Search

Objective: We applied the concept of naïve dialecticism (Peng & Nisbett, ), which characterizes East Asians' greater tendency to encompass contradictory, ever-changing, and interrelated features of an entity, to bicultural contexts and examined its effects on psychological well-being across various acculturating groups., Method: We administered questionnaire measures of the dialectical self, bicultural identity integration (BII; Benet-Martínez & Haritatos, 2005), and well-being to Hong Kong Chinese (N = 213) in Study 1 and Mainland Chinese (N = 239) in Study 2. In Study 3, a 4-week longitudinal study was conducted among Hong Kong Chinese (N = 173) to test the relationships of these variables over time. We then extended similar measures to new immigrants from Mainland China (N = 67) in Study 4 and Filipino domestic workers in Hong Kong (N = 153) in Study 5., Results: Five studies converged to show that psychological adjustment was positively related to BII, but negatively related to the dialectical self. In Studies 1-3, dialecticism mediated the effect of BII on psychological adjustment among Hong Kong and Mainland Chinese bicultural individuals., Conclusions: Our findings reveal the deleterious effects of tolerance for contradiction on well-being and differentiate biculturalism patterns of immigration-based and globalization-based acculturation., (© 2012, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

Objectives: To review studies on newborn hearing screening in Hong Kong and the current evidence on the cost-effectiveness of universal newborn hearing screening programmes and to determine their value and the best model for such a programme in Hong Kong., Data Source: Medline literature search (1985-2004), local reports and abstracts available to the author., Study Selection: Literature and data on newborn hearing screening strategies, screening devices, cost-effectiveness study of universal newborn hearing screening programmes., Data Extraction: Relevant information and data were reviewed by the author., Data Synthesis: A universal newborn hearing screening programme with a high coverage rate is essential to enable early diagnosis and intervention before 6 months of age. This ensures good language and cognitive outcomes in hearing impaired children. A cost-effective universal newborn hearing screening programme should be hospital-based to achieve a high coverage rate, use modern screening devices with high sensitivity and specificity that enable early diagnosis, and be acceptable to parents., Conclusions: Increasing evidence supports the cost-effectiveness and long-term benefits of universal newborn hearing screening programmes. The medical community in Hong Kong should work towards the development and implementation of a well-coordinated, collaborative, multidisciplinary, cost-effective, and sustainable territory-wide universal newborn hearing screening programme coupled with interventions for the next generation of hearing impaired children.

Objective: Health care-associated infections persist as a major problem in most neonatal intensive care units. Hand hygiene has been singled out as the most important measure in preventing hospital-acquired infection. However, hand hygiene compliance among health care workers (HCWs) remains low. The objective of this study was to assess the frequency and nature of patient contacts in neonatal intensive care units and observe the compliance and technique of hand hygiene among HCWs before and after the implementation of a multimodal intervention program., Methods: The nature and frequency of patient contacts, the hand hygiene compliance, and hand-washing techniques of HCWs were observed unobtrusively to reflect the baseline compliance and to investigate factors for noncompliance. The intervention consisted of problem-based and task-orientated hand hygiene education, enhancement of minimal handling protocol and clustering of nursing care, liberal provision of alcohol-based hand antiseptic, improvement in hand hygiene facilities, ongoing regular hand hygiene audit, and implementation of health care-associated infection surveillance. The observational study was repeated 6 months after the completion of the intervention program, which extended over 1-year period., Results: Overall hand hygiene compliance increased from 40% to 53% before patient contact and 39% to 59% after patient contact. More marked improvement was observed for high-risk procedures (35%-60%). The average number of patient contacts also decreased from 2.8 to 1.8 per patient per hour. There was improvement in most aspects of hand-washing technique in the postintervention stage. The health care-associated infection rate decreased from 11.3 to 6.2 per 1000 patient-days., Conclusion: A problem-based and task-orientated education program can improve hand hygiene compliance. Enhancement of minimal handling and clustering of nursing procedures reduced the total patient contact episodes, which could help to overcome the major barrier of time constraints. A concurrent decrease in health care-associated infection rate and increase in hand hygiene compliance was observed in this study. The observational study could form part of an ongoing audit to provide regular feedback to HCWs to sustain the compliance.

