The Hong Kong Office of the Asia Health Literacy Association is interested to understand health literacy levels across Asia from a research, education and policy perspective. The Hong Kong Health Literacy Association aims to improve people health literacy skills and promote a better understanding and utilization of health literacy strategies among health professionals to reduce health inequalities.

Members work together to discuss current health literacy issues, research and practices, run projects, write reports and advocate for implementation of health literacy research findings into practice.

The association is open to patients, researchers, health educators, health professionals, policy makers, non-governmental organizations, media personals and everyone interested or passionate about health literacy and ensuring better health for all.

Vision

To advocate for health literacy in regional and global forums by promoting health literate societies.

Mission

This health literacy office aims to:

1. Strengthen health literacy and capacity of individuals to make health choices
2. Provide education on health literacy to patients and community members to promote overall well-being and quality of life.
3. Improve effective communication between patients, health professionals, educational institutions, policy makers and media through application of the tenets of health literacy skills.
4. To promote a health literate societies in Hong Kong and beyond.
5. To advance health literacy in research, education, practice and policy making.

Angela Y.M Leung

Professor,
Director, Centre for Gerontological Nursing & School of Nursing,
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Email: angela.ym.leung@polyu.edu.hk

Professor Leung is an awardee of the Hartford Geriatric Scholars Program at the John Hopkins University in 2014, Executive Board member, Asia Health Literacy Association, Associate Director of the Sau Po Center on Aging of the University of Hong Kong, Fellow of the College of Gerontological Nursing of the Hong Kong Provisional Academy of Nursing, Council Member of the Hong Kong Association of Gerontology, Honorary Nursing Advisor in the Department of Family Medicine and Primary Health Care, Hong Kong East Cluster. An Active researcher with a wide range of publication in health literacy and health promotion. She has developed two health literacy screening tools, Chinese health literacy scale for diabetes and the Chinese Health Literacy Scale for Chronic Care which are now in the American National Institute of Health national library.

Phillips David R

Chair Professor of Social Policy, Lingnan University

Email: phillips@ln.edu.hk

Chair Professor of Social Policy at Lingnan University( since 1997). Founding Director of the Asia-Pacific Institute of Ageing Studies (APIAS). Formerly, Coordinator of the Asian Ageing Research Network of the Asian Development Research Forum and Director of WHO Collaborating Center in the Human Reproduction Programme, University of Exeter. Currently, Adjunct Professor in the Department of Environment and Geography, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia and in the Department of Health, Aging and Society at McMaster University, Ontario, Canada. He has been an expert adviser on the WHO reviews of ageing and health in the WHO Western Pacific Region. He has over 100 publications, his most recent book being Global Health (Routledge, second edition, 2017). His research and teaching interest are in global health, health care and social aspects of health and welfare including health literacy, and many aspects of ageing and older persons’ wellbeing, including environment and accommodation. He has researched these topics in many countries in the Asia-Pacific, South Asia, Africa, the Caribbean and Europe.

Wong Fu Keung, Daniel

Professor
Department of Social Work and Social Administration
University of Hong Kong

Email: dfkwong@hku.hk

Professor Wong is a social work academic and a clinical psychologist. His research team have been actively conducting research in mental health practice and he is a pioneer in indigenizing the application of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) for Chinese people with depression, anxiety problems, chronic illnesses, gambling problems, drug addictions among the Chinese. Regarding mental health issues, Professor Wong and his team have conducted numerous studies on mental health literacy of Chinese people in Hong Kong, China, Taiwan and Australia, and on Mental Health First Aid for Chinese people in Hong Kong and Australia. He has written over 100 academic papers and 15 books and professional manuals. Prof. Wong and his colleagues have established the Institute of Cognitive Therapy in Hong Kong and Centre for Holistic Health in Melbourne, Australia to provide training for mental health professionals and promote better mental health among Chinese populations. His research Interest includes CBT, evidence-based practice in mental health, mental health promotion, mental health literacy and mental health issues among migrants.

Phoenix Kit-Han Mo

Assistant Professor, JC School of Public Health and Primary Care
Associate Director, Centre for Health Behaviors Research

Email: phoenix.mo@cuhk.edu.hk

Dr. Phoenix Mo is the Assistant Professor of the School of Public Health and Primary Care of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She is a chartered Psychologist of the British Psychological Society and a chartered Scientist of the UK Science Council, an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society and the Hong Kong Psychological Society, as well as the Associate Director of the Centre for Health Behaviors Research of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She has an active interest in Health Psychology and Behavioral Health and her research interests are in the area of e-health, mental health in social minorities and disease populations, Health literacy, stigma and health, HIV prevention and health promoting behaviors.

