Obesidade no 1º ciclo : desenho e implementação de um programa de intervenção num estudo transversal

A obesidade é, nos dias de hoje, considerada uma doença epidémica sendo que nas crianças e jovens, é uma agravante, na medida em que, o seu crescimento e desenvolvimento será negativamente influenciado. Segundo WHO (2012) a obesidade mais do que duplicou desde 1980, sendo que em 2008, 1,4 biliões de pessoas acima de 20 anos têm excesso de peso, e destas, 200 milhões de homens e 300 milhões de mulheres são obesas. Em 2010 mais de 40 milhões de crianças menores que cinco anos têm excesso de peso. O objetivo do presente estudo é aplicar e verificar se um programa de intervenção de atividade física em crianças contribui para combater o sedentarismo e a obesidade. A amostra é constituída por crianças com idades compreendidas entre os 8 e 10 anos, que frequentam o 1º ciclo de duas escolas do concelho de Braga. Fazem parte desta amostra 200 crianças de ambos os sexos. O estudo baseia-se na aplicação de um programa de intervenção de atividade física estruturada e com o aconselhamento aos encarregados de educação sobre hábitos alimentares saudáveis. Este programa será aplicado ao grupo experimental, sendo que o segundo (grupo controlo) não será intervencionado. Pretende-se avaliar antes e depois da intervenção, a atividade física com aplicação de um questionário e a determinação da aptidão física com aplicação do FitnessGram. Pretendemos com este estudo, demonstrar a importância da atividade física estruturada na prevenção da obesidade, considerando o papel fulcral que a escola deve desempenhar e promover nesta epidemia. Neste contexto, professor de educação física, sendo um agente interveniente na formação dos alunos, deve ter um papel relevante nas estratégias e programas que incidam nesta problemática.CIEC - Centro de Investigação em Estudos da Criança, UM (UI 317 da FCT

Terapia interdisciplinar de mudança do estilo de vida melhora sintomas de compulsão alimentar e insatisfação com a imagem corporal em adultos obesos brasileiros

INTRODUCTION: Obesity is related to numerous negative consequences for physical and mental health. It is often associated with the presence of binge eating disorder, body image dissatisfaction, and general psychopathology. OBJECTIVE: To assess the effects of an interdisciplinary lifestyle therapy on binge eating symptoms, depression, anxiety, body dissatisfaction, and quality of life in obese adults. METHODS: A total of 49 obese adults (body mass index = 37.35±5.82 kg/m²; age = 44.14±10.00 years) participated in a weight-loss program for 6 months. Symptoms suggestive of binge eating, body dissatisfaction, depression, anxiety, and quality of life were measured using self-reported questionnaires. Food intake was assessed using a 3-day dietary record. Data were analyzed using analysis of variance (ANOVA). RESULTS: ANOVA results showed a reduction in binge eating symptoms and in body dissatisfaction results. Depression and anxiety symptoms also decreased, and an increase was observed in quality of life scores. After therapy, a significant improvement was observed in dietary patterns, as well as significant weight loss. A positive correlation was found between variation of anxiety symptoms and lipid intake. Binge eating symptoms were associated with anxiety symptoms and body image dissatisfaction, and body image dissatisfaction correlated positively with anxiety symptoms in males only. In females, a positive correlation was observed between depression and binge eating symptoms. CONCLUSION: The interdisciplinary therapy was effective in promoting positive physical and psychological changes and in improving the quality of life of obese adults.INTRODUÇÃO: A obesidade se relaciona com inúmeras consequências negativas para a saúde física e mental. Está frequentemente associada com transtorno da compulsão alimentar periódica, insatisfação com a imagem corporal e psicopatologia geral. OBJETIVO: Avaliar os efeitos de uma terapia interdisciplinar de mudança do estilo de vida sobre sintomas de compulsão alimentar, depressão, ansiedade, insatisfação com a imagem corporal e qualidade de vida em adultos obesos. MÉTODOS: Um total de 49 adultos obesos (índice de massa corporal = 37.35±5.82 kg/m²; idade = 44.14±10.00 anos) participaram de um programa de redução de peso por 6 meses. Sintomas de compulsão alimentar, insatisfação com a imagem corporal, depressão, ansiedade e qualidade de vida foram avaliados por meio de questionários autoaplicáveis. O consumo alimentar foi avaliado utilizando-se um registro alimentar de 3 dias. Os dados foram analisados utilizando análise de variância (ANOVA). RESULTADOS: Os resultados da ANOVA mostraram uma redução nos sintomas de compulsão alimentar e na insatisfação com a imagem corporal. Os sintomas de depressão e ansiedade também diminuíram, e foi observado um aumento nos escores de qualidade de vida. Após a terapia, foi verificada melhora significativa no perfil nutricional, assim como significativa redução de peso. Foi observada uma correlação positiva entre a variação dos sintomas de ansiedade e o consumo de lipídios. Sintomas de compulsão alimentar apresentaram associação com sintomas de ansiedade e insatisfação com a imagem corporal, e a insatisfação com a imagem corporal se correlacionou positivamente com os sintomas de ansiedade nos homens. Nas mulheres, foi observada uma correlação positiva entre sintomas de depressão e de compulsão alimentar. CONCLUSÃO: A terapia interdisciplinar foi eficaz na promoção de mudanças físicas e psicológicas e proporcionou uma melhor qualidade de vida em adultos obesos.Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP) Graduate Program in Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Obesity Study GroupUniversidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP) Department of Health, Education, and Society Obesity Study GroupUniversidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP) Department of Biosciences Obesity Study GroupUNIFESP, Graduate Program in Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Obesity Study GroupUNIFESP, Department of Health, Education, and Society Obesity Study GroupUNIFESP, Department of Biosciences Obesity Study GroupSciEL

