Dataset Information

Health Disparity Still Exists in an Economically Well-Developed Society in Asia.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:The socioeconomic inequalities in child health continue to widen despite improved economy. OBJECTIVE:To investigate the correlation between socio-economic factors and health risk behaviors and psychosocial well-being of children in Hong Kong. HYPOTHESIS:The null hypothesis is that for this particular developed region, there exists little or no correlation between social-economic factors and health risk behaviors and psychosocial well-being of children. DESIGN:Cross sectional territory wide survey. PARTICIPANTS:Caregivers of 7,000 children in kindergartens in Hong Kong. MEASURING TOOLS:Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance questionnaire, health-related knowledge and hygienic practice questionnaire, and Children Behavior Checklist (CBCL). RESULTS:Children were less likely to have somatic complaints and anxiety/depression as reflected by CBCL scores coming from families of higher income, not being recipients of social assistance, with fathers in employment, and with higher parental education. Children with only mother or father as caretakers had lower odds ratios (ORs) 0.71 (95% CI 0.58-0.89) and 0.53 (95% CI 0.33-0.84) respectively to have the habit of eating breakfast, whilst parental education at post-secondary level and higher family income had higher ORs 1.91 (95% CI 1.31-2.78), and 1.63 (95% CI 1.11-2.39). Fathers unemployed, relatives as main caretakers and living in districts with low median household inome incurred higher ORs, as 1.46 (95% CI 1.10-1.94),1.52 (95% CI 1.27-1.83) and 1.17 (95% CI 1.02-1.34) respectively, of watching television over two hours daily, whilst children with parental education at secondary level or above incurred lower OR 0.33 (95% CI 0.24-0.45). Children with parental education at post-secondary level and higher family income had lower ORs of 0.32 (95% CI 0.48-0.97) and 0.52 (95% CI 0.34-0.79) respectively, with regard to exposing to passive smoking, and reversed for those living in districts with lower median household income, lower family income and recipient of CSSA with ORs 1.24 (95% CI 1.06-1.44) and 1.6 (95% CI 1.09-2.37) respectively. CONCLUSION:Null hypothesis was not supported. A strong gradient was still found to exist among different socio-economic groups for various health-related behaviors in developed society like Hong Kong.

SUBMITTER: Lee A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4476700 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Health Disparity Still Exists in an Economically Well-Developed Society in Asia.

Lee Albert A Chua Hoi-wai HW Chan Mariana M Leung Patrick W L PW Wong Jasmine W S JW Chuh Antonio A T AA

PloS one 20150622 6

<h4>Background</h4>The socioeconomic inequalities in child health continue to widen despite improved economy.<h4>Objective</h4>To investigate the correlation between socio-economic factors and health risk behaviors and psychosocial well-being of children in Hong Kong.<h4>Hypothesis</h4>The null hypothesis is that for this particular developed region, there exists little or no correlation between social-economic factors and health risk behaviors and psychosocial well-being of children.<h4>Design< ...[more]

PMID: 26098942

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Project description:ObjectiveTo evaluate the impact of a model of rural community health service (CHS) on the use and acceptability of primary healthcare services.DesignQuasi-experimental.SettingTwo adjacent rural counties in China.Participants5842 residents in 2009 and 3807 in 2010 from 980 households in 7 intervention townships and 49 villages; 2232 residents in 2009 and 2315 in 2010 from 628 households in 3 comparison townships and 9 villages. All residents were approached to participate, with no significant differences in age or sex between groups.InterventionMultilevel intervention in 2009 including training rural practitioners, encouraging clinic improvements, providing clinical guidelines, standards and subsidies.Data collectionSurveys of community members from randomly sampled households in 2009 and 2010.Primary outcome measuresSatisfaction with and utilisation of outpatient and public health services.AnalysisFactor analysis confirmed two components of satisfaction. Univariate and multilevel analysis was used.ResultsSatisfaction scores for intervention county respondents increased from 21.4 (95% CI 21.1 to 21.7) to 22.1 (95% CI 21.7 to 22.4) with no change in comparison area. In multilevel analysis, satisfaction with patient-centred care was associated with chronic disease, shorter waiting times and county. Satisfaction with clinic environment and cost was associated with female gender, shorter waiting times but not county. The proportion of children receiving immunisation in intervention village clinics increased from 42.5% (95% CI 27.9% to 47.1%) to 59.2% (95% CI 53.8% to 64.6%) whereas this decreased in comparison villages (16.5%; 95% CI 10.3% to 22.7% to 6.0%; 95% CI 1.3% to 10.7%). Antenatal visits increased in intervention villages (from 69.0%, 95% CI 65.8% to 73.1% to 75.8%, 95% CI 72.2% to 79.4%) with no change in comparison villages.ConclusionsIntroduction of a CHS model adapted to economically less-developed rural areas was associated with some improvements in satisfaction with care and use of some village-based public health services. Further research is needed to determine its public health impact and application to other areas.

Project description:Greenhouse-gas-induced warming in the Arctic has caused declines in sea ice extent and changed its composition, raising concerns by all circumpolar nations for polar bear conservation.Negative impacts have been observed in three well-studied polar bear subpopulations. Most subpopulations, however, receive little or no direct monitoring, hence, resource selection functions (RSF) may provide a useful proxy of polar bear distributions. However, the efficacy of RSFs constructed from past data, that is, reference RSFs, may be degraded under contemporary conditions, especially in a rapidly changing environment.We assessed published Arctic-wide reference RSFs using tracking data from adult female polar bears captured in the Beaufort Sea. We compared telemetry-derived seasonal distributions of polar bears to RSF-defined optimal sea ice habitat during the period of RSF model development, 1985-1995, and two subsequent periods with diminished sea ice: 1996-2006 and 2007-2016. From these comparisons, we assessed the applicability of the reference RSFs for contemporary polar bear conservation.In the two decades following the 1985-1995 reference period, use and availability of optimal habitat by polar bears declined during the ice melt, ice minimum, and ice growth seasons. During the ice maximum season (i.e., winter), polar bears used the best habitat available, which changed relatively little across the three decades of study. During the ice melt, ice minimum, and ice growth seasons, optimal habitat in areas used by polar bears decreased and was displaced north and east of the Alaska Beaufort Sea coast. As optimal habitat diminished in these seasons, polar bears expanded their range and occupied greater areas of suboptimal habitat.Synthesis and applications: Sea ice declines due to climate change continue to challenge polar bears and their conservation. The distribution of Southern Beaufort Sea polar bears remained similar during the ice maximum season, so the reference RSFs developed from data collected >20 years ago continue to accurately model their winter distribution. In contrast, reference RSFs for the ice transitional and minimum seasons showed diminished predictive efficacy but were useful in revealing that contemporary polar bears have been increasingly forced to use suboptimal habitats during those seasons.

Dataset Information

Health Disparity Still Exists in an Economically Well-Developed Society in Asia.

Publications

Health Disparity Still Exists in an Economically Well-Developed Society in Asia.

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