Walking for recreation and perceptions of the neighbourhood environment in older chinese urban dwellers

Engagement in walking for recreation can contribute to healthy aging. Although there is growing evidence that the neighborhood environment can influence walking for recreation, the amount of such evidence in relation to older adults is scarce and limited to Western low-density urban locations. Asian urban environments are typified by distinctive environmental and cultural characteristics that may yield different patterns to those observed in Western countries. Therefore, the main aim of this study was to examine associations of perceived environmental attributes with overall and within-neighborhood walking for recreation in Chinese elders (65+ years) residing in Hong Kong, an ultradense Asian metropolis. A sample of 484 elders was recruited from 32 neighborhoods stratified by socio-economic status and walkability (dwelling and intersection densities). Validated questionnaires measuring perceived neighborhood environment and weekly minutes of overall and within-neighborhood walking for recreation were interviewer administered. Results showed that the level of recreational walking was twice to four times higher than that reported in Western adults and elders. While overall walking for recreation showed a general lack of associations with perceived environmental attributes, within-neighborhood recreational walking was positively related with proximity of recreational facilities, infrastructure for walking, indoor places for walking, and presence of bridge/overpasses connecting to services. Age and educational attainment moderated the associations with several perceived environmental attributes with older and less-educated participants showing stronger associations. Traditional cultural views on the benefits of physical activity and the high accessibility of facilities and pedestrian infrastructure of Hong Kong may explain the high levels of walking. Although specific neighborhood attributes, or their perception, may influence recreational walking within the neighborhood, the compactness and public transport affordability of ultradense metropolises such as Hong Kong may make it easy for elders to compensate for the lack of favorable neighborhood attributes by walking outside the neighborhood.

Working hours in supply chain Chinese and Thai factories: evidence from the fair labor association's 'soccer project'

This article examines the determinants of working excessive hours, defined as working in excess of 60 hours per week or for more than six consecutive days, in Chinese and Thai supply chain factories. We use a matched employer-employee dataset collected from 15 Chinese and Thai footwear and sporting apparel supply chain factories, which supply international brands. Matched employer-employee data allow us to examine the effect of worker and firm characteristics on hours worked. We find that in addition to the demographic and human capital characteristics of workers, firm-level characteristics and worker awareness of how to refuse overtime are important in explaining variation in hours worked. © John Wiley & Sons Ltd/London School of Economics 2011.

Chinese international students in Australia: an insight into their help and information seeking manners

Understanding the waysthatinternational students seek information and help in the host country is essential forimprovingacademic, social, cultural,and welfare support for this student cohort. However,there is a dearth of literature that documentshowinternational studentsin the vocational education and training (VET) sector do so. This paper aims to fill thisgap. Based on in-depth interviews with 30 Chinese international students undertaking diploma and associate degree programsin Australia,this research shows thatthe ways in which Chinese international students seek help prior to their departure and after their arrival at the host country, largely dependson the nature of the issuesthey confront. The data also reveals that students’use of education agents is not limited to the pre-departure stage,asisindicated in theexisting literature, but throughout their journey in the host country. Notably,the role of agents has become increasingly important in Chinese international students’ decision-making processesduring their transition from diploma to associate degree and higher education programs.

Do venture capitalists play a monitoring role in an emerging market? Evidence from the pay–performance relationship of Chinese entrepreneurial firms

This paper investigates venture capitalists' monitoring of managerial behavior by examining their impact on CEO pay–performance sensitivity across various controlling structures in Chinese firms. We find that the effectiveness of venture capitalists' monitoring depends on different types of agency conflict. In particular, we find that venture capital (VC) monitoring is hampered in firms that experience severe controlling-minority agency problems caused by disproportionate ownership structures. We provide further evidence that VC is more likely to exert close monitoring in firms that have greater managerial agency conflict, and thus require more direct monitoring. However, controlling-minority agency problems have a greater impact on VC monitoring than managerial agency problems. Overall, our study suggests that venture capitalists' monitoring role is hampered in an emerging market where firms have complex ownership structures that contribute to severe agency conflict between controlling and minority shareholders.

A case study on critical reflection: a Chinese postgraduate in Australia

Critical reflection (CR) is at the core of postgraduate studies in c, and students from Asia in general, and from c in particular, often find the concept challenging when reading texts or applying it to written texts in English. This study reports on a case study of a Chinese postgraduate student in Australia. It explores the challenges and obstacles in terms of CR that she faced while completing her subjects in a TESOL program in Australia. These challenges were articulated in a semi-structured interview conducted with the student. Challenges include English language proficiency, lack of focus on writing in China where there is a lot of emphasis on memorisation, different systems of conceptualisation of topics in Chinese and English, and limited freedom of expression which is expressed as ‘authoritative’ control in the Chinese educational context.

