Lorna Kwai Ping Suen

Association between Sleep Behavior and Sleep‐Related Factors among University Students in Hong Kong

Sleep problems among university students are common; however, the association between many sleep‐related factors and sleep behaviors is still unclear. The purpose of this study is to examine different sleep behaviors and sleep‐related factors influencing such behaviors in university students. A descriptive survey was conducted on 400 university students in Hong Kong. The instruments for data collection consisted of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), a sleep hygiene practice questionnaire, demographic data, and other sleep‐related factors. The results reveal that 57.5% of the 400 university students are poor sleepers. Sex, year of study, sleep hygiene practice, and perceived adequate sleep in the past month all demonstrate significant associations with poor sleepers. A high prevalence of sleep‐related problems among college students is confirmed and associated factors are identified. Students should be encouraged to follow sleep hygiene practice, adequate time management for academic and social activities, and suitable stress‐relieving measures.

Tai chi Qigong improves lung functions and activity tolerance in COPD clients: A single blind, randomized controlled trial

OBJECTIVEnTo evaluate the effectiveness of a Tai chi Qigong (TCQ) program in enhancing respiratory functions and activity tolerance in clients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).nnnDESIGNnA single-blind, randomized controlled trial.nnnSETTINGnFive general outpatient clinics in Hong Kong.nnnINTERVENTIONnIn total, 206 COPD clients were randomly assigned into one of the three groups, namely, TCQ, exercise, and control group. Subjects in the TCQ group received a TCQ program consisting of two 60-min sessions each week for three months. Subjects in the exercise group were taught to practice breathing techniques combined with walking as an exercise. Subjects in the control group were instructed to maintain their usual activities. Data collection was performed at baseline and at the 6-week and 3-month marks.nnnOUTCOMESnLung functions, 6-min walk test, and COPD exacerbation rate.nnnRESULTSnResults of repeated measures of analysis of covariance demonstrated that there were significant interaction effects between time and group in forced vital capacity (p=.002, η(2)=.06), forced expiratory volume in 1s (p<.001, η(2)=.02), walking distance (p<.001), and exacerbation rate (p=.006, η(2)=.06) at 3 months. Improvements were noted in the TCQ group. No changes were observed in the exercise group, while a decline in lung functions was noticed in the control group.nnnCONCLUSIONnTai chi Qigong was able to improve respiratory functions and activity tolerance level in COPD clients. The breathing and walking exercise helped maintain lung functions and slow down disease progression.

Predictive Value of Auricular Diagnosis on Coronary Heart Disease

The ear has a reflexive property; therefore, various physical attributes may appear on the auricle when disorders of the internal organs or other parts of the body exist. Auricular diagnostics is an objective, painless, and noninvasive method that provides rapid access to information. Thus, the association between auricular signals and coronary heart disease (CHD) should be further investigated. A case control study was conducted to determine the predictive value of auricular signals on 100 cases of CHD (CHD+ve = 50; CHD−ve = 50) via visual inspection, electrical skin resistance measurement, and tenderness testing. The results showed that the presence of an ear lobe crease (ELC) was significantly associated with coronary heart disease. The “heart” zone of the CHD+ve group significantly exhibited higher conductivity on both ears than that of the controls. The CHD+ve group experienced significant tenderness in the “heart” region compared with those in the CHD−ve group in both acute and chronic conditions. Further studies that take into consideration the impact of age, race, and earlobe shape on ELC prevalence in a larger sample should be done.

Effectiveness of a Tai chi Qigong program in promoting health-related quality of life and perceived social support in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease clients

PurposeThis paper evaluates the effectiveness of a 3-month Tai chi Qigong (TCQ) program in promoting the psychosocial functional health of clients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in Hong Kong.MethodsThis study employed a single-blind, randomized controlled trial. Two hundred and six COPD clients were randomly assigned into three groups, namely, TCQ group, exercise group, and control group. Subjects in the TCQ group received a TCQ program, consisting of two 60-min sessions each week for 3xa0months. Subjects in the exercise group were taught to practice breathing techniques combined with walking as an exercise. Subjects in the control group received their usual care. Data collections were performed at baseline, on the sixth week and on the third month. The primary outcomes were health-related quality of life using St. George Respiratory Questionnaire-Hong Kong Chinese version and perceived social support using the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support-Chinese version.ResultsThe TCQ group showed greater improvements in the symptom (F4, 404xa0=xa03.351, Pxa0=xa00.010) and activity domains (F4, 404xa0=xa02.611, Pxa0=xa00.035). No differences were detected in perceived social support among the three groups.ConclusionsTai chi Qigong promoted health outcomes with respect to clients’ perception of their respiratory symptoms. Moreover, TCQ decreased disturbances to their physical activities.