Portugal as a Case Study

Introduction: The International Health Regulations (IHR) were developed to prepare countries to deal with public health emergencies. The spread of SARS-CoV-2 underlined the need for international coordination, although few attempts were made to evaluate the integrated implementation of the IHR's core capacities in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether IHR shortcomings stem from non-compliance or regulatory issues, using Portugal as a European case study due to its size, organization, and previous discrepancies between self-reporting and peer assessment of the IHR's core capacities. Methods: Fifteen public health medical residents involved in contact tracing in mainland Portugal interpreted the effectiveness of the IHR's core capabilities by reviewing the publicly available evidence and reflecting on their own field experience, then grading each core capability according to the IHR Monitoring Framework. The assessment of IHR enforcement considered efforts made before and after the onset of the pandemic, covering the period up to July 2021. Results: Four out of nine core IHR capacities (surveillance; response; risk communication; and human resource capacity) were classified as level 1, the lowest. Only two were graded level 3 (preparedness; and laboratory), the highest. The remaining three) (national legislation, policy & financing; coordination and national focal point communication; and points of entry) were classified as level 2. Conclusion: Portugal exemplifies the extent to which implementation of the IHR was not fully achieved, which has resulted in the underperformance of several core capacities. There is a need to improve preparedness and international cooperation in order to harmonize and strengthen the global response to public health emergencies, with better political, institutional, and financial support.publishersversionpublishersversionpublishe

Identification of clusters of asthma control: A preliminary analysis of the inspirers studies

