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Article History

Received: 19 July 2018

Accepted: 14 January 2019

First Online: 24 January 2019

Ethics approval and consent to participate

: Ethical approval for this RCT was obtained by the Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) of the Hong Kong Institute of Education (HREC number 2015–2016-0324). The study was prospectively registered in the Clinical Trials Registry of the Center for Clinical Research and Biostatistics (CCRB) recommended by the World Health Organization (Primary Registry and Trial Identifying Number ChiCTR-IIC-17010349, secondary CCRB trial number CUHK_CCRB00543). After having been informed about the study in written form and having had the opportunity to clarify any questions arising with the research team, participants signed the informed consent form, containing that they were fully informed about the purpose, procedures, risks and benefits of the study, that they understood the information, that their anonymized data may be used for research and publications, that they could withdraw at any time without negative consequences, and that their participation is voluntary.

: Not applicable.

: Prof. Keel-Lee Chou, the senior author of this study protocol and PI of the trial, is also a section editor for BMC Geriatrics, which might bear potential for a conflict of interest. Prof. Chou was, however, not involved in the journal’s editorial process of this study protocol. The authors declare that they have no further competing interests.

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