Publications by authors named "Ken Hok-Man Ho"

Background: Caregiver stress can pose serious health and psychological concerns, highlighting the importance of timely interventions for family caregivers of people with dementia. Single-session mindfulness-based interventions could be a promising yet under-researched approach to enhancing their mental well-being within their unpredictable, time-constrained contexts. This trial will evaluate the effectiveness and feasibility of a blended mindfulness-based intervention consisting of a single session and app-based follow-up in reducing caregiver stress.

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This scoping review seeks to identify existing evidence of social cognition interventions for patients with first-episode psychosis. This review followed the five steps of Arksey and O'Malley's scoping review framework. Studies published between October 2002 and June 2023 were examined in the following six databases: PsycArticles, PsycINFO, CINAHL, EMBASE, Medline, and Scopus.

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Psychoeducation with an active participation component is effective in facilitating family caregivers of people living with dementia to learn about the disease and gain relevant caregiving skills. However, research into the best strategies to promote active participation has received little attention, and the factors hindering active participation are also unknown. Therefore, the nine-stage framework of the Joanna Briggs Institute methodology for scoping reviews was adopted to map and identify information about the active participation of family caregivers of people living with dementia in psychoeducation.

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Article Synopsis
  • Dementia affects not just the person who has it but also the people taking care of them, which can lead to problems in those relationships.
  • VR simulations can help caregivers understand what it's like to live with dementia, making them more empathetic and improving their care.
  • A review of several studies found that while the results on improving empathy were mixed, caregivers did learn more about dementia and began to change their attitudes towards those they care for.
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Article Synopsis
  • - The review aims to analyze existing literature on loneliness at end-of-life, highlighting important gaps in research related to this topic.
  • - Findings indicate that loneliness is common among individuals nearing the end of life due to factors like health decline and social withdrawal, with popular measurement tools identified but lacking comprehensive data on prevalence.
  • - The review suggests potential strategies for reducing loneliness, emphasizing the need for more robust clinical trials to test interventions that support spirituality and social connections.
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Objective: Chair-based resistance band exercise (CRBE) is a simple and safe physical activity for persons with limited mobility. This study aimed to review and analyze CRBE effects on physical functioning, sleep quality, and depression among older adults in long-term care facilities (LTCF).

Method: A systematic search guided by the PRISMA 2020 approach was performed on specific databases: AgeLine, CINAHL, PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Scopus, and Web of Science.

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Background: Advance care planning (ACP) is highly relevant for people with early-stage dementia to communicate their care preferences for serious illness conditions with their family caregivers before they become mentally incapacitated.

Methods: A multi-centre, quasi-experimental study was conducted to test the feasibility and acceptability of a theory-guided, dyadic ACP intervention ('Have a Say' programme) among participants with early-stage dementia-family caregiver dyads. The feasibility of the trial design, intervention procedures, subject recruitment and retention, and study instruments were assessed.

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Introduction: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) increases rapidly and causes mortality in all groups, including children. However, the predictive risk factors of mortality among children remain inconclusive. This study aimed to analyse the predictors related to mortality among children with COVID-19.

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Background: Older people with frailty are more likely to experience negative psychological well-being, depressive symptoms, anxiety, and stress. Deterioration of psychological outcomes, in turn, further aggravates the frailty status among this vulnerable population. Considering the undesirable effects of polypharmacy on older people, the use of non-pharmacological intervention has attracted increasing attention.

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Agitated behaviour among elderly people with dementia is a challenge in clinical management. Wrist accelerometry could be a versatile tool for making objective, quantitative, and long-term assessments. The objective of this review was to summarise the clinical application of wrist accelerometry to agitation assessments and ways of analysing the data.

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Aim: The first scoping review is to map and synthesize the stressors, problems and coping strategies surrounding the health issues of migrant domestic workers.

Design: Scoping review using Arksey and O'Malley's five-stage framework.

Methods: Ten electronic databases were systematically searched by keywords for literature published between January 1995 and December 2019.

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Background: Cognitive impairment gradually brings changes to the relationship between older married couples. Therefore, this study aimed to understand the individual viewpoints of couple dyads on the important attributes of a 'good dyadic relationship' in the context of mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and to explore if the congruencies and discrepancies in their perceptions related to the quality and closeness of their relationship and well-being.

Methods: Q-methodology was used to reveal the perceptions of a 'good dyadic relationship' among couples with one having MCI.

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Sensory-based interventions are commonly used to reduce the occurrence of agitation in people with dementia over extended periods. However, the evidence regarding their immediate de-escalation effects is unclear. The objectives of this systematic review are to (a) identify which sensory-based interventions have been used for de-escalating agitation and (b) examine the immediate effects of these interventions on de-escalating agitation in people with dementia.

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The effectiveness of peer support in improving mental health and well-being has been well documented for vulnerable populations. However, how peer support is delivered to migrant domestic workers (MDWs) to support their mental health is still unknown. This scoping review aimed to synthesize evidence on existing peer support services for improving mental health among MDWs.

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Loneliness (inclusive social loneliness and emotional loneliness) of older adults is a prominent public health issue internationally. Factors consistently associated with loneliness are age, gender, education, living arrangements, social network, and functional status. Intergenerational co-living with spouse and adult children is important for the exchange of social, emotional, practical, and financial support provided to older adults.

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Dyadic interventions simultaneously engage both people with dementia (PWD) and their informal caregivers (ICGs). This scoping review study identified the strategies for engaging dyads, described the perceptions of the dyads on these strategies, and reported the attrition rates of the dyadic interventions reported in the literature. Articles published up to July 2020, reporting a PWD-ICG-dyads intervention were searched in PubMed (Medline), PsycInfo, CINAHL, and the SSCI.

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Aim: Using an integrated model of health literacy, we discuss the importance of health literacy among foreign domestic workers in the provision of informal caregiving during outbreaks of communicable diseases. COVID-19 pandemic is used as an example.

Background: Adequate health literacy in the population is known to be important for the prevention of communicable diseases.

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Background: Hoarding disorder is a chronic and debilitating illness associated with restrictions on activities of daily living, compromised social and occupational functioning, and adverse health outcomes. However, researchers lack a brief and self-administered screening measurement to assess compulsive hoarding in the Chinese speaking population. This study aimed to adapt and validate the Hoarding Rating Scale-Interview (HRS-I) to as a tool for screening compulsive hoarding behavior in Chinese population.

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Background: Anticipatory grief (AG) among caregivers of people with dementia is common and has been found to be related to negative health outcomes. Previous studies showed different patterns of AG between spousal and adult children caregivers of people with dementia (PWD) at different stages; however, the levels of such grief are not yet compared. The findings in Western studies are very limited, and inconsistencies have also been found in Asian studies.

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