Prof. Roger Yat-nork CHUNG

鍾一諾教授

BA (Johns Hopkins), MHS (Johns Hopkins), PhD (HKU)

Associate Professor 

Email: rychung@cuhk.edu.hk

ORCID: 0000-0003-4407-8208

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Scopus Author ID: 23988568600

• Co-Director, CUHK Centre for Bioethics

• Associate Director, CUHK Institute of Health Equity

• Research Fellow (by courtesy), CUHK Institute of Ageing

• International Health Policy Fellow, National Academy of Medicine (NAM), USA

• Member, American College of Epidemiology

Since joining the School of Public Health and Primary Care (SPHPC) of the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) as a Research Assistant Professor in 2011 and then as an Assistant Professor in 2015, Dr. Roger Chung has been engaged in social epidemiology and health equity research.  A social epidemiologist by training, his research uses the lens of biomedical ethics and justice to examine the social determinants of health and health inequalities.  He is currently examining social determinants such as poverty, deprivation, socioeconomic disadvantage, environmental and housing factors, and migrant status.  He is also particularly interested in the health of the vulnerable populations, including migrant workers and rare disease patients.  Additionally, He is conducting research on aging‐related issues, such as multimorbidity and long‐term/end‐of‐life care.  Collectively, the purpose of his research is to inform health services and public policy, domestically and beyond.

As of 2021, he has had over 100 peer-reviewed publications in top international journals, and has been awarded 2 GRF, 1 HMRF, 2 international grants, 2 direct grants, and 6 research contracts as PI/Co-PI, and 17 grants as Co-I, totaling US$10.7 million (US$0.58 million as PI/Co-PI).    His output also includes various book chapters and consultation reports.  His research has been featured as the cover story of CUHK Newsletter (Nov Issue #507).

Dr. Chung has had frequent cross-disciplinary and international collaborations.  One major achievement was Hong Kong’s first international consortium with world-leading experts from Bristol, York, and New South Wales that established a longitudinal cohort to examine the situation of socioeconomic inequalities of health in Hong Kong, from which numerous publications have ensued (he has co-authored 10 of these).  Moreover, as the Vice Chair of the Worldwide Universities Network (WUN) Public Health Steering Committee with 17 member universities around the world[1], he is spearheading and coordinating the network’s public health research direction.  He was also elected as the National Academy of Medicine International Health Policy Fellow ’19-21 to study social determinants of healthy longevity as well as to serve as a consultant of the consensus study Advancing Pandemic and Seasonal Influenza Vaccine Preparedness and Response.  This study committee included highly influential stakeholders from the World Bank, Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Wellcome Trust, and Sabin Vaccine Institute. 

Dr. Chung is the founding Associate Director of the CUHK Institute of Health Equity established in January 2020 under the co‐directorship of Sir Prof Michael Marmot, Prof Eng‐Kiong Yeoh, and Prof Jean Woo. He is also the Associate Director of the CUHK Centre for Bioethics.  Additionally, he is a founding member of the Centre for Health Systems and Policy Research, a founding member of the Research Centre for Migration and Mobility, an executive member of the Centre for Quality of Life, and Research Fellow (by courtesy) at the CHUK Institute of Ageing.

Moreover, Dr. Chung has been involved in two Government commissioned policy projects, one Hospital Authority consultancy study, and an NGO-commissioned study.  With his professional knowledge, he also founded the Hong Kong Life and Death Studies Association, a non-governmental organization of young professionals with the mission to innovate life and death education and end-of-life care, and served as its Vice President.  In 2019, he co-edited a public education book What is Life and Death Education?, which won two “Ten Best Books to Read” Awards as the third (eighth) most recommended reading by secondary teachers (students). 

​Furthermore, he has been actively involved with University‐, College‐, Faculty‐ and School‐level services as well as external social services with considerable public impact – he is the Vice President of Hong Kong Life and Death Studies Association (香港生死學協會), a social enterprise integrating professional knowledge and ideas from a wide range of young professionals in innovating life and death education, advance care planning, long-term care and after‐death arrangements in Hong Kong; and he is a co‐host of the only “Life and Death Education” Radio Program in Hong Kong. In 2019, he co-edited a best-selling and award-winning book “What Life and Death Education Talks About” (《生死教育講呢啲》) . Apart from his academic life, he is also an award‐winning and celebrated recording artist/producer.

Dr. Chung obtained the Bachelor degree in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University and Master of Health Science from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in the US in 2005. He further received his Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree from the School of Public Health of the University of Hong Kong in 2011, with his study on the impact of socioeconomic development on population health, from which he also won the Presidential Award for Best Oral Presentation from the Hong Kong College of Community Medicine.

