Dr Maggie Kwok joined the School of Public Health and earned her Ph.D. degree in Public Health from the University of Hong Kong. She was on the Takemi Fellowship Program in International Health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in 2014-15 and was on the Health and Medical Research Fund (HMRF) fellowship training at the Stanford University in 2017-2018.

Dr Kwok is focusing on developing new interventions to promote global healthy aging and longevity through more effective prevention of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and more sustainable progression of health equity. Building on several, large, on-going Hong Kong Chinese cohorts (the “Children of 1997” birth cohort, the FAMILY cohort and the Elderly Health Service cohort), Dr Kwok is exploiting differences between East and West to gain new insights about health from the life course perspective, as well as considering how Hong Kong can act as a sentinel for other rapidly developing Chinese mega-cities.

Dr Kwok is interested broadly in unravelling the links between exposures across various life stages and subsequent chronic diseases with aging, informed by insights from the evolutionary biology theory. Specifically, Dr Kwok is currently explicating the roles and relevance of somatotrophic axis and its drivers in different patterns of major NCDs including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, depression, and Alzheimer’s disease, between China and the West. Further, she is investigating biological and psychosocial pathways (e.g. cortisol or delay discounting) that underlie persistent health inequalities across socioeconomic groups. She is interested in the interplay between physical and mental health, so as to identify which is the most effective target of intervention.

Dr Kwok has also examined the short- and medium-term health consequences of early life exposures, posited by the developmental origins of health and disease. She has investigated secular trends in blood pressure and body mass index in children and adolescents. She has examined the contribution of different growth patterns and social determinants of health to adolescent blood pressure and body mass index. She has generated new information about key public health issues, such as the role of breastfeeding and second-hand smoke exposure in child health.

Dr Kwok is the Principal Investigator of a 5-year HMRF commissioned project on the Elderly Health Service cohort.

1. Kwok M.K., Leung G.M., Au Yeung S.L., Schooling C.M. Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency and metabolic profiling in adolescence from the Chinese birth cohort: "Children of 1997". International Journal of Cardiology. 2019;281:146-9. [JCR IF 3.471; In "Medicine, Research & Experimental" discipline, it ranks 48th out of 136 journals]
2. Kwok M.K., Lin S.L., Schooling C.M. Re-thinking Alzheimer's disease therapeutic targets using gene-based tests. EBioMedicine. 2018;37:461-470. [JCR IF 6.183; In "Medicine, Research & Experimental" discipline, it ranks 13th out of 133 journals]
3. Kwok M.K., Schooling C.M., Subramanian S.V., Leung G.M., Kawachi I. Opposite associations of household income with adolescent body mass index according to migrant status: Hong Kong's "Children of 1997" birth cohort. International Journal of Obesity. 2018;42(6):1221-1229. [JCR IF 5.159; In "Nutrition & Dietetics" discipline, it ranks 10th  out of 83 journals]
4. Kwok M.K., Tu Y.K., Kawachi I., Schooling C.M. Age-period-cohort analysis of trends in blood pressure and body mass index in children and adolescents in Hong Kong. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. 2017; 71(12):1161-1168. [JCR IF 3.872; In "Public, Environmental & Occupational Health" discipline, it ranks 10th out of 164 journals]
5. Kwok M.K., Leung G.M., Chung T.W.H., Lee K.K.Y., Schooling C.M. Divergent secular trends in blood pressure and body mass index in children and adolescents in Hong Kong. Scientific Reports. 2017;7(1):4763. [IF (4.25 in 2016)] [JCR IF 4.011; In "Multidisciplinary Sciences" discipline, it ranks 15th out of 69 journals]
6. Kwok M.K., Leung G.M., Schooling C.M. Habitual coffee consumption and risk of type 2 diabetes, ischemic heart disease, depression and Alzheimer's disease: a Mendelian randomization study. Scientific Reports. 2016;6:36500. [JCR IF 4.011; In "Multidisciplinary Sciences" discipline, it ranks 15th out of 69 journals]
7. Kwok M.K., Schooling C.M., Subramanian S.V., Leung G.M., Kawachi I. Pathways from parental educational attainment to adolescent blood pressure. Journal of Hypertension. 2016; 34(9):1787-95. [JCR IF 4.099; In "Peripheral Vascular Disease" discipline, it ranks 11th out of 65 journals]
8. Kwok M.K., Subramanian S.V., Leung G.M., Schooling C.M. Household income and adolescent blood pressure in a Chinese birth cohort: "Children of 1997". Social Science & Medicine. 2015; 144:88-95. [JCR IF 3.087; In "Social Sciences, Biomedical" discipline, it ranks 3rd out of 45 journals]
9. Kwok M.K., Freeman G., LIN S., Lam T.H. and Schooling C.M. Simulated growth trajectories and blood pressure in adolescence: Hong Kong's Chinese birth cohort. Journal of Hypertension. 2013; 31(9):1785-97. [JCR IF 4.099; In "Peripheral Vascular Disease" discipline, it ranks 11th out of 65 journals]
10. Kwok M.K., Schooling C.M., Lam T.H. and Leung G.M. Does breastfeeding protect against childhood overweight? Hong Kong's 'Children of 1997' birth cohort. International Journal of Epidemiology. 2010; 39(1):297-305. [JCR IF 7.339; In Public, Environmental & Occupational Health" discipline, it ranks 6th out of 185 journals]