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. 2020 Feb 20;10(2):e027279. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2018-027279

Table 1.

Core topic areas in questionnaires and examinations of the study

Assessment Description
Questionnaire
Use of medication No and duration (0–1 year/2–5 years/>5 years) for antihypertensive, cardiovascular and hypolipidaemic drugs, antidiabetics, antipsychotics and analgesics.
Compliance of medication use ‘At times, do you forget to take your prescription medications?’ (no/yes)
Depression The 2-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-2) for depression; The 9-item PHQ (PHQ-9) for those with PHQ-2 ≥3.
Anxiety The 2-item Genralised Anxiety Disorder (GAD-2); The 7-item GAD (GAD-7) for those with GAD-2 ≥3.
Loneliness* The 6-item De Jong Gierveld Loneliness Scale; and one question asking ‘Do you feel lonely? (yes/no)’ (added at a later stage)
Insomnia The 7-item Insomnia Severity Index for those answered yes to the screening question ‘In the past 2 weeks, do you have insomnia? (yes/no)’
Pain A screening question of ‘In the past year, do you have musculoskeletal pain for at least 3 months’, for those who answered ‘yes, one pain area or ‘yes, two or more pain areas’, Brief Pain Inventory was measured.
Physical activity For those were screened positive in pain, Physical Activity Scale for the Elderly was measured.
Self-rated health ‘In general, how will you describe your health? (extremely good, very good or good/fair/poor)’
Community network ‘When you need help, do you have someone who is willing to and able to meet your needs?’ (always/sometimes/never)
Meaning of existence* One item extracted from the validated reliable Chinese Purpose in Life test: “My personal existence is utterly meaningless and purposeless vs. very meaningful and purposeful”, assessed by a 7-point Likert scale with 1 denoting the lowest level and 7 denoting the highest level of perceived meaning of existence.
Use of social media A screening question of ‘In the past 2 weeks, have you ever used the following social media’, for those who answered yes to any of the social media, they were further assessed with importance and comfort of using internet.
Oral health* ‘Do you have any difficulty when biting or chewing foods (even with the use of denture)’ (yes/no)
Incontinence* ‘Do you have incontinence?’ (yes/occasionally/no)
Frailty* The Edmonton Frail Scale.
Sarcopenia* The 5-item Sarcopenia Assessment.
Cognition Mainly assessed with Montreal Cognitive Assessment Hong Kong version but in an earlier stage, Abbreviated Memory Inventory for Chinese was used.
Quality of life The EQ-5D-5L
Daily function Instrumental Activities of Daily Living including ability to use telephone, mode of transportation, shopping, food preparation, ability to handle finances.
Use of health services Visits to primary care doctors, specialist outpatient clinics, admission to hospital, use of services in elderly daycare centres and out-of-pocket healthcare cost both in private and public in the past year.
Alcohol use The 3-item Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test-consumption for those who drank alcohol in the past year.
Tobacco use One question asking for current, ex-smoking and non-smoking behaviour.
Caregiving to somebody else ‘Are you taking care of somebody?’ (yes/no)
Social economic status Age, gender, marriage, living status, employment, receiving of social welfare scheme.
Physical examination
Blood pressure Measured twice in 15 min after rest.
Body mass index
Waist circumference
Handgrip strength Each hand was measured twice.
Electronic health record and self-report data
Chronic diseases 43 common chronic conditions in 15 categories including:

  1. Metabolic diseases (hypertension, lipid disorder, diabetes).

  2. Cancer.

  3. Disease of the cardiovascular system (coronary heart disease, stroke/cerebrovascular disease, peripheral vascular disease).

  4. Disease of the respiratory system (COPD, bronchiectasis, asthma, chronic pharyngitis /laryngitis).

  5. Disease of the liver, spleen and gallbladder (gallbladder/spleen disease, viral hepatitis, chronic liver disease).

  6. Disease of the stomach and intestines (dyspepsia and gastritis, diverticular disease of intestine, chronic enteritis; irritable bowel syndrome; constipation).

  7. Disease of the musculoskeletal and connective tissue (chronic pain needing medication control, skeletal and connective tissue inflammation (such as arthritis, gout)).

  8. Disease of the genitourinary system (chronic kidney disease (nephritis), prostatitis, benign prostatic hyperplasia).

  9. Disease of the ear, nose and throat (chronic rhinitis, deafness/tinnitus).

  10. Disease of the visual system (glaucoma/cataracts, blindness/amblyopia, diabetic eyes, retinal detachment).

  11. Disease of the skin (eczema, psoriasis).

  12. Disease of the blood (anaemia).

  13. Disease of the nervous system (multiple sclerosis, migraine, epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease).

  14. Mental disorders (schizophrenia/bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety and other stress-related disorders, dementia).

  15. Others.
Use of medication Medication use number and duration (0–1 year/2–5 years/>5 years) for antihypertensive drugs, cardiovascular drugs, cholesterol-lowering drugs, antidiabetics, antipsychotics and analgesics

*Measures were added at later stages: about 712–995 patients received these measures.

COPD, Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; EQ-5D-5L, EuroQoL-5-Dimensions-5-Level.