Patsy Pui Hing CHAU

Associate Professor 
Chair, Knowledge Exchange and External Relations

Hong Kong University

Dr Chau is an Honorary Research Fellow at the Sau Po Centre on Ageing under the Faculty of Social Sciences of The University of Hong Kong. She has published over 50 articles in peer-reviewed journals including Journal of the American Medical Directors Association, Age and Ageing, European Journal of Public Health, and Cerebrovascular Diseases. Her research interests include gerontology, public health, and epidemiology. She is experienced in statistical analyses of large databases. She has published a series of articles on the trends of the common illnesses among the older people in Hong Kong and analyzed avoidable mortality and avoidable hospitalization statistics in various world cities. Recently, she has been working on reduction of dietary sodium intake as a means of hypertension prevention and control. She has developed and validated a health literacy scale for low salt consumption for the Hong Kong population, and is working on trials to reduce dietary sodium intake.

Padmore Adusei Amoah

Assistant Professor
Lingnan University, Hong Kong

Email: pamoah@ln.edu.hk

Dr. Amoah is an Assistant Professor (Research) at Lingnan University, Hong Kong. He holds a PhD in Social Policy (Lingnan University, Hong Kong), an MPhil in Development Studies (NTNU, Norway), and a BSc in Development Planning (KNUST, Ghana). Padmore has strong interests in interdisciplinary research geared at eliminating health-related inequalities. His research interest includes social epidemiology and health services research, especially regarding access to healthcare and health literacy among the general and specific population such as young and disadvantaged youth and older persons. He also has research interests in sexuality and sexual health studies in developing countries. His work embraces both qualitative and quantitative research methods.

Jenny Wang

Assistant Professor, Associate Consultant
Family Medicine and Primary Healthcare

Dr Jenny Wang is an honorary Assistant Professor in Family Physicians (HKU) and a trainer in Hong Kong College of Family Physicians, an Associate Consultant in Family Medicine and Primary Healthcare (Hong Kong West Cluster). She is the programme leader of HKWC DM Risk Assessment and Management Programme (RAMP). Dr. Wang graduated from Peking Union Medical College (PUMC) and received her Family Medicine training in Hong Kong and obtained her fellowships of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP), the Hong Kong College of Family Physicians (HKCFP) and the Hong Kong Academy of Medicine (HKAM). Her research interest is on health literacy issues in the clinical setting.

Xinyi XU

PhD Student
School of Nursing , The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

She received her BSc (Nursing) in 2015 in Peking Union Medical College and MPhil in 2017 from School of Nursing of The University of Hong Kong. Her research interests include gerontology, chronic disease and health literacy. Recently, she helped to develop a video names “Health Literacy Research and Practices in Hong Kong” in 2018, which portrays the current state of health literacy research and practices in Hong Kong.

Adwoa Owusuaa Koduah

RMN, RN, MPhil
School of Nursing, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Adwoa Owusuaa Koduah is a registered mental health nurse with six years nursing experience at the Accra Psychiatric Hospital, Accra, Ghana. Graduated from Hong Kong Polytechnic University in 2018 with an MPhil (Nursing). Member of the Alzheimer’s Association of Ghana and Mental Health Foundation Ghana. Her research interest includes Health Literacy, health promotion, dementia, aging and health. In 2018, she and other researchers developed a video on Health Literacy Research and Practices in Hong Kong.

Tony C. F Huang

Occupational Therapist Manager
The Society of Rehabilitation And Crime Prevention, Hong Kong

Mr Huang is a Registered Occupational Therapist with more than ten years of experience in psychiatric fields, including hospital settings and Non-government organisations (NGOs). He has an active interest in health literacy for mental illness, mental health literacy and training on health literacy enhancement. Recently, he is attempting to develop a health literacy screening tool - Chinese Health Literacy Scale for Mental Illness – multiple-choice version (CHLSMI-MC) under the collaboration with Professor Angela Leung.

Don Nutbeam

The University of Sydney School of Medicine

Email: don.nutbeam@sydney.edu.au

Don Nutbeam is a professor of the Public Health at the University of Sydney and a senior advisor at the Sax Institute. He is a social scientist with over three-decade experience in research. His research focuses on the social and behavioral determinants of health, the development and evaluation of public health interventions and developing and testing health literacy interventions in the UK and Europe, and in Australia. For the past two decades, he has served as an advisor and consultant to the World Health Organization and project leader for the World Bank. He has published two public health books on health promotion and over 100 journal articles in peer-reviewed journals.

If you will like to join the team members of the Hong Kong Office and become a member of our growing network.

Please kindly fill out the AHLA-HK.Office Membership Form.docx and email to sn.ahla@polyu.edu.hk