Aim Meteorological factors play a role in respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. However, previous studies demonstrated inconsistent results regarding their associations. This paper aims to evaluate their relationships to facilitate anticipatory care for patients with respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. Subject and methods A retrospective time-series study, controlling for air pollution, was adopted to examine the effects of various meteorological factors on emergency hospital admission for chronic respiratory and cardiovascular diseases from 2007 to 2010 in a Hong Kong hospital. Impact of weather was examined up to 3 weeks to account for the possible delayed effects of meteorological factors. Results Barometric pressure was positively associated with hospital admission in a linear fashion, while temperature demonstrated a linear negative association. Delayed effects of air pressure were noted up to lag weeks 2 and 3 for cardiovascular and respiratory admission respectively. Temperature also showed a progressive reduction in lag effects on respiratory and cardiovascular diseases admission up to lag week 3. Relative humidity, global solar radiation and wind speed demonstrated no significant associations with hospital admission. Conclusion Anticipatory care to prevent exacerbations of chronic respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, hence to reduce related admission, might be achieved by the provision of targeted advice triggered by forecasts of low temperature and high barometric pressure.

This study used a cultural model analysis to examine the Hong Kong print media's social construction of stigma in respect to female sex workers. An analysis was conducted on captions and main headlines of two newspaper (Chinese and English) media in Hong Kong between the years 2003-2006. A total of 591 articles on sex workers were recruited in the analysis with 422 located from the Ming Pao and 169 articles from the SCMP. In Hong Kong, as in elsewhere, sex workers were commonly labeled as the sources of sexually transmitted diseases and as women who endangered the public safety through socially unacceptable occupations. They were also portrayed as "ugly", "weak" and "powerless" in the articles identified. We conclude the Hong Kong print media plays a significant role in contributing to the stigmatization of sex workers, heightening health risk and vulnerability. Such social construction of public stigma then in turn, can be argued to contribute to a lessened propensity for female sex workers both seek and engage with formal health services.