Pla Estratègic de Recerca i Innovació en Salut (PERIS 2016). Algunes reflexions des de la Medicina Familiar i Comunitària

El propòsit principal del Pla Estratègic de Recerca i Innovació en Salut (PERIS) 2016-2020 és millorar la salut dels ciutadans a partir del coneixement generat per la recerca, és a dir, que es creïn nous coneixements amb la recerca i que aquests arribin, i siguin aplicats eficientment, als pacients individualment o a la població general als quals van destinats. És ben conegut que a l'Atenció Primària és on treballen els professionals més propers als pacients, és el sector que millor coordina les estratègies comunitàries que acaben sent d'abast poblacional, i per tant, en potencials millores dels resultats en salut. En definitiva, l'Atenció Primària és l'àmbit on millor es fa factible la participació del ciutadà en la recerca, i on millor pot revertir la capacitat de translació de la recerca

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Primary Health Care Disease Incidence Rates: 2017 to 2020

We assessed the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain on new cases of diseases and conditions commonly seen in primary care. In 2020, there were significant reductions from 2017-2019 in the annual incidences of hypertension (40% reduction), hypercholesterolemia (36%), type 2 diabetes (39%), chronic kidney disease (43%), ischemic heart disease (48%), benign prostatic hypertrophy (38%), osteoporosis (40%), hypothyroidism (46%), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (50%), alcohol use disorder (46%), benign colon polyps and tumors (42%), and melanomas (45%). Prioritization of COVID-19 care changed the physician-patient relationship to the detriment of face-to-face scheduled visits for chronic disease detection and monitoring, which fell by almost 41%. To return to prepandemic levels of diagnosis and management of chronic diseases, primary health care services should reorganize and carry out specific actions for groups at higher risk

Problemas relacionados con la medicación que causan ingresos hospitalarios

ResumenObjetivoLos problemas relacionados con los medicamentos (PRM) están vinculados al tratamiento farmacológico del paciente e interfieren o pueden interferir con los resultados esperados en su salud. El presente estudio tiene como objetivo determinar la prevalencia de los PRM en los pacientes de un centro de salud urbano que son causa de ingreso en su hospital de referencia, y su evitabilidad.DiseñoEs un estudio observacional de tipo descriptivo y retrospectivo.EmplazamientoCENTRO de Salud Les Corts, que es un centro de salud urbano y docente con una población asignada de 32.318 habitantes.ParticipantesUsuarios del CS Les Corts ingresados en el Hospital Clínico de Barcelona desde agosto de 2005 a enero de 2006.Resultados y mediciones principalesUna pareja de un farmacéutico y un médico de familia analizan las historias clínicas y determinan la presencia o no de PRM. El 13,4% de todas las altas presentan PRM, que en su mayoría están implicados en el ingreso hospitalario (12%). Un 57,3% del total de altas con un PRM como causa del ingreso hospitalario se ha considerado evitable. Los ingresos por PRM se concentran en los servicios de medicina interna, cardiología y neumología. Los problemas de salud motivo de ingreso hospitalario por PRM son mayoritariamente circulatorios (38,5%) y respiratorios (11,5%).ConclusionesEl número de ingresos debidos a problemas relacionados con la medicación es elevado y evitable.AbstractObjectiveDrug related problems (DRP) are health problems associated with the pharmacological treatment of patients and interfere or can interfere with the expected results on their health. The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence of DRP in patients from an urban health centre that lead to hospitalisation, and its prevention.DesignIt is a retrospective, observational and descriptive study.SettingLes Corts Health Centre (HC), which is an urban health and teaching centre with a reference population of 32,318 inhabitants.ParticipantsUsers of the les Corts HC admitted to the Barcelona Hospital Clinic from August 2005 to January 2006.Results and main outcome measurementsA pharmacist and a family doctor analysed the clinical histories and determined whether or not there was a DRP. A DRP was present in 13.4% of all hospital discharges, and 12% were implicated in the hospital admission. It was considered that 57.3% of all the discharges with a DRP as the causing factor in the hospital admission were avoidable. Admissions due to DRP were mainly in internal medicine, cardiology and pneumology. The health problems that lead to hospital admission due to DRP are mainly circulatory (38.5%) and respiratory (11.5%).ConclusionsThe number of hospital admissions due to drug related problems is avoidably high