• Health equity, public health ethics, and social epidemiology

  • Social determinants of health (Poverty and deprivation, socioeconomic disadvantage, environmental and housing factors, and migrant status)

  • Health of vulnerable populations (Migrant workers, rare disease patients)

  • Public health justice

• Aging-related research

  • End-of-life and long-term care

  • Multimorbidity

  • Non-communicable, chronic diseases

(* = corresponding author)​

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Health Equity, Public Health Ethics, and Social Epidemiology

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1. Chung RY*, Chung GK, Chan SM, Chan YH, Wong H, Yeoh EK, Allen J, Woo J, Marmot M. Socioeconomic inequality in mental well-being associated with COVID-19 containment measures in a low-incidence Asian globalized city. Scientific Reports. 2021 Nov 30;11(1):23161. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-02342-8.

2. Chung GK, Lai FTT, Yeoh EK, Chung RY*. Gender-specific trends of educational inequality in diagnosed diabetes from 1999 to 2014 in Hong Kong: a serial cross-sectional study of 97,481 community-dwelling Chinese adults. Population Health Metrics. 2021 Oct 10;19(1):37. doi: 10.1186/s12963-021-00268-x.

3. Wang K, Law CK, Zhao J, Hui AY, Yip BH, Yeoh EK, Chung RY*. Measuring health-related social deprivation in small areas: development of an index and examination of its association with cancer mortality. International Journal for Equity in Health. 2021 Sep 27;20(1):216. doi: 10.1186/s12939-021-01545-9.

4. Chung GKK, Chan SM, Chan YH, Woo J, Wong H, Wong SY, Yeoh EK, Marmot M, Chung RY*.  Socioeconomic Patterns of COVID-19 Clusters in Low-Incidence City, Hong Kong. Emerging Infectious Diseases. 2021 Sep 1;27(11). (Early release) doi: 10.3201/eid2711.204840.

5. Han Y, Chung RY*. Are both individual-level and county-level social capital associated with individual health? A serial cross-sectional analysis in China, 2010-2015. BMJ Open. 2021 Aug 11;11(8):e044616. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2020-044616.

6. Chung GKK, Lai FTT, Hung H, Yeoh EK, Chung RY*. Differential educational patterning of cardiometabolic risks between women and men among community-dwelling Chinese adults in Hong Kong: the mediating role of obesity. Public Health Nutrition. 2021 May 26:1-33. doi: 10.1017/S1368980021002044.

7. Chung RY*, Chung GK, Marmot M, Allen J, Chan D, Goldblatt P, Wong H, Lai E, Woo J, Yeoh EK, Wong SYS. COVID-19 related health inequality exists even in a city where disease incidence is relatively low: a telephone survey in Hong Kong. J Epidemiol Community Health. 2021 Jan 5:jech-2020-215392. doi: 10.1136/jech-2020-215392.

8. Chung RY*, Marmot M, Mak JK, Gordon D, Chan D, Chung GK, Wong H, Wong SYS. Deprivation is associated with anxiety and stress. A population-based longitudinal household survey among Chinese adults in Hong Kong. J Epidemiol Community Health. 2020 Oct 24:jech-2020-214728. doi: 10.1136/jech-2020-214728.

9. Wu Y, Yan X, Zhao S, Wang J, Ran J, Dong D, Wang M, Fung H, Yeoh EK, Chung RY*.  Association of time to diagnosis with socioeconomic position and geographical accessibility to healthcare among symptomatic COVID-19 patients: A retrospective study in Hong Kong. Health Place. 2020 Nov;66:102465. doi: 10.1016/j.healthplace.2020.102465. Epub 2020 Oct 17.

10. Chung GKK, Lai FTT, Chan DC, Wong H, Yeoh EK, Chung RY*. Socioeconomic disadvantages over the life-course and their influence on obesity among older Hong Kong Chinese adults. Eur J Public Health. 2020 Oct 1;30(5):1013-1018. doi: 10.1093/eurpub/ckaa072. PMID: 32460329

11. Chung RY*, Dong D, Li MM. Socioeconomic gradient in health and the covid-19 outbreak. BMJ. 2020 Apr 1;369:m1329. doi: 10.1136/bmj.m1329.

12. Chung RY*, Erler A, Li HL, Au D. Using a Public Health Ethics Framework to Unpick Discrimination in COVID-19 Responses. Am J Bioeth. 2020 Jul;20(7):114-116. doi: 10.1080/15265161.2020.1779403.

13. Li HL, Jecker NS, Chung RY. Reopening Economies during the COIVD-19 Pandemic: Reasoning about Value Tradeoffs. Am J Bioeth. 2020 Jul;20(7):136-138. doi: 10.1080/15265161.2020.1779406.

