J Community Health

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the fourth leading cause of death in Puerto Rico. Using multi-media resources and in-person education may be an effective approach to improve knowledge and awareness of AD. The Un Caf\uc3\ua9 por el Alzheimer program in Puerto Rico incorporates an education component at coffee shops and a social media campaign using Facebook. The current study evaluates this initiative through an analysis of pre/post education survey results and social media content and use. Surveys contained close-ended and open-ended questions to understand participants' perceptions and knowledge about AD. Post-education surveys also included questions related to program satisfaction. Social media analysis of the Facebook community page examined posts from March 1 to September 30, 2015. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze survey and Facebook data. Four education sessions were conducted with a total of 212 participants. Fifty-one of the participants completed both pre- and post-surveys. Following the education program participants reported improved knowledge of risk and protective factors. All participants reported learning new information from the program. There were a total of 250 posts on the Un Caf\uc3\ua9 por el Alzheimer community Facebook page; 168 posts related to AD. The Facebook page reached 294,109 people, with 9963 page likes, 610 comments, 17,780 post clicks, and 3632 shares. There was an average increase of 64.8\uc2\ua0% in number of people reached by the Facebook page following the education sessions. The approach of combining social media resources and in-person education is beneficial to increase public awareness of AD and disseminate health information.U48 DP005000/DP/NCCDPHP CDC HHS/United States2016-10-01T00:00:00Z26983930PMC501143

Peptide-based microcapsules obtained by self-assembly and microfluidics as controlled environments for cell culture

Funding for this study was provided by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, grant PTDC/EBB-BIO/ 114523/2009). D. S. Ferreira gratefully acknowledges FCT for the PhD scholarship (SFRH/BD/44977/2008)