Prospective assessment of the Hong Kong Hospital Authority universal Down syndrome screening programme.

Objective: To evaluate the performance of the locally developed universal Down syndrome screening programme.

Design: Population-based cohort study in the period July 2010 to June 2011 inclusive.

Setting: Four Hong Kong Hospital Authority Departments of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and a central university-based laboratory for maternal serum processing and risk determination.

Persistence of back pain symptoms after pregnancy and bone mineral density changes as measured by quantitative ultrasound--a two year longitudinal follow up study.

Background: Previous research has shown a loss of bone mineral density (BMD) during pregnancy. This loss has been correlated to the occurrence of back pain symptoms during pregnancy. The objective of this study was to evaluate whether persistence of back pain symptoms 2 years after pregnancy could be associated with BMD changes as measured by quantitative USG of the os calcis.

A questionnaire survey on patients' attitudes towards epidural analgesia in labour.

Objectives: To evaluate patient attitudes about epidural services in labour and correlate them with patient options and actual usage of epidural analgesia.

Design: Questionnaire survey.

Setting: Eight Hospital Authority obstetrics units.