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The Department of Health (DH) announced the launching of a new comprehensive survey on "Healthy Living in Hong Kong" starting next Monday (March 1) as one of the main components of the Government's major Healthy Living Campaign.

Assistant Director of Health (Personal Health Services), Dr Chan Wai-man, addressing a Press Conference in DH Headquarters today (Thursday), appealed to members of the public to give their full support to the telephone survey.

Dr Chan said: "The objectives of the survey are to obtain baseline data on the knowledge, attitude and practice among the local adult population in relation to health and medical related issues; to assess their perception of their own health status and that of Hong Kong; and to gauge public opinion on the priority areas for action to improve health."

Dr Chan said that comparative analyses of trends and determinants in health behaviour and practices could provide information on factors influencing health related lifestyle for health education and health promotion purposes.

A special element of the exercise was to set up a 'Health Net' of volunteers for future follow-up surveys, Dr Chan said.

The network would be made up of sentinel individuals or households who had taken part in the survey or other members of the public who wished to help the Government to monitor the health of the population.

They could serve as focused group and take part in future group discussion and intervention studies.

Also present at the Press Conference was Prof Lam Tai-hing of The University of Hong Kong (HKU) Department of Community Medicine, commissioned by DH to carry out the survey.

Prof Lam said: "The scope of the survey will cover the three areas of health, namely physical health, psychosocial health and environmental health. These include such topics as eating habits, exercise, smoking, drinking and hygiene habits.

"Some 3 000 people from the target population of local Chinese adults aged between 18 and 64 and living in a household, will be randomly selected for a 20-minute telephone interview."

On completion of the telephone interview, the interviewee would be asked whether he/she will join DH's 'Health Net'.

The telephone interviews would be conducted by The University of Hong Kong Department of Community Medicine between 9 am and 10 pm daily from next Monday (March 1) to the end of May this year.

On this 'Health Net', Dr Chan said other members of the public who wish to join the new network of sentinel individuals or households can register by calling HKU's special telephone hotline 2819 9150 (between 9 am and 10 pm) or DH's Central Health Education Unit Hotline 2835 1825 (during office hours).

She stressed that information obtained through the telephone interview would be treated in the strictest confidence and would only be used for the sole purpose of the survey.

"Members of the public are NOT required to give their Hong Kong Identity Cards' numbers," Dr Chan said.

The public could call the same HKU's hotline 2819 9150 (between 9 am and 10 pm) should they have any doubts about the identity of the interviewer.

End/Thursday, February 25, 1999

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