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Prof. Roger Yat-nork CHUNG

鍾一諾教授

BA (Johns Hopkins), MHS (Johns Hopkins), PhD (HKU)

Associate Professor 

Email: rychung@cuhk.edu.hk

 

ORCID: 0000-0003-4407-8208

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Scopus Author ID: 23988568600

Academic Appointments

  • Co-Director, CUHK Centre for Bioethics

  • Associate Director, CUHK Institute of Health Equity

  • Research Fellow (by courtesy), CUHK Institute of Ageing

  • International Health Policy Fellow, National Academy of Medicine (NAM), USA

  • Member, American College of Epidemiology

Biography

Roger Chung is currently Associate Professor of the School of Public Health and Primary Care of CUHK, Co-Director of the CUHK Centre for Bioethics, and Associate Director of the Institute of Health Equity at CUHK.

He is the inaugural US National Academy of Medicine (NAM) International Health Policy Fellow. He received his BA (Public Health Sciences) from Johns Hopkins University, MHS from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and PhD from The University of Hong Kong (HKU). He also anticipates to graduate from the Master of Science in Bioethics (MBE) program at Harvard Medical School in 2025. 

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As a social epidemiologist and bioethicist by training, Prof. Chung’s research uses the lens of biomedical ethics and justice to examine the social determinants of health and health inequalities. He is currently examining social determinants such as poverty, deprivation, socioeconomic disadvantage, environmental and housing factors, and migrant status. Prof. Chung is also particularly interested in the health of the vulnerable populations, including socially disadvantaged individuals, migrant workers and rare disease patients. Moreover, he is conducting research on aging‐related issues, including long‐term/end‐of‐life care and multimorbidity. Prof. Chung has had more than 100 peer-reviewed international publications and have been awarded with numerous research grants as Principal and Co-investigators. Prof. Chung also currently serves as the editorial borad member of Nature’s Scientific Reports  and Public Health in Practice. 

 

Prof. Chung served as the Vice Chair of the Public Health Steering Committee of the Worldwide Universities Network (WUN) and is currently the Vice President of Hong Kong Life and Death Studies Association (香港生死學協會). In 2019, he co-edited a best-selling and award-winning book “What Life and Death Education Talks About” (《生死教育講呢啲》) . Apart from his academic life, he is an award‐winning and celebrated recording artist/producer.

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Watch Prof Chung's Tedx talk on "Why talk about equalities in an unequal world" : https://youtu.be/W8H9qxnRxeI?si=F4OWFg3XOc_ranHE

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Research Interests

  • ​Health equity and social epidemiology

    • Social determinants of health (Poverty and deprivation, socioeconomic disadvantage, environmental and housing factors, and migrant status)

    • Health of vulnerable populations (Migrant workers, rare disease patients)

  • Bioethics and public health ethics

    • End-of-life care (Advance directive, advance care planning, euthanasia, physician assisted dying)​

    • Health equity

    • Public health justice

  • Lifecourse and lifestyle epidemiology

    • Multimorbidity

    • Non-communicable, chronic diseases

    • Long-term care

Recent Funded Research Projects 

  • Research Grants Council (RGC) General Research Fund (GRF):

    • Individual-level Income Poverty and Deprivation as Predictors of Health. A Longitudinal Cohort Study in Hong Kong, $1,156,984

    • Employment Conditions and Health among Female Foreign Domestic Workers in Hong Kong. A Cross-sectional Quantitative Survey, $889,984

  • Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development (SIE) Fund Task Force and CUHK Committee on Knowledge Transfer (KTC):

    • ​​A Concept Musical Drama on End-of-Life Care and Death Attitudes in Hong Kong, $400,000

  • Other grants:​

    • Health and Medical Research Fund (HMRF). Increasing public acceptance on vaccination and non-pharmaceutical interventions: A quantitative survey to inform government communication, $499,960

    • Health and Medical Research Fund (HMRF). Trajectories of healthy life expectancy by sex and districts in Hong Kong: A population-based retrospective cohort study, $99,760

    • Worldwide Universities Network (WUN) Research Development Fund. Health & Social Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Young People across the Socioeconomic Ladder: A Cross-Country Comparative Study, £20,000

    • CUHK Institute of Health Equity, Multi-dimensional Impacts of the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) on Vulnerable Populations in Hong Kong: A Mixed Method Study, $170,000

    • The Institute of Health Equity (IHE) at CUHK in Collaboration with University College London Institute of Health Equity, 01/01/2020-31/12/2024, $29,968,000