This work was funded by ERDF (European Regional Development Fund) through the operations: POCI- -01-0145-FEDER-029130 (“mINSPIRERS—mHealth to measure and improve adherence to medication in chronic obstructive respiratory diseases - generalisation and evaluation of gamification, peer support and advanced image processing technologies”) co-funded by the COMPETE2020 (Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalização), Portugal 2020 and by Portuguese Funds through FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia).© 2020, Sociedade Portuguesa de Alergologia e Imunologia Clinica. All rights reserved. Aims: To identify distinct asthma control clusters based on Control of Allergic Rhinitis and Asthma Test (CARAT) and to compare patients’ characteristics among these clusters. Methods: Adults and adolescents (≥13 years) with persistent asthma were recruited at 29 Portuguese hospital outpatient clinics, in the context of two observational studies of the INSPIRERS project. Demographic and clinical characteristics, adherence to inhaled medication, beliefs about inhaled medication, anxiety and depression, quality of life, and asthma control (CARAT, >24 good control) were collected. Hierarchical cluster analysis was performed using CARAT total score (CARAT-T). Results: 410 patients (68% adults), with a median (percentile 25–percentile 75) age of 28 (16-46) years, were analysed. Three clusters were identified [mean CARAT-T (min-max)]: cluster 1 [27(24-30)], cluster 2 [19(14-23)] and cluster 3 [10(2-13)]. Patients in cluster 1 (34%) were characterised by better asthma control, better quality of life, higher inhaler adherence and use of a single inhaler. Patients in clusters 2 (50%) and 3 (16%) had uncontrolled asthma, lower inhaler adherence, more symptoms of anxiety and depression and more than half had at least one exacerbation in the previous year. Further-more, patients in cluster 3 were predominantly female, had more unscheduled medical visits and more anxiety symp-toms, perceived a higher necessity of their prescribed inhalers but also higher levels of concern about taking these inhalers. There were no differences in age, body mass index, lung function, smoking status, hospital admissions or specialist physician follow-up time among the three clusters. Conclusion: An unsupervised method based on CARAT--T, identified 3 clusters of patients with distinct, clinically meaningful characteristics. The cluster with better asthma control had a cut-off similar to the established in the validation study of CARAT and an additional cut-off seems to distinguish more severe disease. Further research is necessary to validate the asthma control clusters identified.publishersversionpublishe

Detection of anti-infliximab antibodies is impacted by antibody titer, infliximab level and IgG4 antibodies: a systematic comparison of three different assays

Background: There is scant information on the accuracy of different assays used to measure anti-infliximab antibodies (ADAs), especially in the presence of detectable infliximab (IFX). We thus aimed to evaluate and compare three different assays for the detection of IFX and ADAs and to clarify the impact of the presence of circulating IFX on the accuracy of the ADA assays.Methods: Blood samples from 79 ulcerative colitis (UC) patients treated with infliximab were assessed for IFX levels and ADAs using three different assays: an in-house assay and two commercial kits, Immundiagnostik and Theradiag. Sera samples with ADAs and undetectable levels of IFX were spiked with exogenous IFX and analyzed for ADAs.Results: The three assays showed 81-96% agreement for the measured IFX level. However, the in-house assay and Immundiagnostik assays detected ADAs in 34 out of 79 samples, whereas Theradiag only detected ADAs in 24 samples. Samples negative for ADAs with Theradiag, but ADA-positive in both the in-house and Immundiagnostik assays, were positive for IFX or IgG4 ADAs. In spiking experiments, a low concentration of exogenous IFX (5 mu g/ml) hampered ADA detection with Theradiag in sera samples with ADA levels of between 3 and 10 mu g/ml. In the Immundiagnostik assay detection interference was only observed at concentrations of exogenous IFX higher than 30 mu g/ml. However, in samples with high levels of ADAs (> 25 mu g/ml) interference was only observed at IFX concentrations higher than 100 mu g/ml in all three assays. Binary (IFX/ADA) stratification of the results showed that IFX+/ADA and IFX-/ADAs + were less influenced by the assay results than the double-positive (IFX+/ADAs+) and double-negative (IFX-/ADAs-) combination.Conclusions: All three methodologies are equally suitable for measuring IFX levels. However, erroneous therapeutic decisions may occur when patients show double-negative (IFX-/ADAs) or double-positive (IFX+/ADAs+) status, since agreement between assays is significantly lower in these circumstances

Histological inflammation in the endoscopically uninflamed mucosa is associated with worse outcomes in limited ulcerative colitis

