A herbal formula for prevention of influenza-like syndrome: a double-blind randomized clinical trial.

Objective: To investigate the efficacy of a herbal formula in the prevention of influenza or influenza-like syndrome among elderies residing in old-people's home in Hong Kong. The secondary objectives are to investigate the quality of life (QOL) and symptomology changes among the herbal users and to evaluate the safety of this formula.

Methods: In ten old people's home or community centres in New Territories, Hong Kong, 740 eligible subjects agreed to join the study and were randomized to receive a herbal formula or a placebo on alternate days over 8 weeks.

Public and private healthcare services utilization by non-institutional elderly in Hong Kong: is the inverse care law operating?

Objectives: To assess the factors associated with healthcare services utilization by the non-institutional elderly across five types of service utilization (Western medicine doctors in Government clinics, private Western medicine doctors, Chinese medicine practitioners, Emergency Units, and hospitalization).

Methods: A secondary data analysis of a territory-wide cross-sectional survey collected by the Government among a representative sample of 4812 elderly (aged 60 and above) in Hong Kong.

Results: Our analysis, based on Anderson's behavioral framework, shows that need factors (relating to actual or perceived illness and diseases) are significantly related to the healthcare services utilization examined.

Patient recruitment for clinical trials on traditional Chinese medicine: Challenges, barriers, and strategies.

Background And Objective: Failure to recruit sufficient numbers of participants is a major barrier to the completion of randomized controlled trials in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) clinical trials. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the commonly used strategies for the recruitment of patients in TCM clinical trials, to identify the most common reasons for attrition and refusal, and to identify barriers and potential solutions to the difficulties.

Methods And Results: There are four stages in the actual recruitment process, which included introducing the project to the potential patients, explaining how to implement the project, assessing and intensifying the understanding and facilitating patient decision-making.