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Background Tobacco endgame policies are increasingly advocated to end tobacco use. This study investigated public support for a total ban on tobacco sales, use and possession in Hong Kong. Methods A telephone survey was conducted among 1537 randomly selected residents in 2012 to assess their support for a total ban on tobacco sales, usage and possession. Information on sociodemographic characteristics, smoking, and second hand smoke exposure were collected. Logistic regression was used to investigate factors associated with support for a total ban. Results Most of the never smokers (75.3%), ex-smokers (63.9%), and nearly half of current smokers (48.9%) backed some form of a total ban on tobacco. A total ban on tobacco sales was the most popular option among the three groups, with over half (64.8%) of all respondents supporting a ban within 10 years. Current smoking and higher educational attainment were associated with less support for a total ban on tobacco sales. Among current smokers, having quit intentions and attempts to quit were associated with support for a total ban. Conclusions A total ban on tobacco sales was supported by most respondents. Ex-smokers and current smokers also voiced substantial support, although less than never smokers. A total ban on tobacco sales before 2022 should be the goal as it is supported by most of the respondents. Interim tobacco control measures, such as tax increases, expansion of smoking cessation services and plain packaging should be implemented to help current smokers quit and reduce smoking initiation before implementation of the ban. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

Relevant local injury epidemiology In Hong Kong, there were, on average, about 19 596 traffic crashes involving 157 deaths and 21 106 injured persons each year between 2006 and 2011. Scientific analyses were conducted by geographers and engineers primarily using the police crash database. Medical professionals have been analysing road traffic injury data from hospital discharge summaries. Moreover, community leaders have been trying to promote local safe communities. Best practices This paper describes the effort of a multidisciplinary team to address road safety problems and to sustain road safety benefits through a public health approach. The multidisciplinary team comprised a geographer, an engineer, medical professionals and community leaders. The project covered four tasks, namely data integration, identification of hazardous road locations, crash analysis and engineering study, and knowledge exchange through various activities involving a WHO-designated local safe community. Implementation The crash and hospital databases for a district in Hong Kong with 500 000 population were integrated. Based on the integrated database, the public health and people-based approach was adopted to identify hazardous road locations--hot zones--using geographical information systems. Specific hot zones having strong patterns of common factors were considered as treatable locations with a combination of low-cost remedial measures. The benefits of the project are sustained through various activities engaging the general public and major stakeholders. Research agenda More research should be conducted on how institutional support, scientific research and community involvement can be fruitfully combined to achieve the ultimate goal of sustained road safety benefits for people at the community level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Cost-benefit analysis is a useful tool for priority setting in road safety. The value of statistical life (VOSL) is a metric used to estimate the benefits of road interventions in cost-benefit analyses. The International Road Assessment Program (iRAP), for example, created a rule-of-thumb to calculate VOSL benefits of road infrastructure when performing cost-benefit assessments in countries where data on VOSL are sparse. Aim: To evaluate the rapid assessment metric developed by iRAP and provide suggestions for improvement in these methods. Methods: We replicated iRAP calculations in order to make a critical assessment of the sources, results and conclusions. Conclusions: We found the iRAP metric a good example for highlighting some relevant aspects that should be considered in any VOSL estimation in order to enhance its use as a guiding principle for assessing road interventions. Specifically, we recommend the explicit disclosure of the assumptions, the use of sensitivity analysis and the avoidance of omitted variables bias. [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]

Background In March 2007, the Hong Kong Government halved its heavy excise taxes on beer and wine, and 1 year later, it eliminated all duties on these beverages. This study examines the impact of such duty reductions on cardiovascular disease (CVD)-related mortality among the elderly in Hong Kong. Methods Box-Jenkins autoregressive integrated moving average intervention time series analyses were applied to monthly morality data from 2001 to 2010 to quantify the impacts of duty reduction and exemption on CVD death rates among those aged 65 years or older. Results The alcohol duty reduction in March 2007 was associated with an estimated 13% increase (95% CI 2% to 24%) in CVD death rates among elderly men, after controlling for the other intervention, outlier, trends and seasonal variations. This was equivalent to an extra 11 CVD deaths per 100 000 elderly men each month. Much of the observed impacts on CVD death rates were found to have contributed only by that on ischaemic heart disease mortality (18% increase in rate for men (95% CI 4% to 34%); 15% increase for women (95% CI 0.4% to 31%)), not by mortality due to stroke or hypertension. The alcohol duty exemption on March 2008 was not found to have impacted the CVD death rates. Conclusions The increase in CVD death rates among the Chinese elderly after alcohol duty reduction suggest that the purported beneficial effect of moderate alcohol use may not apply to certain Chinese populations, adding fuel to the ongoing debate on the risks and benefits of moderate alcohol consumption on mortality. [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]

Background Existing studies have described a strong correlation between unemployment rates and suicide rates, but the exact mechanisms through which they may interact with one another remain unknown. Method This study examined the complex relationships between suicide rates and both regional unemployment rates and individual employment status during times of economic recession (2000-3) and recovery (2003-6) in Hong Kong. Results Despite the strong correlation (0.86) between the unemployment rates and suicide rates for 2000e6, the rates of suicides within the employed and unemployed groups moved in the opposite direction from the overall population trend. That is, the suicide rate among the unemployed decreased during economic recession and increased during recovery. Conclusion It is important to be able to distinguish precisely between population-level concepts, such as rates, and individual-level characteristics, such as employment status, when considering the development of evidence-based suicide prevention strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]