14. Chung RY*, Mak JK. Physical and mental health of live-in female migrant domestic workers: A randomly sampled survey in Hong Kong. American Behavioral Scientist. 2020 Mar 18.

15. Chung RY*, Liao T, Fong E. Data collection for migrant live-in domestic workers: A three-stage cluster sampling method. American Behavioral Scientist. 2020 Mar 14. 

16. Chung RY*, Li MM.  Anti-Chinese sentiment during the 2019-nCoV outbreak. Lancet. 2020 Feb 29;395(10225):686-687. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30358-5. Epub 2020 Feb 12.

17. Chung RY*, Marmot M. People in Hong Kong have the longest life expectancy in the world: Some possible explanations. NAM Perspectives. Commentary, National Academy of Medicine, Washington, DC. 2020 Jan 21

18. Chung GK, Dong D, Wong SY, Wong H, Chung RY*. Perceived poverty and health, and their roles in the poverty-health vicious cycle: a qualitative study of major stakeholders in the healthcare setting in Hong Kong.  Int J Equity Health. 2020 Jan 28;19(1):13. doi: 10.1186/s12939-020-1127-7.

19. Chung RY*, Chung GK, Gordon D, Mak JK, Zhang LF, Chan D, Lai FTT, Wong H, Wong SY. Housing affordability effects on physical and mental health: household survey in a population with the world's greatest housing affordability stress. J Epidemiol Community Health. 2019 Nov 5.

20. Chung GK, Lai FT, Yeoh EK, Chung RY*. Educational inequality in physician‐diagnosed hypertension widened and persisted among women from 1999 to 2014 in Hong Kong. Scientific Reports. 2019 Oct 7;9(1):1‐7

21. Chung RY*, Chan DCC, Chau NN, Huang S, Wong H, Wong SY. Poverty affects access to regular source of primary care among the general population in Hong Kong. Social Policy and Administration. 2019; 1– 18 (2018 JCR Social Science Edition: IF = 1.269; Ranking = 26/42 in Social Issues)

22. Griffiths SM, Dong D, Chung RY. Forgotten needs of children left behind by migration. Lancet. 2018 Dec 15;392(10164):2518‐2519.

23. Cheung JTK, Tsoi VWY, Wong KHK, Chung RY*. Abuse and depression among Filipino foreign domestic helpers. A cross‐sectional survey in Hong Kong. Public Health. 2018 Nov 23;166:121‐127.

24. Wong SY, Chung RY, Chan D, Chung GK, Li J, Mak D, Lau M, Tang V, Gordon D, Wong H. What are the financial barriers to medical care among the poor, the sick and the disabled in the Special Administrative Region of China? PLoS One. 2018 Nov 14;13(11):e0205794.

25. Chung GK, Chung RY*, Chan DC, Lai FT, Wong H, Lau MK, Wong SY, Yeoh EK. The independent role of deprivation in abdominal obesity beyond income poverty. A population‐based household survey in Chinese adults. J Public Health (Oxf). 2018 Sep 12.

26. Chung RY*, Lai FTT, Chung GKK, Yip BHK, Wong SYS, Yeoh EK. Socioeconomic disparity in mortality risks widened across generations during rapid economic development in Hong Kong: an ageperiod‐ cohort analysis from 1976 to 2010. Ann Epidemiol. 2018 Jun 13 (published online).

27. Chung RY*, Gordon D, Wong SYS, Chan D, Chung KK, Lau M, Tang V, Wong H. Deprivation is associated with Worse Physical and Mental Health beyond Income Poverty. A Population‐based Household Survey among Chinese Adults. Qual Life Res. 2018 May 14.

28. Chung RY, Griffiths SM. Migration and health in the world: a global public health perspective. Public Health. 2018 May;158:64‐65.

29. Chung RY*, Wong SYS. Health inequality in Hong Kong. China Review‐An Interdisciplinary Journal on Greater China 2015;15(2):91‐118.

30. Chung RY, Mercer S, Lai FT, Yip BH, Wong MC, Wong SY. Socioeconomic Determinants of Multimorbidity: A Population‐Based Household Survey of Hong Kong Chinese. PLoS One. 2015 Oct 9;10(10):e0140040.

31. Li H, Wei X, Ma A, Chung RY*. Inequalities in Health Status among Rural Residents: EQ‐5D Findings from Household Survey China. International Journal for Equity in Health. 2014;13:41

32. Li H, Chung RY*, Wei X, Mou J, Wong SY, Wong MC, Zhang D, Zhang Y, Griffiths S. Comparison of perceived quality amongst migrant and local patients using primary health care delivered by community health centres in Shenzhen, China. BMC Fam Pract. 2014 Apr 29;15(1):76.​

33. Chung RY, Leung GM, Cowling BJ, Schooling CM. Patterns of and hypotheses for infection-related cancers in a Chinese population with rapid economic development. Epidemiology and Infection. 2012 Oct;140(10):1904-19. doi: 10.1017/S0950268811002469.

