To investigate the effect of wearing a face mask on body temperature in healthy subjects. Methods: The study was of repeated measures design. It was conducted from July to August 2003 in two accident & emergency departments on Hong Kong Island. Staff of the two departments, who were free from any active disease at the time of measurement, were recruited. Their body temperature (oral and aural) was measured while they were not wearing a mask and at 30 minutes after they had worn a mask (either surgical mask or N95 mask). Paired t-test was used for significance testing. Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient was calculated to elucidate the relationship between oral and aural temperature measurement. Results: Ninety-three subjects were included. Oral temperature was significantly higher when a mask was worn (p=0.002, 95% CI 0.06-0.26). When considered separately, only those wearing N95 mask demonstrated such significance (p=0.005, 95% CI 0.088-0.454). The correlation coefficient for oral/aural temperature measurements was 0.219 (without mask, p=0.035) and 0.169 (with mask, p=0.104). Conclusion: Wearing a face mask may increase the oral temperature in healthy subjects. However, the difference may not be clinically significant.

The prognosis of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in Hong Kong was dismal. Every link in the chain of survival has to be improved.

Introduction Understanding how medical students view the Specialty of Emergency Medicine is important. The knowledge helps the leaders in Emergency Medicine better plan the development of the specialty. In the medical literature, few studies primarily investigated this subject. Most were on the career choice of medical students. This study aimed at addressing this knowledge gap. Methods It was a cross-sectional questionnaire survey of the year 3 to 5 medical students studying at the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, the University of Hong Kong. The questionnaire measuring their attitude consisted of 16 items in 3 domains: overall merits of Emergency Medicine, the role and function of emergency physicians and the career prospect in Emergency Medicine. Descriptive statistics were used for data analysis. Their attitude was represented by an attitude score with 80 being most positive and 16 most negative. Results A total of 298 students participated in the survey. The response rate was 64.5%. The overall median attitude score was 59. Year 5 students had a statistically significant higher score. Emergency Medicine ranked third in their first specialty choice after qualification. There was no statistical relationship between a student's attitude score and the specialty choice. Conclusion The students' overall attitude towards Emergency Medicine was positive. Senior students held a more positive attitude. A student's specialty choice after qualification did not seem to relate to their attitude towards the specialty. (Hong Kong j.emerg.med. 2014;21:67-72)