The infant feeding practices of Chinese immigrant mothers in Australia: A qualitative exploration

BACKGROUND: The Australian Infant Feeding Guidelines recommend exclusive breastfeeding until about six months of age when solid foods should be gradually introduced. Evidence indicates that Chinese immigrant mothers in Australia are more likely to use infant formula in combination with breastfeeding and to introduce solids earlier than the general Australian population. This study aimed to explore Chinese immigrant mother's experiences of feeding their infant to gain an insight into the factors shaping their feeding decisions and perceptions of infant growth. METHODS: Semi structured interviews were conducted with 36 Chinese immigrant mothers with children aged 0-12 months, living in Melbourne, Australia. Interviews were conducted either in Chinese, using an interpreter, or in English. All were audio recorded. Recordings were transcribed verbatim and thematically analysed. RESULTS: Eight themes were identified. Chinese immigrant mothers were supportive of exclusive breastfeeding, however breastfeeding problems and conflicting views about infant feeding and infant growth from grandparents reduced many mothers' confidence to breastfeed exclusively. For many new mothers, anxiety that exclusive breastfeeding provided insufficient nourishment led to the introduction of formula before six months of age. Most mothers delayed introducing solid food to five to six months to prevent development of allergic diseases and gastrointestinal problems. Chinese immigrant mothers obtained information and support related to infant feeding from a combination of health professionals, online resources, friends and grandparents. CONCLUSIONS: Chinese immigrant mothers in Australia need support to breastfeed exclusively. In particular maternal confidence to breastfeed exclusively needs to be increased. To achieve this, culturally sensitive guidance is needed and the contradictions in advice given by Chinese grandparents and health professionals on infant feeding practices and healthy infant growth need to be recognised and addressed.

Preliminary validation of the Chinese version of the pediatric quality of life inventory

The Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL) is a scale for assessing health-related quality of life of children and adolescents aged 2-18 years. Three reports of PedsQL for the age ranges 2-4 years and 5-7 years were translated into Chinese and their validities were examined. A total of 186 children and parents were involved in the study. Content validity, test-retest reliability, internal consistency reliability and construct validity were assessed. The correlation of parents' and children's reports was also examined. The results showed that the internal consistency is generally good, test-retest reliability ranged from moderate to good, differences between disabled and non-disabled individuals are significant in total scores and in all subscales except for the physical functioning subscale for the children's self-report for the age ranges of 2-4 years and 5-7 years and the correlation between the reports of the parents and children for the age range of 5-7 years is moderate to high. This suggests that the newly translated Chinese PedsQL for children aged 2-4 years and 5-7 years seems to be reliable and valid to be used as a measure of health-related quality of life in Chinese pediatric research and clinical applications.

Family average income and diagnosed Type 2 diabetes in urban and rural residents in regional mainland China.

Aims: To explore the relationship between family average income (FAI; an index of socio-economic status) and Type 2 diabetes in a region of mainland China. Methods: Population-based cross-sectional study, conducted between October 2000 and March 2001 in administrative villages (n = 45) randomly selected from three urban districts and two rural counties of NanJing municipality, mainland China, with a regional population of 5.6 million. Participants were all local residents aged ≥ 35 years old (n = 29 340); 67.7% from urban areas, 32.3% from rural areas, 49.8% male and 50.2% female. Results: The response rate of eligible participants was 90.1%. The overall prevalence of self-reported Type 2 diabetes was 1.9%. After adjustment for possible confounding variables (age, gender, area of residence, body mass index, educational level, smoking status, occupational and leisure-time physical activity), participants in the higher and middle FAI categories were more than twice as likely to have Type 2 diabetes as those in the lower FAI category. Conclusions: The prevalence of Type 2 diabetes is positively related to socio-economic status (indexed by FAI) in Chinese at the population level. After controlling for potential confounding factors, people in higher socio-economic status groups are more likely to have Type 2 diabetes. These associations are consistent with other effects of epidemiological transition and identify a need for preventive initiatives.

