Comparative psychobehavioral surveillance and analysis could yield important insights into generic versus population-specific issues that could be used to inform, design, and evaluate public health infection control policy measures.

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BackgroundThis study was designed to investigate the relation between health-related physical fitness and weight status in Hong Kong adolescents.Methods3,204 students aged 12-18 years participated in the Hong Kong Student Obesity Surveillance (HKSOS) project in 2006-2007. Anthropometric measures (height, weight) and health-related fitness (push-up, sit-up, sit-and-reach, 9-minute run) were assessed. Body mass index (BMI) was computed to classify participants into normal weight, underweight (Grade I, II/III), overweight, and obese groups. The associations of health-related physical fitness with BMI and weight status were examined by partial correlation coefficients and analysis of covariance, respectively.ResultsMore boys than girls were overweight or obese (18.0% vs 8.7%), but more girls than boys were underweight (22.3% vs 16.7%). Boys performed significantly (P < 0.001) better in sit-up (38.8 vs 31.6 times/min) and 9-minute run (1632.1 vs 1353.2 m), but poorer in sit-and-reach (27.4 vs 32.2 cm) than girls. All four physical fitness tests were significantly positively correlated with each other in both sexes, and BMI was only weakly correlated with sit up and sit-and-reach tests in boys. Decreasing performance (P for trend < 0.05) was observed from normal weight to overweight and obese for push-up, sit-up, and 9-minute run in both sexes. From normal weight to Grade I and Grade II/III underweight, decreasing performance (P for trend < 0.05) for sit-up and sit-and-reach in both sexes and for push-up in boys was observed.ConclusionsThe relations between BMI and health-related physical fitness in adolescents were non-linear. Overweight/obese and underweight adolescents had poorer performance in push-up and sit-up tests than normal weight adolescents. Different aspects of health-related physical fitness may serve as immediate indicators of potential health risks for underweight and overweight adolescents.

A comparison of hip fracture rates among nine countries (Canada, Chile, Finland, Hong Kong, Scotland, Sweden, Switzerland, the United States and Venezuela) was made using national hospital discharge data for the same time interval. The rates increased by age and were higher for females than males in all nine countries. When based on overall discharge rates, the incidence of hip fracture appeared high in three European countries (Finland, Scotland and Sweden) relative to the other countries. However, when transfer cases were removed and adjustments made for differences in case definition, the risk of hip fracture for both men and women was much similar among the four European and two North American countries, but higher than in Hong Kong. Rates of fracture were lowest in Venezuela and Chile, varying from three to 11 times less than for residents of the other seven countries. Although there are limitations in using hospital discharge data as a measure of incidence, the wide variation in the risk of hip fracture across the nine countries appears real but differences between North American and north European countries may not be as great as previously reported. Such cross-national comparisons may help clarify different etiologic hypotheses.