THE IMPACT OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC ON PRIMARY HEALTHCARE DISEASE INCIDENCE RATES: 2017 TO 2020

We analyzed variations in the annual incidence of the main cardiovascular risk factors, prevalent chronic diseases, common mental health disorders and neoplasms in 2020 compared with 2017-2019. In 2020, there was a significant decrease in the incidence of hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, type 2 diabetes mellitus, chronic kidney disease, ischemic heart disease, benign prostatic hypertrophy, osteoporosis, hypothyroidism, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, alcohol use disorder, benign tumors, and melanomas. Only anxiety disorders increased significantly (IRR 1.16; 95% CI 1.07-1.24). Prioritization of COVID-19 care has changed the doctor-patient relationship to the detriment of face-to-face scheduled visits of chronic disease detection and monitoring protocols.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/167403/1/AFM-126-21_PP.pdfDescription of AFM-126-21_PP.pdf : Main ArticleSEL

Face-to-Face and Tele-Consults: A Study of the Effects on Diagnostic Activity and Patient Demand in Primary Healthcare

Primary healthcare services have changed from face-to-face to tele-consults during the two COVID-19 years. We examined trends before and during the COVID-19 pandemic years based on groups of professionals, patient ages, and the associations with the diagnostic registry. We analyzed proportions for both periods, and ratios of the type of consults in 2017-2019 and 2020-2021 were calculated. The COVID-19 period was examined using monthly linear time trends. The results showed that consults in 2020-2021 increased by 24%. General practitioners saw significant falls in face-to-face consults compared with 2017-2019 (ratio 0.44; 95% CI: 0.44 to 0.45), but the increase was not proportional across age groups; patients aged 15-44 years had 45.8% more tele-consults, and those aged >74 years had 18.2% more. Trends in linear regression models of face-to-face consults with general practitioners and monthly diagnostic activity were positive, while the tele-consult trend was inverse to the trend of the diagnostic registry and face-to-face consults. Tele-consults did not resolve the increased demand for primary healthcare services caused by COVID-19. General practitioners, nurses and primary healthcare professionals require better-adapted tele-consult tools for an effective diagnostic registry to maintain equity of access and answer older patients' needs and priorities in primary healthcare

Prevention of Unplanned Hospital Admissions in Multimorbid Patients Using Computational Modeling: Observational Retrospective Cohort Study

Background: Enhanced management of multimorbidity constitutes a major clinical challenge. Multimorbidity shows well-established causal relationships with the high use of health care resources and, specifically, with unplanned hospital admissions. Enhanced patient stratification is vital for achieving effectiveness through personalized postdischarge service selection. Objective: The study has a 2-fold aim: (1) generation and assessment of predictive models of mortality and readmission at 90 days after discharge; and (2) characterization of patients' profiles for personalized service selection purposes. Methods: Gradient boosting techniques were used to generate predictive models based on multisource data (registries, clinical/functional and social support) from 761 nonsurgical patients admitted in a tertiary hospital over 12 months (October 2017 to November 2018). K-means clustering was used to characterize patient profiles. Results: Performance (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve, sensitivity, and specificity) of the predictive models was 0.82, 0.78, and 0.70 and 0.72, 0.70, and 0.63 for mortality and readmissions, respectively. A total of 4 patients' profiles were identified. In brief, the reference patients (cluster 1; 281/761, 36.9%), 53.7% (151/281) men and mean age of 71 (SD 16) years, showed 3.6% (10/281) mortality and 15.7% (44/281) readmissions at 90 days following discharge. The unhealthy lifestyle habit profile (cluster 2; 179/761, 23.5%) predominantly comprised males (137/179, 76.5%) with similar age, mean 70 (SD 13) years, but showed slightly higher mortality (10/179, 5.6%) and markedly higher readmission rate (49/179, 27.4%). Patients in the frailty profile (cluster 3; 152/761, 19.9%) were older (mean 81 years, SD 13 years) and predominantly female (63/152, 41.4%, males). They showed medical complexity with a high level of social vulnerability and the highest mortality rate (23/152, 15.1%), but with a similar hospitalization rate (39/152, 25.7%) compared with cluster 2. Finally, the medical complexity profile (cluster 4; 149/761, 19.6%), mean age 83 (SD 9) years, 55.7% (83/149) males, showed the highest clinical complexity resulting in 12.8% (19/149) mortality and the highest readmission rate (56/149, 37.6%). Conclusions: The results indicated the potential to predict mortality and morbidity-related adverse events leading to unplanned hospital readmissions. The resulting patient profiles fostered recommendations for personalized service selection with the capacity for value generation