Prevalence of and risk factors for erectile dysfunction in Hong Kong diabetic patients

Aim To estimate the prevalence of erectile dysfunction (ED) in Chinese diabetic men and to identify its risk factors, we carried out a cross-sectional survey of 500 Chinese diabetic men attending a community hospital diabetic clinic in Hong Kong.
Methods Patients were interviewed and asked to report on their experience of ED as defined in the National Institutes of Health Consensus Conference 1993. Diabetic complications and patient clinical data were obtained from patients' medical records.
Results Of the 486 patients studied, the prevalence of ED was 63.6% (95% confidence interval 59.3–67.9%). The prevalence of ED increased with age, from 33.3% to 73.8% for diabetic men aged between 21 and 80 years (P = 0.001). Severity of ED also increased with age. Among diabetic men with ED, there was no report of complete ED for diabetic men aged 40 years and below, whereas the proportion of patients with complete ED increased from 7.4% to 71.1% between the ages of 41 and 80 years. ED occurred early in the course of the disease, with a prevalence increasing from 56.0% in men with diabetes mellitus (DM) for < 5 years to 72.0% in those with DM for > 20 years (P = 0.038). Duration of DM was also associated with severity; the proportion of patients with complete ED increased from 30.8% for those with DM for < 5 years to 72.2% for those with DM for ≥ 20 years (P < 0.001). Using logistic regression analysis, DM duration, diabetic complications including retinopathy, abnormal albuminuria and sensory neuropathy, and higher level of education were associated with a higher risk of ED. By polychotomous logistic regression, age was the only factor found to be associated with the severity of ED, after adjusting for other variables.
Conclusions Chinese diabetic patients have a prevalence of self-reported ED that appears to be higher than that of Western populations. This may be due to cultural differences and the association of abnormal albuminuria and hypertension.

The a-linolenic acid content of green vegetables commonly available in Australia

Green vegetable consumption has long been considered to have health benefits mainly due to the vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients (such as vitamin C, folate, antioxidants etc) contained in a vegetable-rich diet. Additionally, green vegetables are known to contain a relatively high proportion of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), primarily in the form of alpha-linolenic acid (18:3n-3). However, there are no data available on the fatty acid composition and concentration of green vegetables commonly consumed in Australia. The present study determined the fatty acid content of 11 green vegetables that are commonly available in Australia. The total fatty acid concentrations of the vegetables under study ranged from 44 mg/100 g wet weight in Chinese cabbage to 372 mg/100 g in watercress. There were three PUFAs in all vegetables analyzed; these were 16:3n-3, 18:2n-6, and 18:3n-3 fatty acids. Sample vegetables contained significant quantities of 16:3n-3 and 18:3n-3, ranging from 23 to 225 mg/100 g. Watercress and mint contained the highest amounts of 16:3n-3 and 18:3n-3, and parsley had the highest amount of 18:2n-6 in both percentage composition and concentration. Mint had the highest concentration of 18:3n-3 with a value of 195 mg/100 g, while watercress contained the highest concentration of 16:3n-3 at 45 mg/100 g. All 11 green vegetables contained a high proportion of PUFAs, ranging from 59 to 72% of total fatty acids. The omega-3 PUFA composition ranged from 40 to 62% of total fatty acids. Monounsaturated fatty acid composition was less than 6% of total fatty acids. The proportion of saturated fatty acids ranged from 21% in watercress and mint to 32% of total fatty acids in Brussels sprouts. No eicosapentaenoic and docosahexaenoic acids were detected in any of the samples. Consumption of green vegetables could contribute to 18:3n-3 PUFA intake, especially for vegetarian populations.

Assessing cultural and linquistic appropriateness of the Rose Angina questionnaire in three ethnic groups

Introduction. Meeting the needs of migrant groups in Europe requires cross-culturally valid questionnaires, a substantial challenge to researchers. The Rose Angina Questionnaire (RAQ) is an important measure of coronary heart disease prevalence. It consists of seven items that collectively yield a diagnosis of angina. It has been shown to perform inconsistently across some ethnic groups in Britain. This study aimed to assess the need for modifying the RAQ for cross-culturally valid use in the three main ethnic groups in Scotland.

Methods. Interviews were carried out with Pakistani Punjabi speakers (n=26), Chinese Cantonese speakers (n=29) and European-origin English speakers (n=25). Bilingual project workers interviewed participants and provided translation and commentary to the English-speaking researcher. Participants were asked about general and cardiovascular health beliefs and behaviours, and about attitudes to pain and chest pain. They were also asked to comment on their understanding of an existing version of the RAQ in their language.

Results. No dominant themes in the cultural construction of health, pain or cardiovascular knowledge emerged that may significantly influence RAQ response between language groups. Problems were encountered with the Punjabi and Cantonese translations of the RAQ. For example, the translation for “chest” was interpreted by some Pakistani and fewer Chinese women to mean “breasts”. “Walking uphill” was translated in Chinese as “walking the hill”, without stipulation of the direction, so that some Cantonese speakers interpreted the question as meaning walking downhill. In addition, many Chinese interpreted RAQ items to be referring to breathlessness rather than chest pain due to ambiguous wording.