Background: The Montreal classification categorizes patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) based on their macroscopic disease extent. Independent of endoscopic extent, biopsies through all colonic segments should be retrieved during index colonoscopy. However, the prognostic value of histological inflammation at diagnosis in the inflamed and uninflamed regions of the colon has never been assessed.Methods: This was a multicenter retrospective cohort study of newly diagnosed patients with treatment-naïve proctitis and left-sided UC. Biopsies from at least 2 colonic segments (endoscopically inflamed and uninflamed mucosa) were retrieved and reviewed by 2 pathologists. Histological features in the endoscopically inflamed and uninflamed mucosa were scored using the Nancy score. The primary outcomes were disease complications (proximal disease extension, need for hospitalization or colectomy) and higher therapeutic requirements (need for steroids or for therapy escalation).Results: Overall, 93 treatment-naïve patients were included, with a median follow-up of 44 months (range, 2-329). The prevalence of any histological inflammation above the endoscopic margin was 71%. Proximal disease extension was more frequent in patients with histological inflammation in the endoscopically uninflamed mucosa at diagnosis (21.5% vs 3.4%, P = 0.04). Histological involvement above the endoscopic margin was the only predictor associated with an earlier need for therapy escalation (adjusted hazard ratio, 3.69; 95% confidence interval, 1.05- 13.0); P = 0.04) and disease complications (adjusted hazard ratio, 4.79; 95% confidence interval, 1.10-20.9; P = 0.04).Conclusions: The presence of histological inflammation in the endoscopically uninflamed mucosa at the time of diagnosis was associated with worse outcomes in limited UC.peer-reviewe

A Investigação e a escrita: Publicar sem Perecer

Research and Writing: Publish do not Perish is a collection of texts published in Portuguese, based on the problematization of a five-year experience of advanced extracurricular training in information literacy, writing and scientific publication (i.e., Publish do not Perish: Survive the Stampede). It is a questioning of the role of science in a context that appears to reproduce neoliberalism and the commodification of academia. This work results from the collaboration of national and international authors who consider a diversity of theoretical and empirical fields that deal with that phenomenon. This book aims to identify and question the subsequent problems, trying to point out solutions to the growing malaise in the academic world

Arbustus unedo essence: morphological and genetic characterization of the strawberry tree of Castelo de Paiva

O medronheiro é um arbusto da região mediterrânica que pode ser encontrada por todo o país. Ao contrário do que verifica na região sul do país, no concelho de Castelo de Paiva é atribuída uma reduzida importância económica a esta espécie. Com o intuito de preservar e potenciar a produção desta espécie e contribuir para a dinamização da economia do concelho, procedeu-se à caracterização morfológica e genética de uma amostra da população de medronheiros de Castelo de Paiva. A caracterização morfológica e genética foi realizada para um total de 10 genótipos. Para tal recolheram-se 70 folhas aleatoriamente em cada árvore. Em 40 folhas mediu-se o comprimento, largura, comprimento do pedúnculo, peso fresco, peso seco e determinou-se a área foliar. Dos caracteres morfológicos analisados, aqueles que se revelaram mais úteis na distinção dos vários genótipos foram: comprimento do pedúnculo, peso fresco e peso seco. As restantes 30 folhas foram utilizadas para a caracterização genética. Esta caracterização foi realizada recorrendo a um marcador de DNA, ISSR. Os 5 primeiros exemplaresutilizados na técnica de ISSR demonstraram-se polimórficos. Os resultados da caracterização genética sugerem que a variabilidade genética na população é média a alta.The strawberry tree is a shrub native in the Mediterranean region and it can be found throughout Portugal. Unlike the case in the southern region of the country, in Castelo de Paiva a minor economic importance is given to this species. In order to preserve, to enhance the production of this species and to contribute to the boosting of the economy of the region, we proceeded to the characterization of a small sample population of this fruit tree of Castelo de Paiva in what concerns to its morphology and genetics. The morphological and genetic characterization was performed for a total of 10 genotypes. For this, 70 leaves were randomly collected from each tree. For 40 leaves, it was measured the length, the width, the peduncle length, the wet weight, the dry weight and determined the leaf area. Of the morphological characteristics analyzed, the ones that proved most useful in distinguishing the various genotypes were: the length peduncle, the wet weight and the dry weight. The remaining 30 leaves were used in the genetic characterization. This characterization was performed using a DNA marker, the ISSR. The 5 primers used in the ISSR technique proved to be polymorphic. The results from the genetic characterization suggest that variability in population genetics is medium to high

Identificação de Problemas e Propostas para Melhoria

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