    • Health Needs, Treatment Access and Quality of Life among Rare Disease Patients and Their Caregivers, $360,000

    • Provision of Consultancy Service on Means Test of Samaritan Fund and Community Care Fund Medical Assistance Programmes, $1,480,000

Selected Publications

(* = corresponding author)​

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Health equity and social epidemiology

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1.       Sumerlin TS, Kim JH, Yu J, Chung RY*. Perceived discrimination and mental health among female migrant domestic workers in Hong Kong: A sequential explanatory mixed-methods study. Cultur Divers Ethnic Minor Psychol. Published online August 29, 2024. doi:10.1037/cdp0000717

2.       Chung GK, Liu X, Massar K, Schelleman-Offermans K, Bosma H, Chan YH, Chan SM, Chen JK, Wong H, Chung RY*. Socioeconomic inequalities in psychosocial well-being among adolescents under the COVID-19 pandemic: a cross-regional comparative analysis in Hong Kong, mainland China, and the Netherlands. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol. 2024 Apr 4. doi: 10.1007/s00127-024-02649-7. Epub ahead of print.

3.       Sumerlin TS, Kim JH, Hui AY, Chan D, Liao T, Padmadas S, Fong E, Chung RY*. Employment conditions and mental health of overseas female migrant domestic workers in Hong Kong: a parallel mediation analysis. Int J Equity Health. 2024 Jan 17;23(1):8. doi: 10.1186/s12939-024-02098-3..

4.       Chung GK, Marmot M, Ho IY, Chan SM, Lai ET, Wong SY, Yeoh EK, Woo J, Chung RY*. Secular trends of life expectancy and disability-free life expectancy at age 65 and associated gender and area-level socioeconomic inequalities in Hong Kong: a serial cross-sectional study between 2007 and 2020. Lancet Reg Health West Pac. 2023 Sep 22;41:100909. doi: 10.1016/j.lanwpc.2023.100909.

5.       Chung RY*, Lee TT, Chan SM, Chung GK, Chan YH, Wong SY, Lai E, Wong H, Yeoh EK, Marmot M, Woo J. Experience of South and Southeast Asian minority women in Hong Kong during COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative study. Int J Equity Health. 2023 Jun 2;22(1):110. doi: 10.1186/s12939-023-01922-6.

6.       Han Y, Chung RY*. Pre-COVID-19 cognitive social capital and peri-COVID-19 depression: A prospective cohort study on the contextual moderating effect of the COVID-19 pandemic in China, 2016-2020. Health Place. 2023 Jul;82:103022. doi: 10.1016/j.healthplace.2023.103022. Epub 2023 Apr 5.

7.       Zhang T, Huang B, Yan Y, Lin Y, Wong H, Wong SY, Chung RY. Associations of residential greenness with unhealthy consumption behaviors: Evidence from high-density Hong Kong using street-view and conventional exposure metrics. Int J Hyg Environ Health. 2023 Apr;249:114145. doi: 10.1016/j.ijheh.2023.114145.

8.       Chung GK, Chan YH, Chan SM, Chen JK, Wong H, Chung RY*. The impact of trust in government on pandemic management on the compliance with voluntary COVID-19 vaccination policy among adolescents after social unrest in Hong Kong. Front Public Health. 2022 Sep 16;10:992895. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.992895.

9.       Han Y, Chen X, Chung RY*. Sense of control as a mediator of the association between social capital and health inequality in China. Prev Med. 2023 Jan;166:107382. doi: 10.1016/j.ypmed.2022.107382. Epub 2022 Dec 7.

10.   Han Y, Chung RY*. The role of neighborhood social capital on health and health inequality in rural and urban China. Prev Med. 2022 Mar;156:106989. doi: 10.1016/j.ypmed.2022.106989. Epub 2022 Feb 9.

11.   Brewer TF, Zhang M, Gordon D, Chung RY, Dejene N, Fonta CL, Grieve T, Halleröd B, Harris R, Lanau A, Leibbrandt M, Mekonen Y, Muguni B, Najera H, Nandy S, Heymann SJ. Housing, sanitation and living conditions affecting SARS-CoV-2 prevention interventions in 54 African countries. Epidemiol Infect. 2021 Jul 23;149:e183. doi: 10.1017/S0950268821001734.

12.   Chung RY*, Chung GK, Chan SM, Chan YH, Wong H, Yeoh EK, Allen J, Woo J, Marmot M. Socioeconomic inequality in mental well-being associated with COVID-19 containment measures in a low-incidence Asian globalized city. Scientific Reports. 2021 Nov 30;11(1):23161. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-02342-8.

