Quality of Life (QoL) Survey in Hong Kong: Understanding the Importance of Housing Environment and Needs of Residents from Different Housing Sectors

How the interplay of late retirement, health care, economic insecurity, and electronic social contact affects the mental health amongst older workers?

The delayed retirement initiative has become increasingly emphasised to cope with the population ageing. Based on the social-ecological model, this study explores the interplay of late retirement, health care, economic insecurity, and electronic social contact on mental health of older workers. Using data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (wave 8), results show that the late retirement, health care quality, and electronic social contact are all negatively associated with the mental health problems among older workers. Besides, the influence of health care quality and electronic social contact on mental health problems are buffered by the economic insecurity respectively. It is concluded that more targeted policy response is in need to achieve better health outcomes among older workers.

Measuring population health and quality of life: Developing and testing of the significant quality of life measure (SigQOLM)

Quality of life (QOL) should ideally be determined by a broader spectrum of measurable parameters. This study aims to develop and validate a study instrument that is designed to determine a holistic measure of health and non-health aspects of QOL, and it is called the 'Significant Quality of Life Measure' (SigQOLM). This study involves five phases which aim to (i) explore and understand the subject matter content, (ii) develop a questionnaire, (iii) assess its content validity and face validity, (iv) conduct a pilot study, and lastly (v) perform a field-test by using the questionnaire. For the field-testing phase, a cross-sectional study was conducted which elicited responses from healthcare workers via a self-administered survey for all the SigQOLM items. Based on the results, the overall framework of the SigQOLM consists of four elements, 18 domains with 69 items. The element of "Health" is measured by nine domains, while "Relationships", "Functional activities, and "Survival" are measured by three domains respectively. The SigQOLM has been developed successfully and then validated with a high level of reliability, validity, and overall model fit. Therefore, the SigQOLM will provide researchers and policymakers another viable option to elicit a more comprehensive outcome measure of QOL which shall then enable them to implement specific interventions for improving the QOL of all the people, both healthy or otherwise.

Anthropogenic debris pollution in peri-urban mangroves of South China: Spatial, seasonal, and environmental drivers in Hong Kong

Excessive mismanaged debris along tropical coasts pose a threat to vulnerable mangrove ecosystems. Here, we examined the spatial, seasonal and environmental drivers of anthropogenic debris abundance and its potential ecological impact in peri-urban mangroves across Hong Kong. Seasonal surveys were conducted in both landward and seaward zones, with identification, along belt transects, of macrodebris (>5 mm) based on material type and use. Our results indicate spatial variability in debris abundance and distribution, with plastic being the predominant material type identified. Both plastic and non-plastic domestic items covered the most surface area. Debris aggregation was highest at the landward zones, consistent with the literature. In the dry season, more debris accumulated and covered greater surface area in both seaward and landward zones. These results confirm that land-derived debris from mismanaged waste, rather than debris coming from the Pearl River, is the primary source of anthropogenic debris pollution threatening Hong Kong's mangroves.

Trends in study topics related to quality of life in Industry 4.0: A bibliometric analysis

BACKGROUND

The use of new technologies boosted Industry 4.0, making processes more sophisticated and considering the interaction between physical production systems and workers. But these new technologies also intervene in the worker's quality of life (QoL), that is, we need to know if the industry of the future is changing the scenario of the present.

OBJECTIVE

This study aims to identify trends in study topics related to QoL in Industry 4.0.

METHODS

A bibliometric mapping analysis was performed without temporal delimitation in the Scopus, Web of Science and PubMed databases.

RESULTS

The results show that: (i) the publications most aligned with the theme are from 2016 onwards; (ii) the greatest growth in publications on the subject occurred between the years 2019, 2020 and 2021; (iii) the Journal Sustainability was the most relevant journal on the subject in recent years; (iv) Turkey stood out as the most cited country in the field of study; (v) there are collaboration networks between authors in several countries, including Denmark, Italy and Poland; (vi) with the analysis of the thematic map, it is possible to identify which themes are the motor, specialized, emerging, missing, or basic from the research field and; (vii) the sub-themes that appeared the most in the surveys were work environment, impact of Industry 4.0, robots, health and well-being, digitalization and job satisfaction.

CONCLUSION

In addition to being a relevant source of information, where readers find future thematic trends in the field of research, it is hoped that the contributions of this study will provide insights for researchers, academics and society in general.

