ABSTRACT
Many countries have implemented school closures due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has inevitably affected children's physical and mental health. It is vital for parents to pay special attention to their children's health status during school closures. However, it is difficult for parents to recognize the changes in their children's health, especially without visible symptoms, such as psychosocial functioning in mental health. Moreover, healthcare resources and understanding of the health and societal impact of COVID-19 are quite limited during the pandemic. Against this background, we collected real-world datasets from 1,172 children in Hong Kong during four time periods under different pandemic and school closure conditions from September 2019 to January 2022. Based on these data, we first perform exploratory data analysis to explore the impact of school closures on six health indicators, including physical activity intensity, physical functioning, self-rated health, psychosocial functioning, resilience, and connectedness. We further study the correlation between children's contextual characteristics (i.e., demographics, socioeconomic status, electronic device usage patterns, financial satisfaction, academic performance, sleep pattern, exercise habits, and dietary patterns) and the six health indicators. Subsequently, a health inference system is designed and developed to infer children's health status based on their contextual features to derive the risk factors of the six health indicators. The evaluation and case studies on real-world datasets show that this health inference system can help parents and authorities better understand key factors correlated with children's health status during school closures. © 2023 ACM.
ABSTRACT
Background: School closure is one of the main global health policies performed worldwide during the coronavir us di sease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak. Despite all of the advantages, there may be some risks for children who are quarantined. This study aimed to objectively measure and compares the sleep patterns of Hong Kong school students before and during the COVID-19 outbreak. Methods: Baseline assessment was performed before the first wave of the COVID-19 outbreak in Hong Kong. The sleep pattern was recorded by a physical activity monitor (Actigraph wGT3X-BT, Pensacola, Florida, USA). The follow-up assessment was conducted in early 2020. Findings: In total, 718 students were collected in the baseline . Sub sequently 1 40 students joined t he reassessment between March and April 2020. Analysis of sleep timing shows that 98.0% primary students, 78.0% secondary students and 79.9% primary school students and 58.8% secondary school students go to bed before midnight before and after the outbreak, respectively (p<0.001). Mean sleep duration (hours) was 6.81 (0.62) and 8.09 (0.07) at baseline and during the outbreak, respectively. The differences in the mean sleep features for total sleep time, sleep fragmentation index and sleep fragmentation were 0.92 (1.64), 1.64 (6.95) and 2.49 (9.18), respectively. The overall sleep quality was poorer as evidenced by delays in bedtime and wake up time, increased duration in bed, longer sleep latency, increases in the movement and fragmentation indices. Conclusion: This exceptional longitudinal study reported objective data on the change in sleep patterns before and during the COVID-19 outbreak with school closures.
ABSTRACT
Vaccines against COVID-19 are now available for adolescents in Hong Kong but vaccine hesitancy is a major barrier to herd immunity. This survey study explores Hong Kong adolescents' attitudes towards the COVID-19 vaccination. 2609 adolescents from across Hong Kong completed an online survey focused on the intent to vaccinate and the reasons for their choice. 39% of adolescents intended to take the COVID-19 vaccination and significant factors for this decision include: having at least one parent vaccinated, knowing somebody diagnosed with COVID-19 and receiving the influenza vaccine. Adolescents' major concerns were either the safety and efficacy of the vaccine or the risk of infection. This study has proved that even in adolescents the vaccine hesitancy model is prominent with adolescents' intentions highly related to confidence in the vaccine and perception of disease risk. Future interventions should target these specific concerns to ensure adolescents are well educated to overcome vaccine hesitancy.