There are about 3753 clinical studies being (or have been) conducted in Hong Kong. The country of the clinical trial is determined by the location of where the clinical research is being studied. Most studies are often held in multiple locations & countries.
The article presents a protocol of a cross-sectional study of mental health of pregnant women in relation to the COVID 19 pandemic. The primary aim is to compare differences in anxiety and depression scores of pregnant women between countries affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The secondary aim is to assess demographic, economic, and social aspects affecting maternal anxiety and depression scores among pregnant women worldwide in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic. Finally, investigators will be able to compare differences in perception of the different aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic (social distancing, restrictions related to delivery) between countries and according to the epidemic status (number of infected patients, number of reported deaths). The comparisons will also be done according to COVID-19 status of the participants.
The COVID-19 outbreak has been rapidly transmitted in late January 2020 and aroused enormous attention globally. The public at large may also experience boredom, disappointment, and irritability under the isolation measures. Depression and anxiety are common mental health problems experienced by university students. This survey aims to investigate the psychological impact of COVID 19 on students.
Patients with COVID-19 diagnoses are treated under isolation in hospitals and with high-stress level. Currently, there is little information on the mental health implications of exposure amongst COVID-19 survivors and their family members. Research exploring the psychological impact amongst survivors of exposure to COVID-19 is desperately needed to understand the effects, mental health toll, and support required in survivors of COVID-19. This study aims to assess the psychological impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on COVID-19 survivors and their family members.
The aims of the present study are: 1. To explore the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the smoking behavior of youth smokers 2. To explore the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the Youth Quitline service in Hong Kong
Uncontrolled metabolic parameters and co-morbidity risk factors cause Diabetes Mellitus as the leading cause of a multitude of micro-/macro-vascular complications. According to the International Guidelines and Recommendations, people with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) should attend diabetes educational programmes periodically and optimize the metabolic index of control. In Hong Kong, General Practitioners with solo-practice (GP-SP) have the least availability of resources and support in DM management. A discrepancy of diabetes care between public and private settings and a gap of clinical practice between public-private healthcare settings is identified. In relation to the big population of T2DM is caring by GP-SP but no structured Diabetes Care Programme (DCP) is in place. A structured DCP for T2DM is in need to fill up the clinical gap and make beneficial to the target subjects. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of a DCP for people with T2DM in primary care settings. It is a multi-center, single-blind randomized controlled trial with parallel groups pre-test and post-test design. The evidence-based intervention (DCP) will be carried out in a private primary care setting. People with T2DM attending the GP-SP who meet the study criteria will be randomly assigned into one of the two study groups, either "DCP in addition to usual medical care" or "Usual medical care only" as a control group. The intervention group can beneficial in clinical and psychosocial outcomes after the completion of the 20-week structured DCP with a greater improvement of HbA1c level, Self-Efficacy in diabetes management, Diabetes Empowerment level, Diabetes Knowledge, and Quality of Life than those who only received usual medical care at the GP-SP.
The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) emerged in December 2019, and in mere months has spread to more than 104 countries, resulting in an outbreak of viral pneumonia worldwide. Current local quarantine policy in Hong Kong for individuals suspected for COVID-19 requires daily self-reported symptomatology and body temperature, given the intermittent nature and the high dependency of self-discipline undermine the practicality of the approach. To date, the advance in sensor technology has made possible to continuously monitor individual physiological parameters using a simple wearable device. Together with the mobile wearable technology that allowing instantaneous, multi-directional, and massive data transfer, remote continuous physiological monitoring is made possible. The Cardiology division, the Univeristy of Hong Kong has been in collaboration with Biofourmis to implement such technology for remote heart failure management. Similar digital therapeutic system can be applied to remotely monitor physiological parameters of large number of quarantined or suspected COVID-19 at home or in quarantine facility. It is purposed to allow the monitoring team to effectively and remotely monitor COVID-19 quarantined and patients, manage and evaluate the disease progression.
This is a multi-centred randomized controlled trial on the addition of letrozole in the medical management of tubal ectopic pregnancies. Tubal ectopic pregnancies are abnormal pregnancies in the Fallopian tube, rather than in the womb. They occurred in around 1-2% of all pregnancies. Methotrexate (MTX) given by the intramuscular route i.e. systemic, a commonly used drug for cancer , was a widely used alternative for management for unruptured tubal ectopic pregnancies and was recommended as first line treatment for selected women. Letrozole, aromatase inhibitor, can suppose oestradiol level. Combination of letrozole with misprostol has shown to improve the complete abortion rate in miscarriage. As a result, addition of letrozole may cause a higher success rate in the medical treatment of ectopic pregnancy. As the evidence of combination of MTX and letrozole in tubal ectopic pregnancies is not available, the objective of the present study is to evaluate the efficacy of combination of MTX and letrozole compared to MTX alone in women with tubal ectopic pregnancies.