Conclusion. Existing Punjabi and Cantonese versions of the RAQ should be modified before being used in multi-ethnic surveys. Current versions are unlikely to be yielding data that is comparable across groups. Other language versions also require similar investigation to study the cardiovascular health of Europe’s migrant groups.

Review of prevalence data in, and evaluation of methods for cross cultural adaptation of, UK surveys on tobacco and alcohol in ethnic minority groups

Objective To assess the adequacy of cross cultural adaptations of survey questions on self reported tobacco and alcohol consumption in the United Kingdom.

Design Assessment of consistency of data between studies identified through literature review. Studies evaluated with 12 guidelines developed from the research literature on achieving cross cultural comparability.

Results The literature review identified 18 key studies, five of them on national samples. Survey instruments were obtained for 15 of these. The comparison of prevalence data in national surveys showed some important discrepancies, greater for tobacco than for alcohol. For example, prevalence of cigarette smoking in Bangladeshi women was 6% in a national survey in 1994 and 1% in a national survey in 1999; in Chinese men it was 31% in a survey in 1993-4 and 17% in one in 1999; in African-Caribbean men it was 29% in a 1992 survey and 42% in one in 1993-4. The most guidelines met by any study was three, although one study partly met a fourth. Two studies met no guidelines. Only four studies consulted with ethnic minority communities in developing the questionnaire, none checked each language version with all others, and two stated the questionnaire had not been validated.

Conclusions Surveys have not followed best practice in relation to measurement of risk factors in cross cultural settings. There is inconsistency in the prevalence data on smoking provided by different major national UK studies. Users of such data should be aware of their limitations. Research is needed to help achieve linguistic equivalence of survey questions in cross cultural research.

Australian businesses in China : examining motivations and influences on entry modes for service providers

Purpose : The purpose of this paper is to examine the explanatory power of internationalisation theory for service firms internationalising into China.

Design/Methodology/Approach : Interviews were conducted with Australian based 23 service businesses that had entered China. Internationalisation theory was examined in this research. A number of constructs were investigated, which included the type of service (hard or soft), internationalisation motivation/pathways, previous international experience and whether companies plan or not. A number of propositions were tested in relation to these constructs.

Findings : The research found that soft services were more likely to choose full control modes, and hard services choose lower control modes. The most common motivation for entering China was to seek markets there, and these resulted in lower involvement modes. There was no relationship found between having international experience and entry mode, and it was found that businesses with low levels of planning still engaged high control modes. Internationalisation theory was partially supported in the research and was found to correctly predict the progression of equity in Chinese businesses owned by Australian companies.

Research Limitations/Implications : The limitation of the research was the small sample size, and future research should consider the constructs over a larger sample.

Practical Implications : The implications for other Australian service businesses is they should consider the type of service they have (hard or soft), and then make appropriate entry mode choices.

Originality/Value : There is limited research on the internationalisation of service businesses, and no other research has examined Australian service providers going to China.

Cross-cultural assumptions about perception and identity in western socio-legal frameworks

Socio-legal analysis has relied heavily on Mnookin and Kornhauser's "bargaining in the shadow of the law" and Galanter's "litigotiation" concepts. These concepts provide a framework for examining the relationship between formal legal rules and other normative sources in out-of-court activity. In this paper we explore the extent to which these frameworks' Western assumptions about individualism, conflict and the rule of law would require adaptation if they were to be used to examine such phenomena in Chinese culture or in Australian-Chinese negotiations. In particular, we focus on the "difference" between: i) China and Confucian culture; and ii) Western society in terms of the Confucian principles relating to hierarchy, harmony, collectivism and face. These principles have fundamental implications for Chinese perceptions of appropriate dispute resolution behaviour. Western researchers who omit consideration of these perceptions and neglect the defining characteristics of Chinese identity will emerge with flawed projects.

Confucian primers in dynastic China : tracing ethical molding to earliest times

Confucianism served the dynastic rulers of China well in their control of the education system as part of maintaining their reign for over 2,000 years, yet very little academic literature exists in the West on this important topic. This book examines the key ideological concepts of the canonized Confucian texts, accumulated from the 4th century BC onward, in the search of understanding the traditions of Chinese society, which appear to have always emphasized hierarchical relationships, harmony and stability rather than individualism, innovation, equity and fairness. By analyzing the ethical contents in Confucian primers produced in dynastic China, this study should help shed some light on how generations of Chinese children were cultivated to value passivity, submissiveness, acceptance of fate and maintenance of the status quo. This book provides a comprehensive resource for both undergraduates and specialists of comparative education. It will also be useful to China scholars or anyone else who shares an interest in Chinese history and philosophy.