Gender preselection

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Evaluation of the quality of care of a haemodialysis public-private partnership programme for patients with end-stage renal disease

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Stimulus-specific adaptation at the synapse level in vitro

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The variation of psychopharmacological treatment for people with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD): an international study

Conference Theme: Applying pharmacoepidemiology to improve health care in AsiaPoster PresentationAIM/OBJECTIVE: There is a variation of prescription for ASD treatment between countries. It has been suggested that many people with mental disorders in low/middle-income countries do not receive adequate treatment. This study aimed to investigate psychopharmacological treatment patterns in thirty countries which previously had no published data and the association between country’s income and ASD treatment …published_or_final_versio

Association of estimated glomerular filtration rate and urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio with incidence of cardiovascular diseases and mortality in chinese patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus – a population-based retrospective cohort study

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Statin use reduces cardiovascular events and all-cause mortality amongst Chinese patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus: a 5-year cohort study

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Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Nurse-Led Continence Care Treatments for Chinese Primary Care Patients with Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms

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Effect of a structured diabetes education programme in primary care on hospitalizations and emergency department visits among people with Type 2 diabetes mellitus: results from the Patient Empowerment Programme

AIM: To assess whether a structured diabetes education programme, the Patient Empowerment Programme, was associated with a lower rate of all-cause hospitalization and emergency department visits in a population-based cohort of patients with Type 2 diabetes mellitus in primary care. METHODS: A cohort of 24 250 patients was evaluated using a linked administrative database during 2009-2013. We selected 12 125 patients with Type 2 diabetes who had at least one Patient Empowerment Programme session attendance. Patients who did not participate in the Patient Empowerment Programme were matched one-to-one with patients who did, using the propensity score method. Hospitalization events and emergency department visits were the events of interest. Cox proportional hazard and negative binomial regressions were performed to estimate the hazard ratios for the initial event, and incidence rate ratios for the number of events. RESULTS: During a median 30.5 months of follow-up, participants in the Patient Empowerment Programme had a lower incidence of an initial hospitalization event (22.1 vs 25.2%; hazard ratio 0.879; P<0.001) and emergency department visit (40.5 vs 44%; hazard ratio 0.901; P<0.001) than those who did not participate in the Patient Empowerment Programme. Participation in the Patient Empowerment Programme was associated with a significantly lower number of emergency department visits (incidence rate ratio 0.903; P<0.001): 40.4 visits per 100 patients annually in those who did not participate in the Patient Empowerment Programme vs. 36.2 per 100 patients annually in those who did. There were significantly fewer hospitalization episodes (incidence rate ratio 0.854; P<0.001): 200 hospitalizations per 100 patients annually in those who did not participate in the Patient Empowerment Programme vs. 16.9 hospitalizations per 100 patients annually in those who did. CONCLUSIONS: Among patients with Type 2 diabetes, the Patient Empowerment Programme was shown to be effective in delaying the initial hospitalization event and in reducing their frequency. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.postprin

ZnO nanorods for solar cells: Hydrothermal growth versus vapor deposition

Performance of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) based on ZnO nanorods prepared by hydrothermal and vapor-deposition methods has been investigated. In spite of their inferior optical properties, DSSCs based on hydrothermally grown rods exhibit higher power conversion efficiency, which can be attributed to the higher dye adsorption. Hydrothermally grown and vapor deposited nanorods also exhibit different dependence of photovoltaic performance on the annealing conditions of the rods, indicating significant effect of the native defects on the achievable photocurrent and power conversion efficiency. Efficiency of 0.22% is obtained for both as grown hydrothermally grown nanorods and vapor deposited nanorods annealed in oxygen at 200 °C. © 2008 American Institute of Physics.published_or_final_versio

Patient Empowerment Programme in primary care reduced all-cause mortality and cardiovascular diseases in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus: a population-based propensity-matched cohort study

Aims: To assess whether a structured diabetes education programme, Patient Empowerment Programme (PEP), was associated with a lower risk of first cardiovascular disease (CVD) event and all-cause mortality in a population-based cohort of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients in primary care. Materials and Methods: A Chinese cohort of 27,278 T2DM patients without prior occurrence of CVD events on or before baseline study recruitment date was linked to the Hong Kong administrative database from 2008 to 2013. PEP was provided to T2DM patients treated at primary care outpatient clinics through community trained professional educators. Non-PEP participants were matched one-to-one with the PEP participants using propensity score method with respect to their baseline covariates. Cox proportional hazard regressions were performed to estimate the associations of PEP with the occurrence of first CVD event, coronary heart disease, stroke, heart failure and death from any cause, controlling for baseline characteristics. Results: During a median of 21.5 months follow-up, 795 (352 PEP participants and 443 non-PEP participants) patients suffered a first CVD event. After adjusting for confounding variables, PEP participants had a lower incidence of all-cause mortality (hazard ratio: 0.564; 95%CI:0.445-0.715; P < 0.001), first CVD (hazard ratio: 0.807; 95%CI:0.696-0.935; P = 0.004) and stroke (hazard ratio: 0.702; 95%CI:0.569-0.867; P = 0.001) events than those without PEP. Conclusions: Enrolment in PEP was associated with reduced all-cause mortality and first CVD events among T2DM patients. The CVD benefit of PEP might be attributable to improving metabolic control through empowerment of self-care and enhancement of quality of diabetes care in primary care.postprin