13.   Chung GK, Lai FTT, Yeoh EK, Chung RY*. Gender-specific trends of educational inequality in diagnosed diabetes from 1999 to 2014 in Hong Kong: a serial cross-sectional study of 97,481 community-dwelling Chinese adults. Population Health Metrics. 2021 Oct 10;19(1):37. doi: 10.1186/s12963-021-00268-x.

14.   Wang K, Law CK, Zhao J, Hui AY, Yip BH, Yeoh EK, Chung RY*. Measuring health-related social deprivation in small areas: development of an index and examination of its association with cancer mortality. International Journal for Equity in Health. 2021 Sep 27;20(1):216. doi: 10.1186/s12939-021-01545-9.

15.   Chung GKK, Chan SM, Chan YH, Woo J, Wong H, Wong SY, Yeoh EK, Marmot M, Chung RY*.  Socioeconomic Patterns of COVID-19 Clusters in Low-Incidence City, Hong Kong. Emerging Infectious Diseases. 2021 Sep 1;27(11). (Early release) doi: 10.3201/eid2711.204840.

16.   Han Y, Chung RY*. Are both individual-level and county-level social capital associated with individual health? A serial cross-sectional analysis in China, 2010-2015. BMJ Open. 2021 Aug 11;11(8):e044616. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2020-044616.

17.   Chung GKK, Lai FTT, Hung H, Yeoh EK, Chung RY*. Differential educational patterning of cardiometabolic risks between women and men among community-dwelling Chinese adults in Hong Kong: the mediating role of obesity. Public Health Nutrition. 2021 May 26:1-33. doi: 10.1017/S1368980021002044.

18.   Chung RY*, Chung GK, Marmot M, Allen J, Chan D, Goldblatt P, Wong H, Lai E, Woo J, Yeoh EK, Wong SYS. COVID-19 related health inequality exists even in a city where disease incidence is relatively low: a telephone survey in Hong Kong. J Epidemiol Community Health. 2021 Jan 5:jech-2020-215392. doi: 10.1136/jech-2020-215392.

19.   Chung RY*, Marmot M, Mak JK, Gordon D, Chan D, Chung GK, Wong H, Wong SYS. Deprivation is associated with anxiety and stress. A population-based longitudinal household survey among Chinese adults in Hong Kong. J Epidemiol Community Health. 2020 Oct 24:jech-2020-214728. doi: 10.1136/jech-2020-214728.

20.   Wu Y, Yan X, Zhao S, Wang J, Ran J, Dong D, Wang M, Fung H, Yeoh EK, Chung RY*.  Association of time to diagnosis with socioeconomic position and geographical accessibility to healthcare among symptomatic COVID-19 patients: A retrospective study in Hong Kong. Health Place. 2020 Nov;66:102465. doi: 10.1016/j.healthplace.2020.102465. Epub 2020 Oct 17.

21.   Chung GKK, Lai FTT, Chan DC, Wong H, Yeoh EK, Chung RY*. Socioeconomic disadvantages over the life-course and their influence on obesity among older Hong Kong Chinese adults. Eur J Public Health. 2020 Oct 1;30(5):1013-1018. doi: 10.1093/eurpub/ckaa072. PMID: 32460329

22.   Chung RY*, Dong D, Li MM. Socioeconomic gradient in health and the covid-19 outbreak. BMJ. 2020 Apr 1;369:m1329. doi: 10.1136/bmj.m1329.

23.   Chung RY*, Mak JK. Physical and mental health of live-in female migrant domestic workers: A randomly sampled survey in Hong Kong. American Behavioral Scientist. 2020 Mar 18.

24.   Chung RY*, Liao T, Fong E. Data collection for migrant live-in domestic workers: A three-stage cluster sampling method. American Behavioral Scientist. 2020 Mar 14. 

25.   Chung RY*, Marmot M. People in Hong Kong have the longest life expectancy in the world: Some possible explanations. NAM Perspectives. Commentary, National Academy of Medicine, Washington, DC. 2020 Jan 21

26.   Chung GK, Dong D, Wong SY, Wong H, Chung RY*. Perceived poverty and health, and their roles in the poverty-health vicious cycle: a qualitative study of major stakeholders in the healthcare setting in Hong Kong.  Int J Equity Health. 2020 Jan 28;19(1):13. doi: 10.1186/s12939-020-1127-7.