Effectiveness of auricular therapy on sleep promotion in the elderly

Sleep disturbances are a particularly common problem in the elderly. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of auricular therapy on sleep behaviors in the elderly. One hundred and twenty participants of 60 years old or above and who were suffering from sleep disturbances were invited to participate in this study. Eligible participants were randomly allocated to receive auricular therapy using Junci Medulla (Group A = 30), Semen Vaccariae (Group B = 30) or magnetic pearls (Group C = 60). Groups A and B were the control groups, while Group C was the experimental group. Seven auricular points which are thought to have an effect on promoting sleep were selected. The total treatment course lasted for three weeks. Objective measurement using actigraphic monitoring was performed before the therapy commenced, in the middle period of the therapy, and within one week after the therapy had been completed. After the therapy, there were significant differences among the three groups in terms of the nocturnal sleep time (NST) (F(2,117) = 6.84, p < 0.05) and sleep efficiency (SE) (F(2,117) = 7.69, p < 0.05). Significant improvement in the sleep behaviors was observed in the experimental group using magnetic pearls. In a backward multiple regression, the effect of auricular therapy on SE after allowing for age in female participants is of high statistical significance (F(3,106) = 9.04, p < 0.001). The paper concludes that auricular therapy using magnetic pearls is an effective means of improving the quantity and quality of sleep in the elderly.

Beliefs and attitudes towards complementary medicine among registered nurses in Hong Kong.

BACKGROUNDnThe personal use of and professional recommendation for complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) has been found to be related to nurses knowledge and type of training background. Little, however, is known about CAM usage among nurses from Hong Kong who while of Chinese origin, are educated in western medical principles while exhibiting both folk knowledge and lay use of CAM in their daily lives.nnnOBJECTIVEnThe purpose of this study was to investigate the beliefs and attitudes towards CAM in a population of Hong Kong registered nurses. A particular focus was the sources of CAM information and the nurses professional communication exchanges about CAM usage.nnnDESIGNnCross-sectional survey.nnnSETTING AND PARTICIPANTSnThe survey was conducted from March to June 2006 with registered nurses (N=187) drawn form the Hong Kong College of Nursing.nnnRESULTSnNearly three quarters (71.9%) of the nurses agreed that CAM should be integrated into mainstream Western medicine. The majority (89.8%) of participants did not agree that CAM should not be taken when using Western medicine. The most common sources for the nurses surveyed to obtain CAM information were, in order of frequency, newspapers and magazines (64.2%), friends (57.2%) and books (43.9%). Approximately one in three (28.0-35.3%) participants had either sometimes or frequently initiated a discussion about CAM or a discussion about the interaction between CAM and Western medicine with nursing colleague. Consistently, nurses who had previously received training on CAM (48.9%) were also more likely to initiate CAM discussions than those who had not received such training (30.7%, p<0.05).nnnCONCLUSIONnMore knowledge of CAM was in general, welcomed among nurses, with 93.6% of the nurses surveyed reporting an interest in further learning. A major recommendation is that HK registered nurses receive professional CAM training as a means to enhance patient care.

Auricular acupuncture for insomnia: a systematic review

Objective:u2002 Auricular acupuncture (AA) is a therapeutic method by which specific points on the auricle are stimulated to treat various conditions. AA is often recommended as treatment for insomnia. The aim of this systematic review was to evaluate data from randomised, placebo‐controlled clinical trials testing the effectiveness of AA for treating insomnia.

