PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

C W Kwan

Publications and source records attributed to C W Kwan.

5 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Use of the Minimum Data Set--Home Care: a cluster randomized controlled trial among the Chinese older adults.

The objective of this study was to test whether the utilization of Minimum Data Set-Home Care (MDS-HC) as a case finding instrument for Chinese attenders of elderly health centres in Hong Kong had a beneficial impact on the physical and mental health status of those older clients. The dependent variables were 13 outcome variables measuring different dimensions of participants' physical and mental health status. Using a cluster randomized controlled trial design, we assigned three of six participating elderly health centres to the experimental group and the other three to the control group. The respondents were 925 (472 in the experimental group and 453 in the control group) elderly health centre attenders aged 65 years or above. They were assessed by MDS-HC and 734 (382 in the experimental group and 352 in the control group) of them were re-assessed one year later. In the experimental group, the medical doctors had been given their patients' profile of potential problem areas identified by MDS-HC before they treated their patients whereas in the control, the medical doctors treated their patients with their usual practice. We found that older attenders in the experimental group improved more than the ones in the control group in only two out of 13 areas. Surprisingly, the patients in the experimental group deteriorated even more than the ones in the control group in terms of bowel incontinence. Our results indicated that the function of the MDS-HC in case finding or screening is limited in the Hong Kong primary medical care setting.

Aged↗
PubMed2005

Influence curves for factor loadings.

Influence curves for the initial and rotated loadings are derived for the maximum likelihood factor analysis (MLFA) model. Cook's distances based on the empirical influence curves of factor loadings are proposed for the identification of influential observations. The distances are shown to be invariant under scale transformation and factor rotation. We find that an observation with a very large Cook's distance based on the sample influence curve may not necessarily exert an excessive influence on the factor loadings pattern but may change the ordering of the factors. The issue of the switching of factors is also studied by means of the empirical influence curve and factor scores.

Factor Analysis, Statistical↗
PubMed2004

Elderly suicide in Hong Kong--a case-controlled psychological autopsy study.

OBJECTIVE: To examine some of the risk factors for late life suicide in Hong Kong Chinese using a case-controlled psychological autopsy approach. METHOD: Informants of 70 subjects aged 60 or above who had committed suicide as well as a community sample of 100 elderly controls were interviewed. Subjects and controls were assessed for the presence of mental illness, history of suicide attempt and data on health care utilization. RESULTS: Eighty-six per cent of suicide subjects suffered from a psychiatric problem before committing suicide, compared with 9% of control subjects. Among the psychiatric problems, major depression was the commonest diagnosis. Seventy-seven per cent of suicide subjects had consulted a doctor within 1 month of suicide. One-third of suicide subjects had a history of suicide attempt. Rates of current psychiatric diagnosis, rates of medical consultation and history of suicide attempt are all significantly higher in suicide subjects than controls. CONCLUSION: Our findings support the view that depressive disorders and a past history of suicide attempt are risk factors of late-life suicide in the Chinese population of Hong Kong, similar to findings in western studies.

Age Factors↗
PubMed2003

Reference values for change in body mass index from birth to 18 years of age.

UNLABELLED: Body mass index (BMI) has become the measure of choice for determination of nutritional status during the paediatric years, as in adults. Recently, several cross-sectional BMI childhood reference values standards have been published. In order precisely to evaluate childhood nutritional interventions, reference values allowing for the evaluation of changes in BMI values are also needed. For the first time, such reference values can be presented based on 3650 longitudinally followed healthy Swedish children born full term. The reference values for the change in BMI are given as the change in BMI standard deviation scores. The reference values are given as means of mathematical functions adjusting for gender, age of the child and the length of the interval between two measurements for interval lengths of 0.25 to 1.0 y before 2 y of age and of 1 to 5 y between birth and 18 y. The usefulness of the reference values is proved by a graph that forms a part of a clinical computer program; the -2 to +2 standard deviation range of the predicted change in BMI can be computed for an individual child and drawn in the graph as an extended support for clinical decision-making. CONCLUSION: For the first time this communication gives access to BMI growth rate values that can be used both in research and in the clinic to evaluate various interventions, be they nutritional, surgical or therapeutic.

Adult↗