27.   Chung RY*, Chung GK, Gordon D, Mak JK, Zhang LF, Chan D, Lai FTT, Wong H, Wong SY. Housing affordability effects on physical and mental health: household survey in a population with the world's greatest housing affordability stress. J Epidemiol Community Health. 2019 Nov 5.

28.   Chung GK, Lai FT, Yeoh EK, Chung RY*. Educational inequality in physician‐diagnosed hypertension widened and persisted among women from 1999 to 2014 in Hong Kong. Scientific Reports. 2019 Oct 7;9(1):1‐7

29.   Chung RY*, Chan DCC, Chau NN, Huang S, Wong H, Wong SY. Poverty affects access to regular source of primary care among the general population in Hong Kong. Social Policy and Administration. 2019; 1– 18

30.   Cheung JTK, Tsoi VWY, Wong KHK, Chung RY*. Abuse and depression among Filipino foreign domestic helpers. A cross‐sectional survey in Hong Kong. Public Health. 2018 Nov 23;166:121‐127.

31.   Wong SY, Chung RY, Chan D, Chung GK, Li J, Mak D, Lau M, Tang V, Gordon D, Wong H. What are the financial barriers to medical care among the poor, the sick and the disabled in the Special Administrative Region of China? PLoS One. 2018 Nov 14;13(11):e0205794.

32.   Chung GK, Chung RY*, Chan DC, Lai FT, Wong H, Lau MK, Wong SY, Yeoh EK. The independent role of deprivation in abdominal obesity beyond income poverty. A population‐based household survey in Chinese adults. J Public Health (Oxf). 2018 Sep 12.

33.   Chung RY*, Lai FTT, Chung GKK, Yip BHK, Wong SYS, Yeoh EK. Socioeconomic disparity in mortality risks widened across generations during rapid economic development in Hong Kong: an ageperiod‐ cohort analysis from 1976 to 2010. Ann Epidemiol. 2018 Jun 13 (published online).

34.   Chung RY*, Gordon D, Wong SYS, Chan D, Chung KK, Lau M, Tang V, Wong H. Deprivation is associated with Worse Physical and Mental Health beyond Income Poverty. A Population‐based Household Survey among Chinese Adults. Qual Life Res. 2018 May 14.

35.   Chung RY, Griffiths SM. Migration and health in the world: a global public health perspective. Public Health. 2018 May;158:64‐65.

36.   Chung RY*, Wong SYS. Health inequality in Hong Kong. China Review‐An Interdisciplinary Journal on Greater China 2015;15(2):91‐118.

37.   Chung RY, Mercer S, Lai FT, Yip BH, Wong MC, Wong SY. Socioeconomic Determinants of Multimorbidity: A Population‐Based Household Survey of Hong Kong Chinese. PLoS One. 2015 Oct 9;10(10):e0140040.

38.   Li H, Wei X, Ma A, Chung RY*. Inequalities in Health Status among Rural Residents: EQ‐5D Findings from Household Survey China. International Journal for Equity in Health. 2014;13:41

39.   Li H, Chung RY*, Wei X, Mou J, Wong SY, Wong MC, Zhang D, Zhang Y, Griffiths S. Comparison of perceived quality amongst migrant and local patients using primary health care delivered by community health centres in Shenzhen, China. BMC Fam Pract. 2014 Apr 29;15(1):76.​

40.   Chung RY, Leung GM, Cowling BJ, Schooling CM. Patterns of and hypotheses for infection-related cancers in a Chinese population with rapid economic development. Epidemiology and Infection. 2012 Oct;140(10):1904-19. doi: 10.1017/S0950268811002469.

41.   Chung RY, Schooling CM, Cowling BJ, Leung GM. How does socioeconomic development affect risk of mortality? An age-period-cohort analysis from a recently transitioned population in China. American Journal of Epidemiology. 2010 Feb 1;171(3):345-56. doi: 10.1093/aje/kwp378

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​Bioethics and public health ethics

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1.       Chung RY*, Lai DCK, Hui AY, Chau PY, Wong EL, Yeoh EK, Woo J. Healthcare inequalities in emergency visits and hospitalisation at the end of life: a study of 395 019 public hospital records. BMJ Supportive and Palliative Care. 2021 May 18. doi: 10.1136/bmjspcare-2020-002800.

2.       Chung RY*, Erler A, Li HL, Au D. Using a Public Health Ethics Framework to Unpick Discrimination in COVID-19 Responses. Am J Bioeth. 2020 Jul;20(7):114-116. doi: 10.1080/15265161.2020.1779403.