Demographic and work-related factors associated with burnout, resilience, and quality of life among healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic: A cross sectional study from Malaysia

Introduction

The healthcare setting is a stressful and demanding work environment, and healthcare workers face a continuous expansion of their job roles and responsibilities. Past studies have shown that factors affecting burnout, resilience, and quality of life among healthcare workers merit further research, as there were inconsistent findings, especially with regards to the influence of demographic and work-related factors. Therefore, this study aims to determine whether demographic and work-related factors are associated with burnout, resilience, and quality of life among healthcare workers.

Method

This cross-sectional study was conducted between February 15, 2022 and March 15, 2022, among 394 healthcare workers from Putrajaya and Selangor hospitals, Malaysia. Maslach Burnout Inventory, World Health Organization Quality of Life-BREF 26 inventory, and Brief Resilience Scale were utilized to capture information on burnout, quality of life, and resilience, respectively.

Results

The mean score of physical health of participants who work more than 10 h (11.38) is lower than participants who work from 8 to 10 h (13.00) and participants who work 7 h daily (13.03), p-value < 0.001. Similarly, the mean score of psychological health of participants who work more than 10 h (12.35) is lower than participants who work from 8 to 10 h (13.72) and participants who work 7 h daily (13.68), p-value = 0.001. Higher income levels were associated with high resilience and quality of life.

Conclusion

It is imperative that healthcare practitioners and policy makers adopt and implement interventions to promote a healthy workplace environment, address ethical concerns, and prevent burnout among healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Managing the issue of long working hours could possibly result in improved resilience, burnout, and quality of life among healthcare workers. Despite this study able to tickle out some policy specific areas where interventions are needed, identifying effective solutions and evaluating their efficiency will require larger and interventional studies.

The Impacts of Housing Characteristics and Built-Environment Features on Mental Health

In this study, we examined the relationships between housing characteristics, neighborhood built-environment features, and people's mental health in Hong Kong, an Asian city well known for its high-density and high-rise housing. The potential mediating effects of people's perceived living environment were also considered in the analysis. We collected data from 221 participants from two communities in Hong Kong, i.e., Sham Shui Po (SSP) and Tin Shui Wai (TSW), using a stratified random sampling approach. Big datasets were also used to derive relevant built-environment features at the street block level. We used structural equation modeling to explore the complex relationships among housing characteristics, built-environment features, and mental health. The results indicate that the associations between built-environment quality and people's mental health are weak. For communities with relatively poor housing conditions (i.e., SSP in this study), the impact of housing characteristics on mental health may be more direct; for communities with relatively good housing conditions (i.e., TSW in this study), the effect of housing characteristics on mental health may be indirect. Our findings shed light on the importance of considering different contexts in developing policies related to housing and built environment and mental health.

Transition from Traditional to Online Learning in Hong Kong Tertiary Educational Institutions During COVID-19 Pandemic

The adoption of online learning approach in education is becoming more popular around the world to overcome the time and spatial barriers of traditional face-to-face learning. The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has affected the normality of learning and avoiding face-to-face activities is one tactic to minimise the spread of COVID-19. This study investigated the perception of online learning from students’ and teachers’ perspectives compared to traditional face-to-face learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Ten focus group interviews were conducted, nine of which involved fifty-five students, while the remaining one involved eight full-time teachers. All informants were recruited from two Hong Kong tertiary educational institutions: the Hong Kong Community College, and the School of Professional Education and Executive Development of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. The Community of Inquiry model and Pedagogy-driven, Learner-Centred, Objective-Oriented and Technology-Enable model were adopted as a framework to analyse students’ and teachers’ perceptions of social presence, teaching presence, and cognitive presence. Qualitative content analysis indicated that teacher-student and student–student interactions were the biggest challenge in online learning, and this affected the acquisition and application of knowledge in terms of cognitive presence. Other factors such as personality, learning environment, and technical skills affected the perception of both online and face-to-face learning.

