Our heartfelt congratulations to the academics of the JC School of Public Health and Primary Care (JCSPHPC) for their outstanding performance in the oral presentation at the WONCA Conference 2024.
The WONCA Conference 2024 was successfully held from 21 – 24 August 2024 in Singapore. It was organised in conjunction with the Singapore Primary Care Conference 2024, under the theme "Art & Science of Family Medicine”. The Conference provided an invaluable platform for scholars, healthcare practitioners, researchers, and peers in the field of Family Medicine to exchange knowledge and build connections.
Three members from the CUHK Faculty of Medicine (CU Medicine) won awards in the Oral Presentation competition while two of them are from JCSPHPC. The awardees are:
1st prize - Dr Violet Zijun Xu, Postdoctoral Fellow, JCSPHPC
Topic: The Chinese Version of Patient Experience with Treatment and Self-management: Translation and Validation in Patients with Multimorbidity in Primary Care
Summary:
The study aimed to translate and validate the Chinese version of the Patient Experience with Treatment and Self-management (C-PETS version 2.0) questionnaire in patients with multimorbidity in primary care. The 60-item PETS vs. 2.0 was translated following the FACIT guidelines. The questionnaire was completed by 502 adult primary care patients with multimorbidity from three general out-patient clinics in Hong Kong. The C-PETS vs. 2.0 demonstrated acceptable internal consistency reliability, with higher scores correlated with worse quality of life, higher frailty, and more depressive symptoms. Confirmatory Factor Analysis revealed an acceptable model fit after adjusting the error variances. The C-PETS version 2.0 is a reliable and valid tool for assessing perceived treatment burden in patients with multimorbidity in primary care, with all original domains and items retained in the Chinese version.
2nd prize: Prof Regina Sit, Associate Professor (Clinical), JCSPHPC
Topic: The Clinical Effectiveness of Virtual Reality (VR)-Assisted Tai Chi in Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain: A Randomized Clinical Trial
Summary:
While various VR modalities have demonstrated initial success in reducing pain among individuals with chronic pain, the effectiveness of immersive Cave Automatic Virtual Environment (CAVE) technology for pain management remains uncertain. This study aims to assess the efficacy of VR-assisted Tai Chi compared to non-VR Tai Chi in adults with chronic musculoskeletal pain through a 12-week randomized clinical trial led by licensed instructors. Participants had a mean age of 65.1±5.6 years, with 78.8% female. Dropout rates were 15% in the VR and 7.5% in the non-VR groups. The VR group exhibited a statistically significant reduction in BPI-severity at both week 8 (β=-0.752, 95% CI: -1.48 to -0.024, p=0.043) and week 12 (β=-1.181, 95% CI: -1.904 to -0.458, p=0.001) compared to the non-VR group. The study suggested that VR-assisted Tai Chi using CAVE technology potentially reduced pain severity among individuals with chronic musculoskeletal pain.
3rd prize: Ms Fai Fai Ho, PhD Student, School of Chinese Medicine
Topic: Association of healthy lifestyle behaviours with incident irritable bowel syndrome: A large population-based prospective cohort study
Summary:
This prospective cohort study involving 64,268 participants is one of the first large-scale studies to confirm that a combination of healthy lifestyle behaviours, including never smoking, optimal sleep, high level of vigorous physical activity, high dietary quality, and moderate alcohol intake, can significantly reduce the risk of developing IBS. Participants who follow 1, 2, or 3 to 5 of these behaviours had a 21%, 36%, and 42% lower risk of developing IBS, respectively, compared to those who did not follow any of these behaviours. Therefore, adhering to a higher number of healthy lifestyle behaviours is significantly associated with a lower IBS incidence in the general population. When analysing separately, having high sleep quality, engaging in more vigorous physical activity, and never smoking could reduce the risk by 27%, 17%, and 14%, respectively. This suggests that lifestyle modifications have the potential to be an effective primary prevention strategy for IBS.
Once again, we would like to extend our best wishes to the awardees for their great success. We are proud of their achievements and look forward to their continued contributions to the field.
Three members from CU Medicine won awards in the Oral Presentation competition, they are Dr Violet Zijun Xu (top), Postdoctoral Fellow, JCSPHPC, Prof Regina Sit (middle), Associate Professor (Clinical), JCSPHPC and Ms Fai Fai Ho (bottom), PhD Student, School of Chinese Medicine.
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