Prof Joseph Lau
School of Public Health
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Hong Kong, China
http://www.sphpc.cuhk.edu.hk/cms/
Project title
A pilot study to investigate attitudes and behaviours towards food avoidance and food preference concerning Chinese cancer patients, patients', general public's, and Traditional Chinese Medicine doctors’ perspectives (2008/54)
Scientific abstract
There exists a belief among Chinese cancer patients that “eating less will retard the growth of cancer cells”; avoidance of some common food items (e.g. beef, egg, seafood) basing on Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) perspectives seem prevalent. Such attitudes/behaviours may be significantly associated with sub-optimal nutritional status and quality of life (QOL). Despite its potential significance, no such data exist.
The overall project comprises 3 studies to provide a comprehensive understanding on the prevalence of food avoidance attitudes and associated factors among two types of cancer patients (n=400), the general public (n=3000) and TCM doctors (n=300). Comparisons of such attitudes will be made.
An initial pre-pilot study on groups of 5 cancer patients, 5 TCM doctors, and 5 members of the general population will be conducted to gather relevant food attitudes, etc. The comments will be used to draft the questionnaires and the panel of researchers will review the questionnaires to examine item clarity and content validity. A pre-pilot study will then administer the questionnaires to 10 cancer patients (5 NPC and 5 CRC), 10 TCM doctors, and 10 randomly selected telephone survey respondents. The results will be used for finalising the questionnaires.
Project plain language abstract
Cancer patients often experienced malnutrition and weight loss, because of lowered food intake due to loss of appetite or other reasons. Malnutrition results in higher mortality rate and lower quality of life. Western doctors usually advice cancer patients to increase their energy (calories) and protein intake; such programs are effective in improving the health of cancer patients. However, many Chinese cancer patients may hold a belief that they “should not eat well, otherwise their cancer cells would grow fast”. Many believe that beef, egg, shrimps etc. are “poisonous” and would avoid eating such food items without compensating them with other foods.
This project investigates among cancer patients, i) how common these food avoidance attitudes/behaviours are, ii) whether and by what extent these attitudes/behaviours would affect energy/protein intake, weight loss, malnutrition and quality of life in cancer patients, iii) the source of influences shaping these attitudes/behaviours, and iv) needs assessment for dietary services. Patients’ attitudes are compared with those of the general public and Traditional Chinese Medicine doctors. These comprehensive results are required for designing education programs to rectify relevant attitudes/behaviours that may cause malnutrition among Chinese cancer patients. This important topic has never been studied in the world literature.
| Institution and location | Degree | Year | Scientific Field |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Chinese University of Hong Kong | BSc | 1984 | Sociology |
| University of California, Berkeley | MSc | 1987 | Biostatistics |
| University of California, Berkeley | PhD | 1990 | Epidemiology |
| 2004-Present | Professor, School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, CUHK |
| 2003-Present | Director, Centre for Epidemiology & Biostatistics, CUHK |
| 1994 -2003 | Director, Centre for Clinical Trials and Epidemiological Research, CUHK |
| 2007-Present | President, The Hong Kong Epidemiological Association |
| 2006-Present | Technical advisor, Hunan provincial Centre for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) |
| 2003-Present | Technical advisor, Shenzhen CDC, Sichuan |
| 2003-Present | Board of Directors, AIDS Concern |
| 2002-Present | Technical advisor, Dazhou CDC, Sichuan |
| 2002 -2006 | Consultant, UK-China HIV/AIDS Prevention Care Project |
| 2000-Present | Member, The Hong Kong Coalition of AIDS Service Organizations (2000-02 as chairperson) |
Research interests
Health behaviours; public health; epidemiology.