34. Chung RY, Schooling CM, Cowling BJ, Leung GM. How does socioeconomic development affect risk of mortality? An age-period-cohort analysis from a recently transitioned population in China. American Journal of Epidemiology. 2010 Feb 1;171(3):345-56. doi: 10.1093/aje/kwp378

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​ Aging-related Research

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1. Chung RY*, Lai DCK, Hui AY, Chau PY, Wong EL, Yeoh EK, Woo J. Healthcare inequalities in emergency visits and hospitalisation at the end of life: a study of 395 019 public hospital records. BMJ Supportive and Palliative Care. 2021 May 18. doi: 10.1136/bmjspcare-2020-002800.

2. Chung RY*, Dong D, Chau NNS, Chau PYK, Yeoh EK, Wong ELY. Examining the Gaps and Issues of End-of-Life Care among Older Population through the Lens of Socioecological Model—A Multi-Method Qualitative Study of Hong Kong. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2020 Jul 14;17(14):5072. doi: 10.3390/ijerph17145072.

3. Lai FTT, Guthrie B, Wong SYS, Yip BHK, Chung GKK, Yeoh, EK, Chung RY*. Sex-specific intergenerational trends in morbidity burden and multimorbidity status in Hong Kong community: an age-period-cohort analysis of repeated population surveys. BMJ Open. 2019 Jan 25;9. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2018-023927.

4. Chung RY*, Tsoi KKF, Kyaw MH, Lui AR, Lai FTT, Sung JJ. A population-based age-period-cohort study of colorectal cancer incidence comparing Asia against the West. Cancer Epidemiology. 2019 Jan 16;59:29-36. doi: 10.1016/j.canep.2019.01.007.

5. Chung RY*, Dong D, Chau NNS, Chau PY, Yeoh EK, Wong EL. Examining the Gaps and Issues of End-of-Life Care among Older Population through the Lens of Socioecological Model-A Multi-Method Qualitative Study of Hong Kong.  Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020 Jul 14;17(14):5072. doi: 10.3390/ijerph17145072.

6. Lai FTT, Guthrie B, Wong SYS, Yip BHK, Chung GKK, Yeoh, EK, Chung RY*. Sex‐specific intergenerational trends in morbidity burden and multimorbidity status in Hong Kong community: an age‐period‐cohort analysis of repeated population surveys. BMJ Open. 2019 Jan 25;9.​

7. Chung RY*, Wong EL, Kiang N, Chau PY, Lau JYC, Wong SY, Yeoh EK, Woo JW. Knowledge, Attitudes, and Preferences of Advance Decisions, End‐of‐Life Care, and Place of Care and Death in Hong Kong. A Population‐Based Telephone Survey of 1067 Adults. J Am Med Dir Assoc. 2017 Apr 1;18(4):367.e19‐367.e27.

8. Chung RY, Mercer SW, Yip BHK, Chan SWC, Lai FTT, Wang HHX, Wong MCS, Wong CKM, Sit RWS, Yeoh EK, Wong SYS. The association between types of regular primary care and hospitalization among people with and without multimorbidity. A household survey on 25,780 Chinese. Scientific Reports. 2016 Jul 20;6:29758.

9. Chung RY, Tin KYK, Cowling BJ, Chan KP, Chan WM, Lo SV, Leung GM. Long‐term care cost drivers and expenditure projection to 2036 in Hong Kong. BMC Health Serv Res. 2009 Sep 24;9:172.

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Book Chapters

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1. Chung RY, Yeoh EK. “Chapter 3 – Policy Directions for End-of-Life Care in Hong Kong.” Innovation Impact. The Foundation of Community-Based End-of-life Care in Hong Kong ed. by Chan IKN, Fong CHC, Wong EY, Lou VWQ and Chan CLW. Hong Kong: JCECC; 2019.

2. Chung RY, Wong SYS. “Health Inequality in Hong Kong”. Poverty in a Rich Society ed. by Lau KW, David G. Hong Kong: CUHK Press; 2017.

3. Chung RY and Kim JH. “Chapter 9 – Epidemiology: from Observation to Public Health Action”. Routledge Handbook of Global Public Health in Asia ed. by Griffiths SM, Tang JL and Yeoh EK. pp.118–132. Routledge, London and New York; 2014.

Last Updated: 21 December 2021