Family violence accounts for 25% of homicides in Hong Kong

Letters to the editorpublished_or_final_versio

Incidence rate trends of histological subtypes of nasopharyngeal carcinoma in Hong Kong

The overall decline in incidence rate of nasopharyngeal carcinoma in Hong Kong during 1988–2002 was limited primarily to a decrease in keratinising carcinoma, which could be explained by the decline in cigarette smoking. Genetic and Epstein–Barr virus interactions may explain the relatively stable incidence rate of non-keratinising carcinoma

Therapeutic targeting of CBP/β-catenin signaling reduces cancer stem-like population and synergistically suppresses growth of EBV-positive nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells with cisplatin

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is an EBV-associated epithelial malignancy prevalent in southern China. Presence of treatment-resistant cancer stem cells (CSC) may associate with tumor relapse and metastasis in NPC. ICG-001 is a specific CBP/β-catenin antagonist that can block CBP/β-catenin-mediated transcription of stem cell associated genes and enhance p300/β-catenin-mediated transcription, thereby reducing the CSC-like population via forced differentiation. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the effect of ICG-001 on the CSC-like population, and the combination effect of ICG-001 with cisplatin in the C666-1 EBV-positive NPC cells. Results showed that ICG-001 inhibited C666-1 cell growth and reduced expression of CSC-associated proteins with altered expression of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) markers. ICG-001 also inhibited C666-1 tumor sphere formation, accompanied with reduced SOX2 hi /CD44 hi CSC-like population. ICG-001 was also found to restore the expression of a tumor suppressive microRNA-145 (miR-145). Ectopic expression of miR-145 effectively repressed SOX2 protein expression and inhibited tumor sphere formation. Combination of ICG-001 with cisplatin synergistically suppressed in vitro growth of C666-1 cells and significantly suppressed growth of NPC xenografts. These results suggested that therapeutically targeting of the CBP/β-catenin signaling pathway with ICG-001 can effectively reduce the CSC-like population and combination with cisplatin can effectively suppress the growth of NPC.link_to_OA_fulltex

An exploratory study to understand help-seeking behaviors of abused South Asian ethnic minority women

Intimate partner violence is a public health issue regardless of race and ethnicity. Emergency nurses always come across with abused women in their daily practice. The present exploratory study is to report the help-seeking behaviors and patterns for abused South Asian ethnic minority women admitted to the accident and emergency departments in two local hospitals in Hong Kong. By using content analysis via medical chart reviews of medical, nursing and social history notes for 37 abused South Asian ethnic minority women, we aim to provide the understanding on the women’s help-seeking behaviors and patterns, in which the information will be beneficial to emergency nurses to address the needs of South Asian ethnic minority women experiencing intimate partner violence and provide culturally competent care to them for maintaining safety and promoting better health outcomes

Evaluation of the Training-of-Trainers (TOT) Programme to build capacity in tobacco control and smoking cessation among community nurses and public health physicians in Guangdong Province, China

The 4th Cross-Strait Conference on Tobacco Control, Macau, China, 3-5 November 2010.第四屆兩岸四地煙害防制交流研討會, 中國, 澳門, 2010年11月3-5日

A characteristics and help-seeking pattern of mutual violence couples

Oral Presentation - ]interpersonal violence 1: no. OP022-0

Intimate partner violence related head-neck-face injuries in women at Hospital Emergency Departments: visible signs and invisible harm

Neurotrauma – prevention and public health: Poster Session 3: abstract no. 0430Background: Head-neck-face injury has been recognized as one of the commonest injuries identified in intimate partner violence related injuries at hospital emergency departments. However, few studies have been investigated the reasons of attack, social factors of abusers and victims and women’s help-seeking behaviours. Objectives: The study aims to examine the patterns of head-neck-face injuries, reasons for attack, abusive and social histories by reviewing 5-year hospital data. Methods: By using a retrospective cohort study, medical charts of abused women (n=854) presented to the hospital emergency departments in Hong Kong from 2010 to 2014 were reviewed by research nurses. The medical records were identified from two computerized systems and individual medical charts were then retrieved from Medical Record Offices and reviewed manually. Results: There were 627 (73.4%) women admitted to emergency departments due to head-neck-face injuries, which were the most common injuries among them. Some of them (15%) complained loss of conscious, dizziness, nausea, vomiting after injuries. The mean age was around 38.6. Majority of them were married (82.3%) and some of them were cohabited (13.6%). Half of the women had reported multiple episodes of physical violence attack and 16% of women disclosed psychological abuse, sexual abuse and economic abuse histories with the intimate partners. The reasons of the attack episode including couple relationship problems, extra-marital affairs, sexual problems, in-law conflicts, parenting issues, financial problems, alcoholism, drug addition, gambling and some trivial matters. Different weapons have been used for the violence attack and some of them might cause serious injuries, such as knife, chopper, hammer, brick, metal rod, gas bottle, and cooking pot. There were 10% of women needed hospitalization but half of them discharged against medical advice. Conclusions: The study findings inform clinicians about the linkage between head-neck-face injuries and risks in abused women. The invisible head-neck-face injury related cognitive and behavioural problems, which might lead to re-victimization would also be discussed