Wing Sze Lo

Background: Few studies have examined how common physicians assess various weight-related variables and patient characteristics that predict such assessments based on adolescents’ reports. We aimed to examine how common adolescents received weight-related physical measurements and lifestyle enquiries (dietary habits and physical activity) from private practitioners and to identify factors associated with these assessments.Methods: In the Hong Kong Student Obesity Surveillance (HKSOS) project, 33692 students (44.9% boys; mean age 14.8, SD 1.9 years, age range 11–18) from 42 randomly selected schools completed an anonymous questionnaire. The students were asked “In the past 12 months, has any private practitioners (or their nurses) measured or asked about these items?” Response options included height, weight, waist circumference (WC), blood pressure (BP), BMI, diet, and physical activity. Weight status was based on self-reported weight and height. Logistic regression was used to identify student characteristics associated with each assessment. Analyses were conducted using STATA 10.0.Results: Among 13283 students who had doctor consultations in the past 12 months, 37.9% received physical measurements or lifestyle enquiries, with weight (20.8%), height (16.8%) and blood pressure (11.5%) being the most common, followed by diet (8.1%), BMI (6.3%), WC and physical activity (both 4.6%). In general, adolescents who were female, older, underweight or overweight/obese, had parents with higher education level, and had actively asked private practitioners for advice about weight were more likely to receive assessments of weight-related factors.Conclusions: Weight-related factors in adolescents were infrequently assessed by private practitioners in Hong Kong. Generally, unhealthy weight, higher parental education and advice-seeking by adolescents predicted these assessments.

BACKGROUND: Sleep problems may have different influences on students' academic performance. We investigated the prevalence of sleep patterns, naps, and sleep disorders, and their associations with academic performance in Hong Kong adolescents.METHODS: In 2007‐2008, 22,678 students aged 12‐18 (41.6% boys) completed a questionnaire on sociodemographic characteristics, sleep patterns and problems, and lifestyle factors including exercise, smoking, alcohol drinking, and academic performance.RESULTS: The prevalence of having >8 hours of sleep was higher on holiday nights (86.4%) than on school‐day nights (27.4%). Sleeping after midnight was more common before holidays (49.3%) than before school days (19.9%). Symptoms of insomnia and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) were reported by 21.5% and 34.4% of students. Having >2 hours of weekend sleep delay was associated with poor academic performance with an odds ratio (OR) (95% confidence interval) of 1.46 (1.29‐1.65). However, having 1‐2 hours and >2 hours of weekend wake‐up delay were both associated with less likelihood of poor academic performance with ORs of 0.64 (0.56‐0.73) and 0.69 (0.59‐0.80). Other factors associated with poor academic performance included >2 hours of sleep debt, OR of 1.17 (1.03‐1.33); having any insomnia symptoms in the past 30 days, OR of 1.27 (1.17‐1.37); and having any OSA symptoms at least weekly, OR of 1.23 (1.14‐1.32). Napping in the past 5 school days was only marginally associated with poor school performance with an OR of 1.08 (1.00‐1.16).CONCLUSION: Poorer academic performance was associated with sleep debt, and symptoms of insomnia and OSA. Sleep compensation but not naps may be a protective factor of poor academic performance.