published_or_final_version / Social Work / Master / Master of Social Work

published_or_final_version / Medical Sciences / Master / Master of Medical Sciences

published_or_final_version / Social Work and Social Administration / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Mental Health / Master / Master of Social Sciences

No description available.

published_or_final_version / Dentistry / Master / Master of Dental Surgery

published_or_final_version / abstract / Social Work and Social Administration / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Introduction Self-rated health (SRH) is a widely used indicator of health service utilisation and reflects self-perceived objective health condition. Poorer non-comparative SRH was shown to be related to higher inpatient and outpatient utilisation in Western and elderly populations. Little is known about how healthcare utilisation relates to SRH in non-Western settings, such as Hong Kong and in adult populations. The association of age- and time- comparative SRH with healthcare utilisation is also unclear. This study aimed to assess the association of three types of SRH (non-, age- and time- comparative SRH) with inpatient and outpatient utilisation in Hong Kong‟s general populaion. Methods Data were derived from 2011 Thematic Household Survey (THS), covering 23,892 non-institutional residents aged 20 and above. The study adopts Andersen‟s Behavioral Model of Health Service Use for the analytical framework. Healthcare utilisation was measured by inpatient use during the past year and outpatient use (including General Outpatient Clinic (GOPC) and Specialist Outpatient Clinic (SOPC)) during the past month, in terms of ever-use and the amount of use (bed-days and number of outpatient visits). SRH was measured with a 5-point Likert Scale: non-comparative SRH from “Excellent” to “Poor”; age- and time- comparative from “much worse” to “much better”. Logistic regression and zero-truncated negative binomial/ Poisson regression were applied to examine the association of SRH and chronic diseases with healthcare utilisation in the public and private sector separately as per the Andersen behavioral model. Results “Fair/ poor” non-comparative SRH was associated with higher inpatient and outpatient utilisation. The association was not significant for hospital bed-days. Similarly, age-comparative SRH was associated with inpatient (except private bed-days) and outpatient utilisation (except the number of SOPC visits). “Worse/ much worse” time-comparative SRH was associated with higher healthcare utilisation, but the relationship was less clear for private hospitalisation. The presence of cancer, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, lower respiratory diseases, and musculoskeletal diseases were associated with higher healthcare utilisation, with stronger association observed for ever-use than the amount of use. The relationships between musculoskeletal diseases and inpatient utilisation, between cardiovascular diseases and diabetes and the number of private outpatient visits, and between lower respiratory diseases and GOPC utillisation were not significant. Conclusions The present study suggests SRH to be a useful health indicator of health service utilisation. All three SRH measures were associated with health service utilisation and no marked differences were observed between different measures. Poorer SRH were strongly related to higher public inpatient utilisation, with stronger association observed for ever hospitalisation than bed-days. Poorer SRH measures were also related to higher outpatient uilisation in both sectors during the past month. All the selected chronic conditions were related to increased healthcare use. The associations were less clear for hospital bed-days and the private sector. Future studies should focus on the predictive validity of SRH on future healthcare utilisation. / published_or_final_version / Public Health / Master / Master of Philosophy

At last, we found some basic characteristics in Chinese kinship. Couple and child-parent are still the pivots in present urban China. Filial piety is undergoing many changes. For adult children, parents are important in instrumental supports. And siblings are hardly regarded as expected supporters. / For urban Chinese, close-kin playa prominent role in all the support networks. Close-kin include adult children, parents, and siblings. Additionally, supportive roles of different kin are diffused. Spouse and adult children are the most prominent source of support for dealing with both instrumental and emotional problems. In particular, their emotional supports are more significantly beneficial to people's mental health. Parents are the important instrumental supporters, rather than in emotional aspects. Siblings are sitable for contact, but they are not the expected supporters. Extended kin relations are insignificant in any of support dimensions. / It is widely recognized that social relationships have powerful effects on mental health. This empirical study aims at examining this theory among urban Chinese. Based on the dataset of "social networks and mental health in Beijing in 2000", the focus of this research is how depression of the residents in Beijing is related to their kinship (especially, close-kin) networks and supports. The network structural characters include "network size", "frequency of contact", and "residence distance". The functional elements of support include instrumental support and emotional support. CES-D (The Centre for Epidemiological Studies of Depression scale) is used to measure depression. / The major findings in theoretical dimension are: (1) Social supports have main effects, namely social supports are helpful to mental health regardless of stressors people might experience. (2) Some kinds of kinship networks have direct and indirect effects (mediated by kinship supports) on depression. This result also partially confirms "the support argument", which suggests that the social networks enhance the likelihood of accessing support which in turn provides the protective function against distress. / 孫薇薇. / Adviser: Rance Pui Leng Lee. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 72-10, Section: A, page: . / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 200-212). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [201-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in Chinese and English. / Sun Weiwei.

Conclusions: Participatory training was more effective in improving KAP scores than didactic training. Participatory training could reduce occurrence of injury and sick leave, but not MSD at one year follow up. The cost-benefit ratio of participatory training was better compared to didactic training. The participatory training could be recommended for training frontline workers. / In the year after training, the incidence rates of injury events reduced from 144.5 per 1,000 person-years to 73.5 per 1,000 person-years (Z=3.199, p<0.001) in intervention group. No statistical significances were found for injury reduction in control groups. The proportions of workers taking sick leave reduced from 32.0% to 24.6% in intervention group ( chi 2=5.609, p=0.018), but didn't reduce significantly in control groups (p>0.05). The MSD prevalence rates didn't reduce significantly in intervention and control groups (p>0.05). / Keywords: Frontline worker, Participatory training, Occupational health and safety, Randomized controlled trial, Evaluation / Methods: A randomized controlled trial (RCT) was conducted among frontline workers in Shenzhen, China from June 2008 to May 2010. The impact of the training programs was assessed with knowledge attitude and practice (KAP), experiences in work-related injury, sick leave and musculoskeletal disorder (MSD) at baseline and one year after training. Chi square test and two-proportion Z test were applied to compare the occurrence of injury, sick leave and MSD in different groups. / Objectives: To find out whether participatory training is effective in improving occupational health and safety (OHS); to see if participatory training is more effective than didactic training in improving OHS; and to document whether participatory training has a better cost-benefit ratio than didactic training. / Results: 918 intervention workers received participatory training and 2,561 control workers received didactic training. The follow up rates at three-month and one-year after training were 71.1% (2,473/3,479) and 56.3% (1,321/2,347), respectively. / The average baseline KAP scores of 64.9+/-15.0, 63.5+/-14.7 and 78.1+/-18.0 improved significantly at immediate evaluation (82.7+/-12.3, 71.9+/-12.4 and 90.6+/-12.7), at three months (79.3+/-11.5, 73.9+/-10.6 and 91.7+/-9.6), and at one-year after training (76.7+/-12.1, 72.0+/-10.3 and 88.9+/-10.8) in three groups. / The cost-benefit ratios were 1:1.20 for participatory training and 1:1.06 for didactic training if the cost savings were calculated with median costs and workdays lost. The cost-benefit ratios were 1:2.36 for participatory training and 1:1.97 for didactic training if the cost savings were calculated with mean costs and workdays lost. / Yu, Wenzhou. / Adviser: Ignatius T.S. Yu. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 73-02, Section: B, page: . / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 165-174). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [201-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract also in Chinese.