Tehran University of Medical Sciences Iranian Journal of Public Health 2251-6085 50 1 2020 12 27 11 23 Chenze JIAO Department of Neurology, The Affiliated Yuebei People’s Hospital of Shantou University Medical College, Shaoguan, China AND Guangdong Key Laboratory of Age-Related Cardiac and Cerebral Diseases, Institute of Neurology, Department of Neurology, Affiliated Hospital of Guangdong Medical University, Zhanjiang, Guangdong, China Shouchao WEI Central People’s Hospital of Zhanjiang, Zhanjiang, China Tingting LIU Department of Neurology, The Affiliated Yuebei People’s Hospital of Shantou University Medical College, Shaoguan, China AND Guangdong Key Laboratory of Age-Related Cardiac and Cerebral Diseases, Institute of Neurology, Department of Neurology, Affiliated Hospital of Guangdong Medical University, Zhanjiang, Guangdong, China Xiao BAO Department of Neurology, The Affiliated Yuebei People’s Hospital of Shantou University Medical College, Shaoguan, China Wenrong CHEN Central People’s Hospital of Zhanjiang, Zhanjiang, China Zhimin LIAO Guangdong Key Laboratory of Age-Related Cardiac and Cerebral Diseases, Institute of Neurology, Department of Neurology, Affiliated Hospital of Guangdong Medical University, Zhanjiang, Guangdong, China Wanjuan PENG Guangdong Key Laboratory of Age-Related Cardiac and Cerebral Diseases, Institute of Neurology, Department of Neurology, Affiliated Hospital of Guangdong Medical University, Zhanjiang, Guangdong, China AND Guangdong Medical University, Zhanjiang, China Wei WEI Gaomi People’s Hospital, Gaomi, China Zhou LIU Guangdong Key Laboratory of Age-Related Cardiac and Cerebral Diseases, Institute of Neurology, Department of Neurology, Affiliated Hospital of Guangdong Medical University, Zhanjiang, Guangdong, China 2019 05 18 2020 01 06 Background: Vascular dementia (VD), as the second-largest type of dementia, is a serious stage of vascular cognitive impairment. It is significant to conduct retrospective epidemiological studies to characterize further the disease for public health. This study estimated the prevalence of VD among the population aged 18 yr and older in China. Methods: Epidemiological investigations on VD published in journals and covering the period from 1999 to 2019 were identified manually and online by using Chinese databases (such as Chinese BioMedical Literature Database, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure database, Chinese science-technology databases, and the Chinese Wanfang and Chongqing VIP database) and English databases (such as PubMed, Elsevier Science Bibliographic Databases and Cochrane library). Studies were included if the diagnostic criteria for VD are clear and the quality of the included literature was evaluated using the quality evaluation criteria of epidemiological research methods. A random-effects model was employed according to the statistical test of homogeneity. Results: Twenty-six studies met the inclusion criteria, including 100,923 subjects and 977 VD patients. The pooled prevalence of VD was 0.96% (95% [confidence interval, CI] 0.63%~2.1%). The prevalence of VD increased with increasing age. There was a higher prevalence of VD in the northeast China population, in urban areas and males. Conclusion: We stratified the included studies based on age, location, gender, and geographical distribution for prevalence. The prevalence of VD has slowly risen since 1999. It is obviously different between the North & South and urban &rural districts. While there are many benefits of systematic reviews, the methods presented have inherent limitations. https://ijph.tums.ac.ir/index.php/ijph/article/view/17212 https://ijph.tums.ac.ir/index.php/ijph/article/download/17212/7092