Satisfaction with Selected Indicators of the Quality of Urban Space by Polonia in the Greater Toronto Area

The main objective of this article is to determine the quality of life of Polonia living in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), with particular emphasis on urban quality, which influences their assessment of the standard of living in this city. The presented results of the research are based on a survey questionnaire conducted with the participation of 583 respondents. The respondents evaluated, among others: accessibility to recreational tourism in the city, public transport, possibilities of finding a job, accessibility to housing and quality of the natural environment. Assessment of the selected indicators was correlated with the application of the statistical coefficient of the chi-squared test with particular sociodemographic characteristics of the examined respondents (with age, place of residence of the respondents (Toronto, suburbs) and their duration of residence in the GTA). On the basis of the formulated research hypotheses and conducted studies, it can be concluded—among others—that the satisfaction level with regard to accessibility to housing increases with age, that people living in the GTA suburbs rate accessibility to transportation lower than people living in Toronto and that people living in the GTA for more than 20 years rate accessibility to tourism, leisure and relaxation lower than people living in the GTA for a period shorter than 20 years.

Effect of housing condition on quality of life

This study examined the housing effect on quality of life among Japanese people. In the current cross-sectional study, we analyzed the 1-year of data (November 2015-March 2016) with 2533 participants. We used the Short Form-8 questionnaire, an 8-item instrument that measures general aspects of health-related QOL. Comprehensive Assessment System for Built Environment Efficiency housing checklist which was developed by Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism was used to assess the housing aspects. This checklist has six health elements including thermal comfort, acoustic environment, lighting environment, hygiene, safety, and security for 8 distinctive rooms/places of home. Multilevel analysis was done to identify the relationship between the perceived level of housing problem and PCS and MCS by clustering by sex. Compared to those who always felt unsafe at home due to interior design problem, participants who never felt unsafe showed an average of 10.51 (95% CI = 7.69-13.34, p < 0.0001) and 5.78 (95% CI = 2.90-8.65, p < 0.0001) higher physical and mental component score (better quality of life), respectively. Those who never had thermal, acoustic, lighting, hygiene, and security problems of housing also exhibited significantly better quality of life compared to participants who felt these problems.

Progress in Research on Sustainable Urban Renewal Since 2000: Library and Visual Analyses

Urban renewal is an ideal approach to promoting the value of the urban fabric and improving the sustainability of the urban environment. This study, which shows the continuity of research on sustainable urban renewal, aimed to identify sustainable urban renewal literature based on a library analysis of scientific research since 2000. A total of 3971 scientific papers from the SCIE (Science Citation Index Expanded) and SSCI (Social Sciences Citation Index) databases were reviewed to examine how research concerning “sustainable urban renewal” has emerged and developed in the past 20 years. The h-indices and impact factors of the most relevant journals in urban renewal and sustainable development since 2000 were analyzed. The most frequently cited articles were analyzed using analysis of social networks (VOSviewer). The results revealed potential future focuses of research and guidelines that link urban renewal and sustainability: the engagement of all stakeholders in the decision-making process; the involvement of residents in projects; the development of cooperation between towns and cities; the preservation and reuse of built and industrial heritage while respecting environmental law; and, finally, the search for new financing techniques. These potential future research topics were analyzed in four research areas so that sustainable development can easily be integrated into an urban renewal project.

The Impact of the Environment on the Quality of Life and the Mediating Effects of Sleep and Stress

(1) Background: Environment is an independent factor that affects one’s quality of life (QoL), where studies suggest that health behaviours also affect one’s quality of life. The purpose of the present study was to examine the association between environmental conditions and QoL and how individual health behaviours affect this association. (2) Methods: Participants aged 20 or above were recruited from 11 tertiary planning units in the central part of Kowloon. These tertiary planning units were selected as they represented the overall living environment in Hong Kong, with a mix of the poorer urban areas alongside relatively affluent districts. A mediation analysis was implemented using multiple linear regressions to examine the effects of environmental conditions on QoL. (3) Results: Of the 607 eligible participants included for analysis, 390 were female and 217 were male, with a mean age of 47.4 years. Living within 500 m of a green space area had benefits on the physical aspect of QoL and physical activity but no effect on the psychological aspect of QoL. Moderate satisfaction with public spaces affected QoL positively. In contrast, less satisfaction with public spaces affected QoL negatively in both physical and psychological aspects through the mediating effect of stress. Poor environmental quality affected all domains of QoL negatively through the mediating effects of increased stress and poor sleep. (4) Conclusions: Environment is an important factor that affects individuals’ overall well-being. The interaction between environmental conditions and individual variables, especially perceived stress and sleep, is extremely important when assessing its impact on QoL. The findings of this study support the importance of individual stress and sleep in mediating the relationship between the environment and QoL for health. Further studies should be conducted to include objective measurements, such as those of cortisol levels for stress and physical fitness tests.

