Survey on Death and Dying in Hong Kong

Mjelde-Mossey, Lee Ann; Chan, Cecilia Lai-Wan

doi:10.1300/j010v45n01_04

Cited by 26 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…These misunderstandings include nutrition and hydration will only do more good than harm to one's body, prolong lives, feeding needs to be continued relentlessly and only should stop when one passes away. This result is consistent with a study conducted in Taiwan where palliative care patients were found to feel that they were given insufficient nutritional support during their stay in hospital [24]. It is indeed true that eating is a very important part of Chinese culture.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

“…It is indeed true that eating is a very important part of Chinese culture. However, they need to understand that inappropriate feeding may be detrimental as it will further aggravates patients' conditions resulting in disorders such as gastrointestinal secretions, limb oedema and ascites [24,30]. Effective interaction between doctors, patients and family members is vital when discussions surrounding nutrition and hydration occur so that the misconception on excessive feeding can be sensitively and explicitly addressed.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Chinese believe it is the family's duty to feed the patient as much as they can, regardless of whether they are clinically capable of doing so or not. This traditional view often conflicts with the medical practice of administering nutritional supplement to the terminally-ill where it emphasizes on the provision of sufficient rather than excessive nutritional support [24] as well as to do no harm to the patient.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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ACEPAC Study – Australian Chinese patient’s Experiences of Palliative Care Services

Danforn¹

2014

J Geriatr Palliat Care

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Background: Australia is a multicultural country that consists of a diverse population. It can be difficult to provide equal healthcare services across all ethnicities due to cultural disparities. This is seen amongst Australian Chinese to under-utilize healthcare services such as palliative care.Objective: This study aimed to explore the Australian Chinese's understanding of palliative care service and on their end-of-life care preferences so that suitable support and services that are culturally appropriate could be delivered to them. Methods: Participants were recruited from two Chinese cancer support group organizations in Sydney to complete a self-reported questionnaire on their understanding of palliative and end-of-life care preferences. 41 Chinese participants were recruited from four support group sessions.Results: Seven themes were explored. The majority of participants understood the role of palliative care and would accept the service. They favored being informed about the nature of their condition even during advanced stages. Many preferred making decisions for their own treatment but highly valued the advice from doctors and family members. Most participants were open to discuss issues related to death and dying and the need for interpreter services was highlighted. They viewed that nutrition and hydration as necessity during end-of-life and many believed in a combined regimen of western and alternative therapy to treat their condition. Conclusion:This study shows that Australian Chinese understand the role of palliative care. Changes in perception in areas such as disclosure of the truth of a disease and openness in discussing issues related to death and dying are highlighted. Traditional Chinese values still play a role in shaping their attitudes regarding decision-making and hydration and nutrition during end-of-life care. Further research to explore the generalisability of these results is warranted.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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ACEPAC Study – Australian Chinese patient’s Experiences of Palliative Care Services

Danforn¹

2014

J Geriatr Palliat Care

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“…A large proportion of the participants (72.7%) reported the inadequacy of AD promotion in the community. A local telephone survey revealed that half of the participants preferred to receive comfort care without the use of any means to extend their lives, as the concept of AD was not explained to the participants in that survey [34]. A lack of awareness on AD, lack of familiarity with it, and procrastination were frequently highlighted as the reasons of low AD completion rate in previous studies [1,2,6,35].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prevalence, Perception, and Predictors of Advance Directives among Hong Kong Chinese: A Population-Based Survey

Chan

Wong

Choi

et al. 2019

IJERPH

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Advance directives (AD) can be used for the communication of healthcare decisions that may be required in the future when individuals have lost their capacity to make such decisions. The aim of this study is to examine the prevalence, perception, and predictors of AD completion in the Hong Kong general population with a diverse culture. Through random-digit dialing, a population-based telephone survey was conducted with participants aged 18 or above. Socio-demographic characteristics, self-perception and health status, prevalence of AD, and perceptions related to AD were assessed. The acceptance on completing AD was measured by the summed score on the level of agreement in making AD. In total, 2002 participants completed the survey, with only 0.5% having made AD. However, the majority of those who had heard about AD had made or intended to make AD (80.2%). Multivariable regression analysis showed that being religious, being optimistic, and agreeing to respect patients’ wishes are independently associated with higher AD acceptance. Being a student is associated with lower AD acceptance. The extremely low completion rate of AD, but high acceptance of AD urges for more active promotion of AD to the public and education on end-of-life care among university students.

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“…From a Confucian cultural perspective, it is believed that after death, one's soul becomes a ghost that continues to exist in the world and coexists with the living, as this bestows meaning upon life (Yick and Gupta, 2002;Hsu et al, 2009;Chen, 2012). When facing death, Chinese people attach great importance to the dying process and funeral rites, hoping to arrive peacefully in the afterlife and enable their souls to continue to exist in a good state (Mjelde-Mossey and Chan, 2007;Liu and van Schalkwyk, 2019). The famous Chinese historian, Yu (2004) concluded that the Chinese belief in "soul to heaven and body to earth" was evident before the middle of the Western Han Dynasty (around the 1st century BC).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coping with mortality salience: the role of connection thinking and afterlife beliefs in Chinese context

Wang,

Sun,

Hou

et al. 2023

Front. Psychol.

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IntroductionGrounded in Terror Management Theory (TMT), this research explored the influence of mortality salience on preferences for afterlife beliefs (reincarnation vs. resignation to fate) within a Chinese context. We also examined the mediating role of death anxiety and the moderating effects of connection thinking across different age groups.MethodsAcross three experimental studies involving a cumulative sample of 485 Chinese participants, we primed individuals with thoughts of their own mortality and then assessed their death anxiety and proclivity toward reincarnation beliefs or resignation to fate. Connection thinking—a cognitive construct emphasizing relational interconnectedness—was also evaluated to ascertain its moderating impact.ResultsThe data revealed a pronounced preference for reincarnation beliefs as a distal defense mechanism following mortality salience, significantly mediated by death anxiety. The moderating role of connection thinking was also verified, but with age-related differences: among younger Chinese participants (age < 35), heightened connection thinking buffered against increased death anxiety triggered by mortality salience and thus mitigated its mediating role. Conversely, for older participants (age ≥ 35), amplified connection thinking exacerbated both the increased death anxiety and its mediating effect.DiscussionThese findings contribute to TMT by elucidating the influence of death anxiety on the relationship between mortality salience and afterlife beliefs in the Chinese cultural context. They also enrich the literature on connection thinking by uncovering its moderating role. Moreover, our research yields practical implications for coping with mortality salience and alleviating existential anxiety, enhancing the understanding of these phenomena across different cultural and age groups.

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Survey on Death and Dying in Hong Kong

Cited by 26 publications

References 21 publications

ACEPAC Study – Australian Chinese patient’s Experiences of Palliative Care Services

ACEPAC Study – Australian Chinese patient’s Experiences of Palliative Care Services

Prevalence, Perception, and Predictors of Advance Directives among Hong Kong Chinese: A Population-Based Survey

Coping with mortality salience: the role of connection thinking and afterlife beliefs in Chinese context

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