3.       Li HL, Jecker NS, Chung RY. Reopening Economies during the COIVD-19 Pandemic: Reasoning about Value Tradeoffs. Am J Bioeth. 2020 Jul;20(7):136-138. doi: 10.1080/15265161.2020.1779406.

4.       Chung RY*, Dong D, Chau NNS, Chau PYK, Yeoh EK, Wong ELY. Examining the Gaps and Issues of End-of-Life Care among Older Population through the Lens of Socioecological Model—A Multi-Method Qualitative Study of Hong Kong. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020 Jul 14;17(14):5072. doi: 10.3390/ijerph17145072.

5.       Chung RY*, Li MM.  Anti-Chinese sentiment during the 2019-nCoV outbreak. Lancet. 2020 Feb 29;395(10225):686-687. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30358-5. Epub 2020 Feb 12.

6.       Griffiths SM, Dong D, Chung RY. Forgotten needs of children left behind by migration. Lancet. 2018 Dec 15;392(10164):2518‐2519.

7.       Chung RY*, Wong EL, Kiang N, Chau PY, Lau JYC, Wong SY, Yeoh EK, Woo JW. Knowledge, Attitudes, and Preferences of Advance Decisions, End‐of‐Life Care, and Place of Care and Death in Hong Kong. A Population‐Based Telephone Survey of 1067 Adults. J Am Med Dir Assoc. 2017 Apr 1;18(4):367.e19‐367.e27.

 

 

Lifecourse and lifestyle epidemiology

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8.       Lai FTT, Guthrie B, Wong SYS, Yip BHK, Chung GKK, Yeoh, EK, Chung RY*. Sex-specific intergenerational trends in morbidity burden and multimorbidity status in Hong Kong community: an age-period-cohort analysis of repeated population surveys. BMJ Open. 2019 Jan 25;9. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2018-023927.

9.       Chung RY*, Tsoi KKF, Kyaw MH, Lui AR, Lai FTT, Sung JJ. A population-based age-period-cohort study of colorectal cancer incidence comparing Asia against the West. Cancer Epidemiology. 2019 Jan 16;59:29-36. doi: 10.1016/j.canep.2019.01.007.

10.   Chung RY, Mercer SW, Yip BHK, Chan SWC, Lai FTT, Wang HHX, Wong MCS, Wong CKM, Sit RWS, Yeoh EK, Wong SYS. The association between types of regular primary care and hospitalization among people with and without multimorbidity. A household survey on 25,780 Chinese. Scientific Reports. 2016 Jul 20;6:29758.

11.   Chung RY, Tin KYK, Cowling BJ, Chan KP, Chan WM, Lo SV, Leung GM. Long‐term care cost drivers and expenditure projection to 2036 in Hong Kong. BMC Health Serv Res. 2009 Sep 24;9:172.

 

Others

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12.   Law STS, Nong W, Li C, Chong TK, Yip HY, Swale T, Chiu SW, Chung RY, Lam HM, Wong SYS, Wong H, Hui JHL. Genome of tropical bed bug Cimex hemipterus (Cimicidae, Hemiptera) reveals tetraspanin expanded in bed bug ancestor. Insect Sci. 2024 Jun 3. doi: 10.1111/1744-7917.13388.

 

Book chapters

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1.       Chung RY, Freedman B. “Chapter 9 - Health inequalities in AI machine learning.” Artifical Intelligence in Medicine, ed. by Sung JJY, Stewart C. Academic Press; 2024.

2.       Chung RY, Au DKS. “The Future of End-of-Life Care Policy in Hong Kong.” Gaps and Actions in Health Improvement from Hong Kong and Beyond: All for Health, ed. by Fong BYF, Wong WCW. Singapore: Springer; 2023.

3.       Chung RY, Yeoh EK. “Chapter 3 – Policy Directions for End-of-Life Care in Hong ,Kong.” Innovation Impact. The Foundation of Community-Based End-of-life Care in Hong Kong, ed. by Chan IKN, Fong CHC, Wong EY, Lou VWQ and Chan CLW. Hong Kong: JCECC; 2019.

4.       Chung RY, Wong SYS. “Health Inequality in Hong Kong”. Poverty in a Rich Society, ed. by Lau KW, David G. Hong Kong: CUHK Press; 2017.

5.       Chung RY and Kim JH. “Chapter 9 – Epidemiology: from Observation to Public Health Action”. Routledge Handbook of Global Public Health in Asia, ed. by Griffiths SM, Tang JL and Yeoh EK. pp.118–132. Routledge, London and New York; 2014.

Last Updated: 4 September 2024

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