Gender differences in GPs' strategies for coping with the stress of the COVID-19 pandemic in Catalonia: A cross-sectional study

The Covid-19 pandemic has increased stress levels in GPs, who have resorted to different coping strategies to deal with this crisis. Gender differences in coping styles may be contributing factors in the development of psychological distress.To identify differences by gender and by stress level in coping strategies of GPs during the Covid-19 pandemic.A cross-sectional, web-based survey conducted with GPs in Catalonia (Spain), in June-July 2021. via the institution's email distribution list, all GPs members of the Catalan Society of Family and Community Medicine were invited to complete a survey assessing sociodemographic, health and work-related characteristics, experienced stress (Stress scale of the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scales-DASS 21) and the frequency of use of a range of coping strategies (Brief-COPE) classified as problem-focused, emotion-focused and avoidant strategies, some of which are adaptive and others maladaptive. We compared the scores of each strategy by gender and stress level using Student's t-test.Of 4739 members, 522 GPs participated in the study (response rate 11%; 79.1% women; mean age = 46.9?years, SD?=?10.5). Of these, 41.9% reported moderate-severe stress levels. The most common coping strategies were acceptance, active coping, planning, positive reframing and venting. More frequently than men, women resorted to emotional and instrumental support, venting, distraction and self-blame, whereas men used acceptance and humour more commonly than women. Moderate-severe stress levels were associated with non-adaptive coping, with increased use of avoidance strategies, self-blame, religion and venting, and decreased use of positive reframing and acceptance.The most common coping strategies were adaptive and differed by gender. However, highly stressful situations caused maladaptive strategies to emerge

Cost-accuracy and patient experience assessment of blood pressure monitoring methods to diagnose hypertension: A comparative effectiveness study

Studies of the diagnosis of hypertension have emphasized long-term cost-effectiveness analysis, but the patient experience and costs of blood pressure monitoring methods at the diagnosis stage remain unclear. We studied four diagnostic methods: a new 1 h-automated office blood pressure (BP) monitoring, office BP measurement, home BP monitoring, and awake-ambulatory BP monitoring.We carried out a comparative effectiveness study of four methods of diagnosing hypertension in 500 participants with a clinical suspicion of hypertension from three primary healthcare (PHC) centers in Barcelona city (Spain). We evaluated the time required and the intrinsic and extrinsic costs of the four methods. The cost-accuracy ratio was calculated and differences between methods were assessed using ANOVA and Tukey's honestly significant difference (HSD) post-hoc test. Patient experience data were transformed using Rasch analysis and re-scaled from 0 to 10.Office BP measurement was the most expensive method (€156.82, 95% CI: 156.18-157.46) and 1 h-automated BP measurement the cheapest (€85.91, 95% CI: 85.59-86.23). 1 h-automated BP measurement had the best cost-accuracy ratio (€ 1.19) and office BP measurement the worst (€ 2.34). Home BP monitoring (8.01, 95% CI: 7.70-8.22), and 1 h-automated BP measurement (7.99, 95% CI: 7.80-8.18) had the greatest patient approval: 66.94% of participants would recommend 1 h-automated BP measurement as the first or second option.The relationship between the cost-accuracy ratio and the patient experience suggests physicians could use the new 1 h-automated BP measurement as the first option and awake-ambulatory BP monitoring in complicated cases and cease diagnosing hypertension using office BP measurement.Copyright © 2022 González-de Paz, Kostov, Freixa, Herranz, Lagarda, Ortega, Pérez, Porcar, Sánchez, Serrato, Vidiella and Sisó-Almirall

