A Data-Driven Context-Aware Health Inference System for Children during School Closures

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.

Establishment of Hong Kong Neuromuscular Disorder Patient Registry

Introduction: Neuromuscular disorders (NMDs) are a group of diseases affecting the peripheral nervous system (1). Many NMDs cause disability or even premature death (2). We aim to design and establish a robust NMD patient registry in Hong Kong. Methods: By modelling international NMD patient registries, we designed patient-professional reported questionnaires to collect the demographic, clinical c haracteristics, genetic details, family history, investigation findings and specific treatment of NMD patients. Patients were recruited through Hong Kong West Cluster (DKCH, QMH) and Kowloon Central Cluster (HKCH). We also developed self-registration online platform. p<0.05 was considered statistically significant. Findings: Since June 2019, 125 NMD patients have been enrolled in the registry with 12 participants registered online. The registry recruited 13 types of NMDs, including spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) (n=31), Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) (n=19) and congenital myopathy (n=18). The age range was 7 months to 63 years old. 65.6% of those enrolled were children (<18 years old). 63.2% were male. 64.8% of the patients had genetic diagnosis. The registry has contributed to two studies. The first one is a prospective study of clinical efficiency of Nusinersen in SMA patients (n=22). 14/16 SMA patients showed improvement in at least one of motor performance (CHOP intend/RULM/HINE/HFMSE) and health-related quality of life after 1st year of treatment. The second study is the reactogenicity and immunogenicity study of the COVID-19 vaccine in DMD patients (n=4). Data will be available in October. Conclusion: Hong Kong Patient registry has contributed to ongoing and new research study to optimise medical care.

Impact of School Closure on Children'S Sleep Pattern During the COVID-19 Pandemic

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.

Adolescents' attitudes to the COVID-19 vaccination.

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.

Battling COVID-19: critical care and peri-operative healthcare resource management strategies in a tertiary academic medical centre in Singapore.

In December 2019, a cluster of atypical pneumonia cases were reported in Wuhan, China, and a novel coronavirus elucidated as the aetiologic agent. Although most initial cases occurred in China, the disease, termed coronavirus disease 2019, has become a pandemic and continues to spread rapidly with human-to-human transmission in many countries. This is the third novel coronavirus outbreak in the last two decades and presents an ensuing healthcare resource burden that threatens to overwhelm available healthcare resources. A study of the initial Chinese response has shown that there is a significant positive association between coronavirus disease 2019 mortality and healthcare resource burden. Based on the Chinese experience, some 19% of coronavirus disease 2019 cases develop severe or critical disease. This results in a need for adequate preparation and mobilisation of critical care resources to anticipate and adapt to a surge in coronavirus disease 2019 case-load in order to mitigate morbidity and mortality. In this article, we discuss some of the peri-operative and critical care resource planning considerations and management strategies employed in a tertiary academic medical centre in Singapore in response to the coronavirus disease 2019 outbreak.