Choices between Chinese and Western medicine in Hong Kong - interactions of institutional environment, health beliefs and treatment outcomes.

Background: About 15-20% of the general public in Hong Kong consult TCM practitioners. This study explored the decision making process involved in Hong Kong Chinese's choice between TCM and western medicine.

Methods: Eight focus group interviews (six to eight participants per group) and four individual interviews were conducted.

Quality of life (QOL) among community dwelling older people in Taiwan measured by the CASP-19, an index to capture QOL in old age.

There was no existing scale in Mandarin Chinese to specifically measure QOL in old age. We aimed to validate a Chinese Taiwan version of the CASP-19 (control, autonomy, self-realization, pleasure), a QOL questionnaire, in Taiwan. The existing CASP-19 Cantonese version was modified into Chinese Taiwan version and pilot tested.

Against the odds or odds-on chance: pathways of coming back among hand-injured workers in the Chinese context.

In this study, I used a hermeneutic phenomenological approach by means of thematic analysis to examine the lived experiences of hand-injured workers in Hong Kong. Twenty-seven informants with moderate to severe disabilities were interviewed over ten years about how they lived through their disability and their discourses were examined in the cultural context. Three categories (survivors, achievers, strugglers) were synthesized from the informants' life courses.

Excess hospital admissions for pneumonia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and heart failure during influenza seasons in Hong Kong.

It is widely held that Southern China is a hypothetical influenza epicentre for the emergence of pandemic influenza viruses. However, influenza is perceived as a relatively unimportant infection in this part of the world compared with western countries. Hong Kong is situated within the hypothetical epicentre and serves as a sentinel post for the region.

The development and evaluation of an integrated community-based, patient-centred learning activity at the University of Hong Kong.

Objective: To develop and evaluate the Patient Care Project (PCP), an integrated patient-centred, community-based learning activity, implemented at the University of Hong Kong since 1992.

Design: The PCP, a required course in the first 2 preclinical years, is structured into four learning cycles over 9 months. Each cycle consists of a patient interview followed by a debriefing group tutorial.