Differential methylation of TCF7L2 promoter in peripheral blood DNA in newly diagnosed, drug-naïve patients with type 2 diabetes

TCF7L2 is the susceptibility gene for Type 2 diabetes (T2D) with the largest effect on disease risk that has been discovered to date. However, the mechanisms by which TCF7L2 contributes to the disease remain largely elusive. In addition, epigenetic mechanisms, such as changes in DNA methylation patterns, might have a role in the pathophysiology of T2D. This study aimed to investigate the differences in terms of DNA methylation profile of TCF7L2 promoter gene between type 2 diabetic patients and age- and Body Mass Index (BMI)- matched controls. We included 93 type 2 diabetic patients that were recently diagnosed for T2D and exclusively on diet (without any pharmacological treatment). DNA was extracted from whole blood and DNA methylation was assessed using the Sequenom EpiTYPER system. Type 2 diabetic patients were more insulin resistant than their matched controls (mean HOMA IR 2.6 vs 1.8 in controls, P<0.001) and had a poorer beta-cell function (mean HOMA B 75.7 vs. 113.6 in controls, P<0.001). Results showed that 59% of the CpGs analyzed in TCF7L2 promoter had significant differences between type 2 diabetic patients and matched controls. In addition, fasting glucose, HOMA-B, HOMA-IR, total cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol correlated with methylation in specific CpG sites of TCF7L2 promoter. After adjustment by age, BMI, gender, physical inactivity, waist circumference, smoking status and diabetes status uniquely fasting glucose, total cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol remained significant. Taken together, newly diagnosed, drug-naïve type 2 diabetic patients display specific epigenetic changes at the TCF7L2 promoter as compared to age- and BMI-matched controls. Methylation in TCF7L2 promoter is further correlated with fasting glucose in peripheral blood DNA, which sheds new light on the role of epigenetic regulation of TCF7L2 in T2D

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation skill maintenance for primary care staff: brief training sessions with feedback

Objetivo. Los dispositivos de retroalimentación en sesiones breves facilitan el aprendizaje en reanimación cardiopulmonar (RCP), pero nunca se han probado para formación en atención primaria (AP). El objetivo fue determinar si estas sesiones mejoran las habilidades de RCP en formación continuada en profesionales de AP. Método. Estudio prospectivo aleatorizado con 2 grupos de intervención (G1 y G2) y 1 grupo control (G3) en función de las personas que recibían la retroalimentación: G1: instructor y alumno, G2: solamente instructor, G3: ni instructor ni alumno. Todos recibieron 10 minutos de formación teórica común y 6 minutos de formación práctica según grupo, utilizando maniquí Annie QCPR® (Laerdal) conectado al programa de retroalimentación Skillreporter® (Laerdal). Se midieron los resultados, antes y después de la instrucción y a los 6 meses. La variable de resultado principal fue la puntuación total RCP y las variables secundarias fueron 6 relacionadas con compresión y 5 con ventilación. Resultados. La variable de resultado principal mejoró en ambos grupos (G1 y G2) respecto al control (G3). La mayoría de las variables secundarias mejoraron después de la formación. Los grupos de intervención fueron superiores al de control en la puntuación en compresión (G1: p = 0,012), la profundidad media compresiones (G1: p = 0,001, y G2: p = 0,022), el número compresiones con profundidad adecuada (G1: p = 0,026 y G2: p = 0,019) y el número ventilaciones con volumen adecuado (G1: p = 0,033). No hubo diferencias entre grupos intervención en ninguna variable. A los 6 meses, los valores de todas las variables fueron ligeramente superiores a los basales, sin diferencias entre grupos. Conclusiones. Las sesiones breves con retroalimentación son útiles para formación en RCP en AP, pero su validez no es duradera