The Chinese University and the Charles K Kao Foundation on Thursday introduced a free screening service for elderly residents to identify Alzheimer's disease.

Dr Vincent Mok, a professor of Medicine at the university, said Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of dementia in Hong Kong, and it’s therefore important to identify people who’re showing symptoms, or are at risk of developing it.

"We hope that through this screening programme, we can detect early Alzheimer's disease as early as possible, because it is only at this early stage that with lifestyle intervention, we may slow down progression of Alzheimer's disease,” he said.

“Once the disease got more severe... slowing down would become quite impossible."

The screening service is available for people between the ages of 60 and 80, who have no dementia or other conditions like Parkinson's disease that can affect cognition.

The screening process will first involve an online test. If individuals fail the test, they can then register for face-to-face clinical assessments at CUHK.