Influence of Health Literacy on Maintenance of Exclusive Breastfeeding at 6 Months Postpartum: A Multicentre Study

Data Availability Statement: Please note that the database is in an open repository. You can access the data through this link: http://hdl.handle.net/10234/196606 (accessed on 20 February 2022).Copyright © 2022 by the authors. Background: International organizations recommend initiating breastfeeding within the first hour of life and maintaining exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months. However, worldwide rates of exclusive breastfeeding for 6-month-old infants is far from meeting the goal proposed by the World Health Organization, which is to reach a minimum of 50% of infants. Education is one of the factors affecting the initiation and continuation of breastfeeding, and incidentally, it is also related to lower health literacy. This study explored the influence of health literacy on maintenance of exclusive breastfeeding at 6 months postpartum. Methods: A longitudinal multicenter study with 343 women were recruited between January 2019 and January 2020. The first questionnaire was held during the puerperium (24–48 h) with mothers practicing exclusive breastfeeding, with whom 6-month postpartum breastfeeding follow-up was performed. Socio-demographic, clinical and obstetric variables were collected. Breastfeeding efficiency was assessed using the LATCH breastfeeding assessment tool. The health literacy level was evaluated by the Newest Vital Sign screening tool. A multivariate logistic regression model was used to detect protective factors for early exclusive breastfeeding cessation. Results: One third of the women continued exclusive breastfeeding at 6 months postpartum. Approximately half the participants had a low or inadequate health literacy level. An adequate health literacy level, a high LATCH breastfeeding assessment tool score (>9 points) and being married were the protective factors against exclusive breastfeeding cessation at 6 months postpartum. Conclusion: Health literacy levels are closely related to maintaining exclusive breastfeeding and act as a protective factor against early cessation. A specific instrument is needed to measure the lack of “literacy in breastfeeding”, in order to verify the relationship between health literacy and maintenance of exclusive breastfeeding.Fundación para el Fomento de la Investigación Sanitaria y Biomédica de la Comunitat Valenciana (FISABIO) for the conduction of II Grant on Nursing I&D&I 2020 (UGP-20-250)

Obstetric–Neonatal Care during Birth and Postpartum in Symptomatic and Asymptomatic Women Infected with SARS-CoV-2: A Retrospective Multicenter Study

Data Availability Statement: Data are available upon reasonable request. All necessary data are supplied and available in the manuscript; however, the corresponding author will provide the dataset upon request. All data relevant to the study are included in the article.Copyright © 2022 by the authors. This study analyses the obstetric–neonatal outcomes of women in labour with symptomatic and asymptomatic COVID-19. A retrospective, multicenter, observational study was carried out between 1 March 2020 and 28 February 2021 in eight public hospitals in the Valencian community (Spain). The chi-squared test compared the obstetric–neonatal outcomes and general care for symptomatic and asymptomatic women. In total, 11,883 births were assisted in participating centers, with 10.9 per 1000 maternities (n = 130) infected with SARS-CoV-2. The 20.8% were symptomatic and had more complications both upon admission (p = 0.042) and during puerperium (p = 0.042), as well as transfer to the intensive care unit (ICU). The percentage of admission to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) was greater among offspring of symptomatic women compared to infants born of asymptomatic women (p < 0.001). Compared with asymptomatic women, those with symptoms underwent less labour companionship (p = 0.028), less early skin-to-skin contact (p = 0.029) and greater mother–infant separation (p = 0.005). The overall maternal mortality rate was 0.8%. No vertical transmission was recorded. In conclusion, symptomatic infected women are at increased risk of lack of labour companionship, mother–infant separation, and admission to the ICU, as well as to have preterm births and for NICU admissions.FISABIO grant number UGP-20-24

Correlation between resistance mechanisms in Staphylococcus aureus and cell wall and septum thickening

Ana Bel&eacute;n Garc&iacute;a,1 Jos&eacute; Manuel Vi&ntilde;uela-Prieto,1 Laura L&oacute;pez-Gonz&aacute;lez,1 Francisco Javier Candel1,2 1Department of Clinical Microbiology, Hospital Cl&iacute;nico San Carlos, Complutense University, Madrid, Spain; 2Health Research Institute, Hospital Universitario San Carlos, Madrid, Spain Purpose: The aim of the present study is to examine cell wall and septum thickening of methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA), methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA), and methicillin- and linezolid-resistant S. aureus (MLRSA) isolates by transmission electron microscopy to correlate the association of resistance mechanisms with major changes in the morphology of membrane or septum.Materials and methods: MSSA, MRSA, and MLRSA strains obtained from clinical samples of an outbreak that occurred in 2010 at the Intensive Care Unit of our Hospital were thawed and sown at 37&deg;C in blood agar overnight. After that, they were washed, pelleted, and treated with a fixer solution. Pellets were dehydrated and finally embedded in resin. Transmission electron microscopy was used to characterize cell wall and septum thickening in all isolates. The comparison between the measurements obtained for each group was performed by a Kruskal&ndash;Wallis test and a post hoc Dunn&ndash;Bonferroni&rsquo;s pairwise comparison method.Results: Differences in cell wall and septum thickness were statistically significant (P&lt;0.001 and P&lt;0.001, respectively) between the three groups. Moreover, significant differences were detected in wall and septum thickness between the MSSA and MRSA strains (P&lt;0.001 and P&lt;0.001, respectively) and between the MSSA and MLRSA strains (P&lt;0.001 and P&lt;0.001, respectively) but not between the MRSA and MLRSA strains (P=0.386 and P=0.117).Conclusion: In this analysis, we correlate the resistance mediated by alterations in the cell membrane of S. aureus (methicillin-resistant, for example) with a greater thickness of the wall or septum. The resistance added to linezolid did not determine significant changes in the characteristics of the wall or septum with respect to those strains resistant only to methicillin. Keywords: linezolid-resistant S. aureus, vancomycin intermediate S. aureus, VISA, protein synthesis inhibitor antibiotics, TE