Postnatal psychopathology have adverse impact on both mothers and infants. Few postnatal women with depressive symptoms receive treatment, and pharmacological intervention has not been well accepted due to the medication side-effects. Recently, mindfulness-based interventions were found to be beneficial for symptoms in perinatal and antenatal women with depression. These non-pharmacological interventions require less resources and are more feasible for postnatal women to practice at home. To date, no randomized controlled trial has examined mindfulness-based intervention program as a treatment for women with postnatal depression. The proposed randomized controlled trial aims to examine the effects of an 8-week mindfulness-based intervention program on symptom and cognition for postnatal females with depressive symptoms. A total of 70 postnatal women with depressive symptoms will be recruited from the psychiatric outpatient clinics in Hong Kong, and will be randomized into two groups: 1) an 8-week mindfulness-based intervention program (n=35); 2) a booklet-based psychoeducation control group (n=35). All participants will be assessed for depression, anxiety, stress, cognition, role functioning, quality of life, sleep quality and mindfulness ability at the baseline, 8 weeks, and 3 months after intervention. The intervention sessions will be held once weekly lasting 90 minutes for 8 weeks. The investigators primarily hypothesize that participants in the mindfulness-based intervention group will improve depressive symptom after 8 weeks compared with the control group. Secondary, the mindfulness-based intervention will improve anxiety, stress, cognitive functions, sleep quality, quality of life and mindfulness ability.
Periodontal (gum) disease affecting more than 90% of the population globally. The soft and hard tissues that supporting the teeth are being affected. If untreated, the disease progresses from the mild and reversible form (i.e. gingivitis) that involves superficial gum only to the more severe and irreversible form (i.e. periodontitis) that involves loss of periodontal ligament and bone. Teeth will be lost eventually and significantly impairs the function and the oral health related quality of health. Moreover, periodontal disease has been strongly linked to the systemic diseases via centrally or local routes with significant health implications. Periodontal disease is initiated by bacteria (plaque) adhere on tooth surfaces and the body defense by eliciting inflammatory response. The disease and associated inflammation is site-specific and the affected gum is manifested with the cardinal signs of inflammation such as redness (color), swelling (increased volume), edema (loss of surface characteristics) and bleeds easily. Dentists are trained to identify the disease sites by visual (redness and swelling) and by mechanical probing (bleeding). Traditionally these give rises to clinical gum indices showing the degree of inflammation and are important to the clinical monitoring and management of gum diseases. The management of periodontal disease involves the removal of bacteria plaque by both dentists' tooth cleaning and maintained by patients' daily home-care. Home-care plaque removal has been shown by many studies to prevent and/or cease the development of periodontitis. However, most patients do not able to remove plaque effectively and it only takes few days for a health site to development inflammation. Professional monitoring and feedback are highly desirable but many patients only have monthly or even yearly appointment which is too late. Such "non-compliance" increase the treatment cost/time, patient discomfort and reduce treatment efficacy. Moreover, many patients do not receive regular dental checkup and they seek dentists when the gum problem becomes irreversible that complicated and expensive treatment such as tooth extraction and rehabilitation is required. This study consists of 1) collecting the standardized clinical photography with clinical gum indices/ marked by an experienced clinician, 2) import into computer for training, and 3) longitudinally monitoring and analyze of gum condition in a group of gingivitis patients receiving gum treatment.
COVID-19 may cause another world-wide epidemic. This study is divided into 2 arms: (1) Prospective longitudinal observational study involving patients with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 and (2) Retrospective study on patients with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19. Arm 1: We will collect EDTA blood, stool samples, rectal swab, urine, saliva, and specimens from upper respiratory tract (nasopharyngeal aspirate or flocked swab), and lower respiratory tract (sputum or tracheal aspirate) on daily, alternate day, or weekly basis as appropriate. Arm 2: The remainder of specimens that were submitted for laboratory investigation as part of clinical management will be retrieved. Those specimens will only be used after all clinically indicated testing and confirmation procedures have been completed. Assistance from the Public Health Laboratory Service, Department of Health, will be invited to retrieve samples as well as participate in this study. Patients hospitalized for pneumonia in medical wards and ICU at the Prince of Wales Hospital tested negative for COVID-19 will be recruited as controls. Understanding the clinical, virological, microbiological and immunological profiles of this infection is urgently needed to facilitate its management and control.