Evaluation of the Human Settlements Environment of Public Housing Community: A Case Study of Guangzhou

With the improvement of social housing policies and an increase in the quantity of public housing stock, issues such as poor property management service, poor housing quality, and insufficient public services remain to be resolved. This study focuses on the human settlement environments of public housing communities in Guangzhou and establishes an evaluation system containing built environments and housing environments satisfaction criteria. In our analysis, the evaluation system was modified using data collected from surveys through factor analysis, which reduced dimensions to the indoor environment, the community environment, and social relations. Moreover, multivariable regression analysis was performed to identify the differences of needs among residents with different living environments and family backgrounds. The result shows that housing area, transportation resources, and public services have met the basic needs of residents who were generally satisfied with the community environment of their public housing. However, acoustic insulation and community amenities in the city were found to be relatively poor and still have space for improvement. Further, requirements on indoor housing environments and social relations of residents living alone need more attention. Specific recommendations based on this study can be used as a reference for future public housing construction and improvements.

Abuse and depression among Filipino foreign domestic helpers. A cross-sectional survey in Hong Kong

OBJECTIVES

The objectives of this study are to (1) explore physical and verbal abuse experience, perpetrators of abuse and abuse reporting behaviours of Filipino foreign domestic helpers in Hong Kong and (2) examine associations between their abuse experience and depression level.

STUDY DESIGN

A cross-sectional survey METHODS: We purposively sampled participants at the Statue Square of Hong Kong on three Sunday afternoons between June and August 2017. Using a self-administered questionnaire, measures include sociodemographic and housing environment variables, physical and verbal abuse experience and depression level measured using the Depression Subscale of Depression Anxiety Stress Scale 21 (DASS-21-D). Multiple linear regression was performed to identify factors associated with the DASS-21-D score.

RESULTS

The response rate was 86.1% and 105 participants completed the questionnaire. Overall, 20.5% and 34.4% had experienced physical and verbal abuse, respectively, in the past 12 months. Majority of perpetrators were female employers and children. Meanwhile, 16.7% of the abuse victims did not report their cases. Among those who reported, only a few (19.4%) reported their cases to formal organizations (agency and police). Factors significantly associated with the DASS-21-D score include physical abuse (unstandardized beta coefficient [B] = 1.68, 95% confidence interval [95% CI] = 0.12-3.34), verbal abuse (B = 1.58, 95% CI = 0.16-3.00), non-disclosure of physical abuse experience (B = 5.68, 95% CI = 0.18-11.18) and living space satisfaction (B = -1.50, 95% CI = -2.12 to -0.88).

CONCLUSIONS

Physical and verbal abuse among foreign domestic workers in Hong Kong were underreported to formal organizations and were associated with depression. Legislative enforcement of a comprehensive abuse reporting mechanism and mental health service should be considered.

Privacy and Well-Being in Aged Care Facilities with a Crowded Living Environment: Case Study of Hong Kong Care and Attention Homes

This study aims to understand the relationship between bedroom privacy and well-being of the elderly in aged care facilities with a compact living situation. A majority of studies on this topic were carried out in a low-density population context. The crowded living situation might compromise the well-being of residents. This study proposed five architectural parameters to measure bedroom privacy in aged care facilities: total open surface per unit, openness/solid ratio per bed, height of partition wall, number of people per unit, and personal control over bedroom privacy. SF-12 v.2 Health Survey was used to collect information on physical and mental health status. The study surveyed nine Care & Attention homes and their 213 residents in Hong Kong. The total open surface per unit and the openness/solid ratio per bed were positively associated with the physical health of residents. The height of partition walls was associated negatively with their physical and mental health conditions, and the number of people per unit was negatively associated with their physical health. More than half of respondents preferred a single unit with high partition walls; however, 40% of respondents preferred low partition walls. The provision of privacy for the elderly should be balanced with their needs for social interactions; total open surface per unit, openness/solid ratio per bed and height of partition wall should be taken into consideration. The study provides evidence and design guidelines for improving privacy in aged care facilities with a compact living environment.