14 May 2015

Survey finds half of Hongkongers lack physical activity which
Affects physical and psychological health, and family relationship

HKU advocates the innovative “Zero-time Exercise” concept
to improve health-related quality of life and family harmony

To help build a more harmonious society and to promote the messages of FAMILY Health, Happiness and Harmony (“3Hs”), The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust collaborated with the School of Public Health, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, to launch FAMILY: A Jockey Club Initiative for a Harmonious Society (“FAMILY Project”). Kick-off Ceremony of the campaign “FAMILY Holistic Health” and press conference of the “Hong Kong Family and Health Information Trends Survey” (“HK-FHInTS”) results announcement were held today. An innovative “Zero-time Exercise” concept is advocated to encourage citizens to increase physical exercise by simple movements that can be done any time at any places.

Guests of the kick-off ceremony included Dr KO Wing Man, BBS, JP, Secretary for Food and Health; Mr. Anthony CHOW Wing Kin, SBS, JP, Deputy Chairman of The Hong Kong Jockey Club and Professor LAM Tai Hing, BBS, JP, Principal Investigator, FAMILY Project; Chair Professor of School of Public Health, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong.

A variety of large scale community-based projects under the “FAMILY Holistic Health” campaign will be held all over Hong Kong in the coming two years. It aims to encourage Hong Kong families to do more physical exercise, to promote psychological health and to establish a less sugar and less salt healthy eating habit.

Dr KO Wing Man, Secretary for Food and Health, pointed out that inadequate awareness and knowledge on healthy eating and lack of physical exercise will affect personal health. He encouraged the public to start establishing healthy eating habit, doing regular physical exercise and paying attention to family harmony so as to achieve physical and mental well-being.

Mr. Anthony CHOW Wing Kin, Deputy Chairman of The Hong Kong Jockey Club, noted that the Club’s Charities Trust has been in collaboration with the School of Public Health, The University of Hong Kong since 2007 to launch the FAMILY Project to identify the sources of family problems, devise suitable preventive measures and promote FAMILY Health, Happiness and Harmony through a territory-wide household survey, intervention projects and public education. He said, “Hong Kong is facing the challenges of ageing population and chronic disease, we are in need of suitable preventive measures to alleviate the burden of the families and society. As physical activity is essential in promoting physical and psychological health, the FAMILY Project will be focusing on FAMILY Holistic Health in the coming two years.”

After the kick-off ceremony, the survey results of the “Hong Kong Family and Health Information Trends Survey” were released by the FAMILY Project team during the press conference. The FAMILY Project commissioned the Public Opinion Programme (POP) of The University of Hong Kong to conduct the HK-FHInTS in 2013 from October to December, and successfully interviewed 1,502 Hong Kong citizens with aged 18 or above. The survey was to investigate the patterns of physical activity of Hongkongers and the relations of physical activity with health-related quality of life, personal happiness, and FAMILY Health, Happiness and Harmony.

Key Survey Findings
Physical Activity Patterns of Hongkongers
- Nearly half (49.5%) of Hongkongers were physically inactive*
* Physically inactive refers to less than 150 minutes moderate-intensity activity per week or less than 75 minutes vigorous-intensity activity per week, or an equivalent combination of moderate- and vigorous- intensity activity

- Hong Kong people only spent 1-2 days a week doing moderate or vigorous physical activity
- Employed people had less moderate physical activity

Importance of Physical Activity
Table 1. Time spent on doing physical activity was directly related to physical and mental health-related quality of life, personal happiness, family happiness, family harmony and family health

	Time spent on doing physical activity (moderate- or vigorous- intensity activitya）
	0 hour (n=441)	>0-<0.5 hour (n=260)	0.5-<1 hour (n=282)	>1 hour (n=511)	Increase (>1 hour vs. 0 hour)
Physical health-related quality of life (0-100)	47.05	48.28	48.81	49.50	5.2%↑
Mental health-related quality of life (0-100)	48.40	49.31	49.54	50.82	5.0%↑
Personal happiness (1-7)	5.00	5.18	5.15	5.37	7.4%↑
Family happiness (0-10)	6.99	7.22	7.20	7.36	5.3%↑
Family harmony (0-10)	7.45	7.57	7.61	7.80	4.7%↑
Family health (0-10)	7.13	7.26	7.15	7.44	4.3%↑

a: Moderate-intensity physical activity: activities that take moderate physical effort and make you breathe somewhat harder than normal like brisk walking, carrying/ moving moderate loads (<20kg), or bicycling at a regular pace. Vigorous-intensity physical activity: activities that take hard physical effort and make you breathe much harder than normal like running, walking briskly up a hill, or fast bicycling

After analyzing the data, HKU research team found that interviewees who did more physical activity achieved higher health-related quality of life (physical & mental) as well as higher FAMILY 3Hs indices than those who lack physical activity. Meanwhile, the findings also indicated that employed people had less moderate physical activity.

Professor LAM Tai Hing, Principal Investigator, FAMILY Project, pointed out that many Hongkongers were unable to do physical exercise with family members because of their fast paced lifestyle and long sedentary busy working and living conditions. He said, “Physical exercise can improve the health-related quality of life physically and mentally. It helps to raise the happiness of individuals and families and to improve family harmony and health. The World Health Organization (WHO) suggests an adult should do at least 150 minutes moderate-intensity physical activity per week or at least 75 minutes vigorous-intensity physical activity per week or an equivalent combination of moderate-and vigorous-intensity physical activity. However, because the situations in Hong Kong and other regions are far behind the standard, it is necessary to promote physical exercise in a new way.”

“Zero-time Exercise” - Enjoyable, Easy and Effective
FAMILY Project advocates an innovative “Zero-time Exercise” concept to encourage citizens to do more physical exercise by simple movements while sitting, standing and walking. “Zero-time Exercise” can help to burn more energy, strengthen muscles, enhance cardiopulmonary functions, raise spirit and relieve stress. Professor LAM Tai Hing said “Zero-time Exercise” does not require extra time, money or equipment and it has “3-E” characteristics: Enjoyable, Easy and Effective. “Zero-time Exercise” are suitable for 3 main groups of people; people who do not have enough physical exercise can easily start doing it; people who spend too much time sitting can start doing “Zero-time Exercise” and decrease time spent sitting so as to minimize the bad effects of sedentary behavior; people who have achieved the minimum physical activity level as recommended by WHO can add more “Zero-time Exercise” in their life. The FAMILY Project collaborates with multiple partners to conduct various innovative programmes for the community to promote “Zero-time Exercise” and healthy eating (Less Sugar, Less Salt). These programmes also encourage and empower participants to do physical exercise with family members and to enjoy FAMILY 3Hs together.

About FAMILY: A Jockey Club Initiative for a Harmonious Society
To help build a more harmonious society, The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust invited the School of Public Health, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong to collaboratively launch a project entitled “FAMILY: A Jockey Club Initiative for a Harmonious Society” with a HK$250 million funding. The project aims to identify the sources of family problems, devise, implement and evaluate suitable preventive measures and promote FAMILY Health, Happiness and Harmony (3Hs) through a territory-wide prospective household survey, intervention projects and public education.

FAMILY Project:
Website: http://www.family.org.hk
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/familyhk3h
Facebook: familyhk3h

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