Objective: To assess the feasibility of implementing a universal neonatal hearing screening programme using distortion product otoacoustic emission detection at a major teaching hospital in Hong Kong., Design: Descriptive study and questionnaire. SETTING. Teaching hospital, Hong Kong., Methods: A total of 1064 infants, together with their mothers, were successfully recruited for the study. The participation rate was 99.3%. A three-stage hearing screening protocol using distortion product otoacoustic emission detection was adopted. Each of the participating infants was screened on three separate occasions (day 1-4, day 5-14, and day 21-30 after birth), irrespective of the test results. A questionnaire was administered to 364 randomly selected mothers to determine whether as consumers of the hearing screening service, mothers would find screening desirable., Results: Results of the screening demonstrated an incidence of permanent bilateral hearing loss (>or=40 dB in the better ear) of 0.28%. The results also showed that 3.5% of the screened infants were referred for subsequent diagnostic audiological assessment, including those suspected with unilateral as well as bilateral hearing loss. Data obtained were comparable to other reported results obtained using multi-stage screening protocols. Taking both the false positive rate and the default rate into consideration, the most appropriate time for screening in this hospital setting appeared to be around day 5 to 14 when infants returned to the hospital's day centre as out-patients for routine medical follow-up. Since this day centre service is not generally provided by all maternity hospitals in Hong Kong, an alternative time for screening would be around day 21 to 30 when infants could return as out-patients solely for the hearing test. The results of the questionnaire suggested that most mothers thought a neonatal hearing screening would be desirable (91.35%). The majority (81.70%) indicated a preference for screening either within a few days of birth at the maternity ward prior to discharge from the hospital, or between 5 and 30 days when returning to the hospital as an out-patient., Conclusion: It was concluded that a universal neonatal hearing screening programme could be readily implemented in a maternity hospital setting in Hong Kong.

Postnatal catch-up growth in infants born small for gestational age has been reported to occur mainly during the initial 3-9 months of life. The study presented here characterized early postnatal growth in healthy, full-term infants born short for gestational age (GA) (< -2 standard deviation scores [SDS] in birth length) in two populations. Results from a longitudinal growth study from birth to final height of 139 infants born short for GA between 1973 and 1975 in Göteborg, Sweden, were compared with results from an ongoing detailed prospective 6-month follow-up of 41 Hong Kong Chinese infants born short for GA in 1995 and 1996. For both populations, height was expressed in SDS using the updated Swedish growth reference data at birth and postnatally. In the Swedish study, 92% of the children born short for GA reached a final height greater than -2 SDS; 76% had a height greater than -2 SDS by 2 months of age. In the Hong Kong study, 79% reached a height greater than -2 SDS by 5 months of age (the longest follow-up time to date). A third population of Hong Kong Chinese infants born short for GA in 1967 was studied; 65% had reached the normal height range by 5 months of age. In the later Hong Kong study (1995-1996), catch-up growth could be identified as early as 12 weeks of age, which has important implications for clinical practice. Thus, growth monitoring during the first weeks of postnatal life gives useful information on catch-up growth in infants born short for GA.

Between November 1982 and April 1985, 2228 children under the age of 5 years with acute gastroenteritis were admitted to the paediatric isolation ward of Queen Mary Hospital, Department of Paediatrics, University of Hong Kong. In 56.2% the causative agent was identified as rotavirus, Salmonella, Campylobacter, Shigella, Escherichia coli or a combination of these pathogens. Our isolation procedures included cohort nursing of all diarrhoeal patients in two separate rooms (each accommodating 6 patients), barrier gowns and stringent handwashing with chlorhexidine. A total of 163 cases (13.4% of all positive cases) were identified as nosocomial infections. Rotavirus was the responsible agent for nosocomial infection in 128 cases (20% of all rotavirus infection). There were 35 patients with bacterial nosocomial infection, (7% of all the bacterial positive cases). Nosocomial rotavirus gastroenteritis was 3.4 times more frequent than nosocomial gastroenteritis due to bacterial pathogens. We conclude that modification of our present isolation procedures is necessary in order to reduce rotavirus nosocomial infection.