Perceived child behaviour problems, parenting stress, and marital satisfaction: comparison of new arrival and local parents of preschool children in Hong Kong.

OBJECTIVE: To compare parental perception of child behaviour problems, parenting stress, and marital satisfaction in new arrival and local parents. DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey; semi-structured interview. SETTING: Maternal and Child Health Centres, social service centres, preschools. PARTICIPANTS: Parents of preschool children, including new arrival parents and local parents. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Child behaviour problems, parenting stress, and marital satisfaction. RESULTS: After controlling for socio-economic factors, new arrival parents were more troubled by their children's behaviour problems and their parent-child interactions were more dysfunctional than those of local parents. There were no differences in parent-reported severity of child behaviour problems, parental distress, and marital satisfaction. New arrival parents reported difficulties in adapting to the new living environment and lack of social support. CONCLUSIONS: New arrival parents were more troubled by their children's behaviour, and their parent-child interactions were more dysfunctional than those of local parents. These might in part be related to their settlement difficulties. Parenting programmes should address their specific settlement needs.     

Effects of meteorological parameters on hospital admission for respiratory and cardiovascular diseases

Aim

Meteorological factors play a role in respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. However, previous studies demonstrated inconsistent results regarding their associations. This paper aims to evaluate their relationships to facilitate anticipatory care for patients with respiratory and cardiovascular diseases.

Subject and methods

A retrospective time-series study, controlling for air pollution, was adopted to examine the effects of various meteorological factors on emergency hospital admission for chronic respiratory and cardiovascular diseases from 2007 to 2010 in a Hong Kong hospital. Impact of weather was examined up to 3 weeks to account for the possible delayed effects of meteorological factors.

Results

Barometric pressure was positively associated with hospital admission in a linear fashion, while temperature demonstrated a linear negative association. Delayed effects of air pressure were noted up to lag weeks 2 and 3 for cardiovascular and respiratory admission respectively. Temperature also showed a progressive reduction in lag effects on respiratory and cardiovascular diseases admission up to lag week 3. Relative humidity, global solar radiation and wind speed demonstrated no significant associations with hospital admission.

Conclusion

Anticipatory care to prevent exacerbations of chronic respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, hence to reduce related admission, might be achieved by the provision of targeted advice triggered by forecasts of low temperature and high barometric pressure.     

Strategies for the development of Chinese medicine — Experience of Hong Kong special administrative region

Ｗｈｉｌｅｐｒａｃｔｉｔｉｏｎｅｒｓｏｆｗｅｓｔｅｒｎｍｅｄｉｃｉｎｅａｒｅｔｈｅｍａｉｎｈｅａｌｔｈｃａｒｅ ｐｒｏｖｉｄｅｒｓｉｎＨｏｎｇＫｏｎｇ，Ｃｈｉｎｅｓｅｍｅｄｉｃｉｎｅ ｐｌａｙｓａｓｉｇｎｉｆｉｃａｎｔｒｏｌｅｉｎｔｈｅｈｅａｌｔｈｃａｒｅｓｙｓｔｅｍｉｎＨｏｎｇＫｏｎｇ．Ｉｔｓｐｏｐｕｌａｒｉｔｙｏｆｕｓｅａｎｄｉｔｓｓｔｒｅｎｇｔｈｉｎｃｏｎ ｔｒｉｂｕｔｉｎｇｔｏｔｈｅｈｅａｌｔｈｏｆｔｈｅｃｏｍｍｕｎｉｔｙｐｒｏ ｖｉｄｅｓｔｈｅｄｒｉｖｅｆｏｒｉｔｓｄｅｖｅｌｏｐｍｅｎｔ．…