Risk of depression in patients with chronic respiratory diseases: results from two large cohort studies in Chinese elderly from Hong Kong.

Objective: Although it has been suggested that depression is common in patients with chronic respiratory diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), few studies on the association between chronic respiratory diseases and depression have been conducted in the community.

Method: Data from the baseline examination of two cohort studies, Mr and Ms Os, Hong Kong were used. Three thousand nine hundred and ninety-eight Hong Kong men and women aged 65 to 92 were recruited.

Prevalence of and risk factors for sarcopenia in elderly Chinese men and women.

Background: Several studies have documented the substantial health and economic burdens associated with sarcopenia among the elderly, but there has been no systematic study among Asians. A cross-sectional survey of elderly community-dwelling Chinese volunteers (262 men and 265 women), aged 70 years and older, was undertaken in Hong Kong. The purposes of this study were to evaluate the prevalence of and risk factors for sarcopenia in elderly Chinese, and to compare these observations with those in white persons.