篇《經濟學人》中跟中國人口老齡化問題相關的文章，題目叫做China is ill prepared for a consequence of ageing: lots of people with dementia!老齡癡呆癥，中國還沒準備好怎樣應付！關于這樣的問題，還是一起來看看這篇文章吧！

ON a stage decorated with tinsel(金箔) and fairy lights, Liu Changsheng is singing “The East is Red” into a microphone, wearing a yellow and grey tracksuit(運動套裝). For Mr Liu, the Maoist anthem(贊美詩;頌歌) of the 1960s may arouse memories more vivid than those he has of his immediate past. Now in his seventies, he has dementia(癡呆癥), an incurable brain disease that is often revealed by a loss of short-term memory(短時記憶). For two years Mr Liu has lived at the Qianhe Nursing Home in northern Beijing in a facility for around 75 dementia patients. They are among the few sufferers of this condition in China who receive specialist care.

Dementia has mostly been a rich-world sickness, because it becomes more common as people live longer. China is fast catching up. Life expectancy(期待壽命) increased from 45 in 1960 to 77 now, and the population is ageing rapidly: one person in six is over 60 now; by 2025 nearly one in four will be. Factors that increase the (age-adjusted) risk of developing dementia are also on the rise, including obesity(肥胖癥), smoking, lack of exercise and diabetes(糖尿病).

Already about 9 m people in China have some form of dementia. In absolute terms, that is more than twice as many as in America.(從絕對數看，這個數字是美國的兩倍以上。) It is also more than double the number in India, a country with a population similar in size to China’s but a much younger one. Nearly two-thirds of China’s sufferers have the form known as Alzheimer’s(老年癡呆癥), cases of which have tripled since 1990. The number of Alzheimer’s patients may increase another fourfold between now and 2050.

China’s government is woefully(不幸地) unprepared for this crisis, with a severe lack of health-care provision for sufferers. So too is the public. Despite recent public-information campaigns, many Chinese regard dementia as a natural part of ageing, not as a disease, and do not know that it is fatal. Others see it as a psychological ailment(疾病) rather than a degeneration of the brain itself. It carries a stigma(污名) of mental illness, making sufferers and their relatives reluctant to seek help. This compounds(使......嚴重化) the suffering caused by dementia: active management can sometimes slow its progress.

Even at the Qianhe Nursing Home, where Mr Liu lives, some aspects of the care appear crude(初級的;原始的). A shared “activity” space for dementia sufferers has no games or toys to entertain them; relatives are discouraged from visiting more than once a week for fear of “disturbing” their kin (in the West, care homes encourage visits, which can be stimulating and provide a sense of warmth and familiarity). Some dementia patients end up in psychiatric wards, which cannot deal effectively with their specific requirements. There is an acute shortage of medical workers qualified to treat sufferers(合格的醫護工作人員嚴重缺乏來治療患者。). One reason is that few are attracted to the work. Zhang Xiurong, 50, a care assistant at Qianhe, is paid less than 3,000 yuan ($450) a month, close to the average national migrant wage, to provide all patients’ basic needs 12 hours a day, with only four days off a month. “No Chinese parent wants their one daughter to work in a hospital cleaning bedpans,” says Michael Phillips of the Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine.

               
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