Athena W. L. Hong

Milk Supplementation of the Diet of Postmenopausal Chinese Women on a Low Calcium Intake Retards Bone Loss

The Chinese diet is low in calcium (less than 500 mg/day on average), and previous observational studies have suggested an association between a low calcium intake and risk of hip and vertebral fracture. In this study, we randomly assigned 200 postmenopausal Chinese women (age range, 55–59 years) to receive 50 g of milk powder containing 800 mg of calcium per day or to a control group. The following are the mean percentage changes (and SEs) in height and bone mineral density (BMD) over 24 months: for height, −0.1 ± 0.2 cm in the milk supplementation group and −0.2 ± 0.1 cm in the control group; for BMD at the total hip, −0.06 ± 0.22% in the milk supplementation group and −0.88 ± 0.26% in the control group; for BMD at the spine (L1−L4), −0.56 ± 0.29% in the milk supplementation group and −1.5 ± 0.29% in the control group; for total body BMD, −0.32 ± 0.16% in the milk supplementation group and −1.2 ± 0.19% in the control group (p < 0.05 by analysis of covariance [ANCOVA] for repeated measures for height and BMD at all sites). The milk supplementation group had less loss in terms of both height and BMD than the control group (p < 0.05 by ANCOVA for repeated measures). Serum parathyroid hormone (PTH) concentration was lower and serum 25‐hyroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] level was higher in the milk supplementation group than the control group at 12 months (p < 0.05 by paired t‐test). We conclude that supplementing the diet of postmenopausal Chinese women with high calcium milk powder retards bone loss.

Effects of Tai Chi and resistance training on cardiovascular risk factors in elderly Chinese subjects: a 12‐month longitudinal, randomized, controlled intervention study

Background   Tai Chi is rapidly gaining in popularity, worldwide. This study was performed to assess its impact on cardiovascular risk factors in comparison with resistance training exercises in elderly Chinese subjects.

An osteoporosis screening tool for Chinese men

Several osteoporosis risk instruments have been proposed to select women for bone densitometry, but no validated instruments are currently available for men. This study aims to address this deficiency by developing and validating a Male Osteoporosis Screening Tool (MOST) for Chinese men. Two thousand ambulatory men, aged 65 and above, were recruited from the general community in Hong Kong, and a cohort of 1,970 men with valid total hip and lumbar spine dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) measurements was included in the current analysis. A 60% random sample was selected as the training sample for developing the screening tool, and the remaining 40% constituted the validation sample. Logistic regression and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis were used to identify the simplest combination of risk factors to be included in the screening tool for predicting osteoporosis at the femoral neck, total hip, or lumbar spine. Body weight and quantitative ultrasound index (QUI) were found to contribute significantly to the area under the ROC curve (AUC), yielding an AUC of 0.823 in the training sample. The resulting MOST had a sensitivity of 94% and a specificity of 46% when using a cutoff score of 3. MOST had an AUC of 0.839 in the validation sample. The risk of osteoporosis was 1% among those with MOST scores ≤2, but 72% among those with MOST scores >7. Using a cutoff of 3, the negative predictive value was 97.5% which suggests that the 42% with MOST scores ≤3 may be accurately screened out as being without osteoporosis, thus saving two fifths of our DXA resources. The positive predictive value was 72% when using a cutoff of 7, implying that MOST cannot replace DXA for case-finding purposes. Nevertheless, for resource allocation and patient satisfaction, it is prudent and economical to offer DXA screening first to the 6% with MOST scores >7.

Depression and lower urinary tract symptoms: Two important correlates of erectile dysfunction in middle-aged men in Hong Kong, China.

Aim: To evaluate the correlates of erectile dysfunction (ED) in Hong Kong middle‐aged Chinese men aged 45–64 years.

Age-related anthropometric remodelling resulting in increased and redistributed adiposity is associated with increases in the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors in Chinese subjects.

Ageing promotes increases in the prevalence of components of the metabolic syndrome, which obesity often underlies.

Making Smart Choices: A Serious Game for Sex Education for Young Adolescents

Current educational resources for sex education in Hong Kong are mainly designed to be used in classroom. They are mostly text-based and are unattractive to the most vulnerable adolescent group. As discussion on sex is still taboo in Chinese society, self-learning resources can supplement classroom teaching. This paper describes an interactive game playable on Facebook, iPad and the web to educate young adolescents with reliable knowledge and positive attitudes towards relationship and sex and life skills necessary for making wise decisions regarding love and sex in a fun way. The effectiveness and acceptance of the game were evaluated by more than 1000 grades 7-9 students from six schools. The results showed that after playing the game, students’ sex knowledge improved with a medium effect size. The students were mostly receptive to the game, finding it fun to play with and describing the content as “interesting”, “interactive”, “informative”, “close to reality” and “applicable”. Making Smart Choices: A Serious Game for Sex Education for Young Adolescents