Efficacy of Auricular Therapy for Pain Management: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Objective. The objective of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to assess the efficacy of auricular therapy by including a sham therapy control group. Methods. Relevant, randomized clinical trials (RCTs) were identified by searching medical related databases from, depending on journal, 1900 (at the earliest) to 1994 (at the latest) through May 2013. The outcome measure was a pain intensity score. Results. Twenty-two RCTs were identified and 13 RCTs were included for meta-analysis. In these studies, auricular therapy provided significant pain relief when compared to a sham or control group. The overall standardized mean differences (SMD) was 1.59 (95% CI [−2.36, −0.82]) (13 trials, total subject numbers = 806), indicating that, on average, the mean decrease in pain score for auricular therapy group was 1.59 standard deviations greater than the mean decrease for the sham control. In terms of the efficacy of the different treatment methods, auricular acupressure boasts the largest strength of evidence for pain relief, followed by auricular acupuncture. Electroacupuncture stimulation did not show significant evidence for efficacy, which may be due to the small sample size (i.e., only 19 subjects were included). Conclusion. Further large-scale RCTs are needed to determine the efficacy of auricular therapy for pain.

The long-term effects of auricular therapy using magnetic pearls on elderly with insomnia.

OBJECTIVEnTo examine the long-term effect of auricular therapy using magnetic pearls administered for the elderly suffering from insomnia.nnnDESIGNnA follow-up study after a randomized controlled trial.nnnSETTINGSnFour hostels for the elderly in Hong Kong.nnnINTERVENTIONSnThis paper focuses on reporting the long-term effect of auricular therapy using magnetic pearls in the experimental group of a randomized controlled study. Fifteen volunteer participants were followed up at 1-, 3-, and 6-month intervals after a 3-week treatment course.nnnOUTCOME MEASURESnObjective sleep parameters using actigraphic monitoring were collected at different intervals of time after the therapy.nnnRESULTSnResults of RANOVA demonstrate that there was a significant difference of nocturnal sleep time (F(2.30,29.90)=3.63, P<0.05) and marginally differences of sleep efficiency (F(4,52)=2.52, P=0.05) at baseline, immediately after the therapy, and at the three time intervals at 1, 3 and 6 months. The results illustrate that the mean nocturnal sleep time (F=4.95, P=0.30, R(2)=0.91) and the mean sleep efficiency (F=13.50, P=0.19, R(2)=0.96) also remained constant over the 6-month follow up period. The results of least square polynomial regression analysis also illustrate that the mean NST (F=4.95, P=0.30, R(2)=0.91) and the mean sleep efficiency (F=13.50, P=0.19, R(2)=0.96) remained constant over the 6-month follow up period.nnnCONCLUSIONnThe results of this follow up study indicate that auricular therapy using magnetic pearls could have a long-term effect, at least within the observed period of time, on improving the quality as well as the quantity of sleep among the elderly.

The sustaining effects of Tai chi Qigong on physiological health for COPD patients: A randomized controlled trial

OBJECTIVESnTo evaluate the sustaining effects of Tai chi Qigong in improving the physiological health for COPD patients at sixth month.nnnDESIGNnA randomized controlled trial. Subjects were in three randomly assigned groups: Tai chi Qigong group, exercise group, and control group.nnnSETTINGnThe 206 subjects were recruited from five general outpatient clinics.nnnINTERVENTIONSnTai chi Qigong group completed a 3-month Tai chi Qigong program. Exercise group practiced breathing and walking as an exercise. Control group received usual care.nnnMAIN OUTCOME MEASURESnPrimary outcomes included six-minute walking distance and lung functions. Secondary outcomes were dyspnea and fatigue levels, number of exacerbations and hospital admissions.nnnRESULTSnTai chi Qigong group showed a steady improvement in exercise capacity (P<.001) from baseline to the sixth month. The mean walking distance increased from 298 to 349 meters (+17%). No significant changes were noted in the other two groups. Tai chi Qigong group also showed improvement in lung functions (P<.001). Mean forced expiratory volume in 1s increased from .89 to .99l (+11%). No significant change was noted in the exercise group. Deterioration was found in the control group, with mean volume decreased from .89 to .84l (-5.67%). Significant decreased in the number of exacerbations was observed in the Tai chi Qigong group. No changes in dyspnea and fatigue levels were noted among the three groups.nnnCONCLUSIONSnTai chi Qigong has sustaining effects in improving the physiological health and is a useful and appropriate exercise for COPD patients.