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Background: Media guidelines for suicide reporting are available in many countries. However, to what extent the mass media comply with the guidelines is unknown. Few studies are available that investigate systematically whether the mass media reflect the epidemiological reality of suicide deaths in their articles. Methods: Based on the WHO media guidelines, this study investigated the characteristics of newspaper articles of suicides in three Chinese communities, namely Hong Kong, Taiwan and Guangzhou. Epidemiological comparisons were conducted to identify the age and gender differences between the suicide victims as reported in the newspapers and the official records of suicide deaths in all three places. Results: The results found that one media characteristic complied with the WHO media guidelines (ie, only about 2% of the articles were printed on the front page), but there were a number of instances of non-compliance (ie, only 4--14% provided sources for help-seeking and 27--90% printed with photos). The epidemiological comparisons revealed an over-representation of younger suicides and an under-representation of late-life suicides in the newspapers of all three places. Furthermore, female suicides were found to be under-reported in Taiwan and Guangzhou newspapers, but not in Hong Kong papers. Conclusion: Non-compliant suicide articles are prevalent in the newspapers of these three Chinese settings. The observed media misrepresentations may potentially mislead the public and the policy makers about the actual risk for suicide in some demographic groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To examine the effects of home-based transitional palliative care for patients with end-stage heart failure (ESHF) after hospital discharge.Methods: This was a randomised controlled trial conducted in three hospitals in Hong Kong. The recruited subjects were patients with ESHF who had been discharged home from hospitals and referred for palliative service, and who met the specified inclusion criteria. The interventions consisted of weekly home visits/telephone calls in the first 4 weeks then monthly follow-up, provided by a nurse case manager supported by a multidisciplinary team. The primary outcome measures were any readmission and count of readmissions within 4 and 12 weeks after index discharge, compared using χ(2) tests and Poisson regression, respectively. Secondarily, change in symptoms over time between control and intervention groups were evaluated using generalised estimating equation analyses of data collected using the Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale (ESAS).Results: The intervention group (n=43) had a significantly lower readmission rate than the control group (n=41) at 12 weeks (intervention 33.6% vs control 61.0% χ(2)=6.8, p=0.009). The mean number (SE) of readmissions for the intervention and control groups was, respectively, 0.42 (0.10) and 1.10 (0.16) and the difference was significant (p=0.001). The relative risk (CI) for 12-week readmissions for the intervention group was 0.55 (0.35 to 0.88). There was no significant difference in readmissions between groups at 4 weeks. However, when compared with the control group, the intervention group experienced significantly higher clinical improvement in depression (45.9% vs 16.1%, p<0.05), dyspnoea (62.2% vs 29.0%, p<0.05) and total ESAS score (73.0% vs 41.4%, p<0.05) at 4 weeks. There were significant differences between groups in changes over time in quality of life (QOL) measured by McGill QOL (p<0.05) and chronic HF (p<0.01) questionnaires.Conclusions: This study provides evidence of the effectiveness of a postdischarge transitional care palliative programme in reducing readmissions and improving symptom control among patients with ESHF.Trial Registration Number: HKCTR-1562; Results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Adolescent drinking in Western countries has been associated with older age and high socioeconomic status, but the association with family structure was inconsistent. Methods In a 2012-2013 school-based survey in Hong Kong, 23 096 students (mean age 14.7 years, SD 1.8 years) completed an anonymous questionnaire. Current drinking was defined as any drinking and binge drinking as consuming at least 5 drinks on one occasion, both in the past 30 days. Multilevel logistic regression was used to examine the association of sociodemographic characteristics with current drinking, binge drinking and type of alcohol consumed. Results Current drinking was associated with age (≥ vs ≤14 years) (adjusted OR 1.87, 95% CI 1.74 to 2.02), higher perceived family affluence versus low affluence (1.11, 1.02 to 1.21 for medium affluence; 1.55, 1.38 to 1.75 for high affluence), private housing versus public housing (1.11, 1.01 to 1.21) and non-intact family versus intact family (1.31, 1.19 to 1.45 for separated/divorced parents; 1.40, 1.21 to 1.62 for one or both deceased parents). Similar risk factors were observed for binge drinking. Girls were more likely to drink fruit wine (1.48, 1.36 to 1.62), while they were less likely to drink beer (0.85, 0.79 to 0.92) and spirits (0.69, 0.54 to 0.87). Students who reported high family affluence were more likely to drink wine (1.91, 1.59 to 2.30) and spirits (2.23, 1.54 to 3.24). Conclusions Generally, adolescents who were older and had higher socioeconomic status were more likely to drink. High family affluence was associated with wine and spirits drinking. Beer and spirits were preferred more by boys, and fruit wine by girls. These results indicated high-risk groups for adolescent alcohol interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective To assess the perceived effectiveness of cigarette health warnings in China, compared with picture and text-only warnings from other countries. Method 1169 individuals (adult smokers, adult nonsmokers and youth) from four Chinese cities (Beijing, Shanghai, Kunming and Yinchuan) viewed 10 health warnings on cigarette packages, which included (a) the current Chinese text warnings covering 30% of the front/back of the pack (introduced October 2008); (b) the former Chinese text warning located on the side of the pack; (c) four picture warnings covering 50% of the front/back of the pack from Canada (lung cancer), Singapore (mouth disease), Hong Kong (gangrene) and European Union (clogged arteries); and (d) the same four warnings without the picture. Participants rated and ranked the 10 warnings on dimensions including how effective each would be in motivating smokers to quit and in convincing youth not to start smoking. Results Both Chinese warnings were consistently rated as least effective, with the new Chinese warning rated only slightly higher than the old warning. The picture warnings were consistently ranked or rated as most effective, with the text-only versions in the middle. Results were consistent across subject group, city and sex. Conclusions (1) Picture warnings are rated as much more effective than the same warnings without pictures. (2) The revised health warnings in China, introduced in October 2008, are only marginally more effective than the previous warning and far less effective than even text warnings from other countries. These results, coupled with population-based evaluation studies, suggest that pictorial warnings would significantly increase the impact of health warnings in China. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]