Assessment of oral health care among the institutionalized elderly caregivers

Introduction: The importance of oral hygiene among the elderly cannot be overlooked, providing physical and psychological well-being, increasing self-esteem and maintaining general health, based on the relationship between oral health and general health. Objectives: The aim of this study consisted of the assessment of the oral health care developed by the caregivers towards their institutionalized elderly in order to understand the necessities of the elderly people and their caregivers. Design and Methods: A cross-sectional study was developed based on a convenience sample that included a final sample of 17 caregivers of institutionalized individuals with 65 years of age or over. It was collected information based on oral hygiene habits, oral health problems, and the role of caregivers in this population and general assessment of oral health status. A questionnaire was developed and applied in the form of an interview directly to the caregivers of the nursing homes Viscondessa São Caetano and Mariana Seixas Foundation in Viseu, Portugal. Results: When asked, caregivers reported that it is rare that the elderly complain of pain or discomfort caused by oral/dental problems. This can also be explained due to the difficulty of communication and the level of dementia that the elderly may present. Regarding dental prostheses, the caregivers considered that the elderly only sometimes or rarely it is that they sanitize them well, which demonstrates the clear need to define better primary prevention strategies for this specific population, passing mainly by oral health education and promotion among the caregivers. They also mentioned that they almost always remove the prosthesis to sleep, which a satisfactory point is considering that the nocturnal rest of the prosthesis consists of a way to avoid the appearance of pathologies such as prosthetic stomatitis. Conclusions: Oral health training is necessary in the elderly and their caregivers, and greater support is also needed when they perform oral hygiene in order to improve their general condition oral health. It is important to highlight the positive fact that the elderly, increasingly, do the nocturnal rest of the dental prosthesis.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Validation of the Portuguese Version of the Scleroderma Health Assessment Questionnaire

Funding Information: No funding was received for conducting this study. CEISUC/CIBB is funded by national funds through FCT, Foundation for Science and Technology, I.P., under the Multiannual Financing of R&D Units 2020–2023. Publisher Copyright: © 2023 by the authors.The Health Assessment Questionnaire Disability Index (HAQ-DI) was completed with five visual analog scales to assess systemic sclerosis (SSc) called Scleroderma HAQ (SHAQ). We performed a validation of the European Portuguese version of SHAQ for patients with SSc. Patients with different forms of SSc from five Hospital Centers were invited. The reliability of the Portuguese SHAQ was evaluated by internal consistency and by test–retest reliability. Content validity was checked by two rheumatologists and by a panel of patients. Construct validity was assessed by structural validity and by known-groups hypothesis tests. Criterion validity was addressed with selected dimensions from the UCLA GIT 2.0, the SF-36v2, and the EuroQoL EQ-5D-5L. A total of 102 SSc patients agreed to participate, 31 of which answered to the retest. HAQ-DI demonstrated high internal consistency reliability (α = 0.866) and SHAQ also showed high test–retest reliability (ICC 0.61–0.95). We evidenced the unidimensionality of all VASs. HAQ-DI scores were worse in males, patients older than 65 years, and individuals with a diffuse form of SSc. Criterion validity was mainly evidenced through the correlation between the HAQ-DI and SF-36v2 physical summary measure (r = −0.688) and EQ-5D-5L index score (r = −0.723). Likewise, the SHAQ overall disease severity VAS was also correlated with SF-36v2 physical summary measure (r = −0.628). Mental score correlations were smaller. With the exception of the Raynaud’s VAS, all the other VASs correlated well with similar clinical variables. This paper provides evidence to demonstrate how reliable and valid the European Portuguese version of SHAQ is, to be used in SSc patients to assess the clinical severity under the perspective of patients.publishersversionpublishe

Fatores associados à amamentação na primeira hora de vida

OBJETIVO: Identificar fatores associados à amamentação na primeira hora de vida (Passo 4 da Iniciativa Hospital Amigo da Criança). MÉTODOS: Foi realizado estudo transversal com amostra representativa de parturientes em maternidades do Rio de Janeiro, RJ, entre 1999 e 2001. Foram excluídos recém-nascidos ou mães com restrição ao aleitamento materno, resultando em amostra de 8.397 binômios. Foi adotado modelo Poisson com efeitos aleatórios ao nível das maternidades, em abordagem hierarquizada com três níveis: distal, intermediário e proximal para características maternas, do recém-nascido, e de assistência ao pré-natal e hospitalar. RESULTADOS: Amamentaram na primeira hora de vida 16% das mães. O aleitamento materno nesse período foi menos prevalente entre os recém-nascidos com intercorrências imediatas após o parto (RP = 0,47; IC99% 0,15;0,80); entre as mães que não tiveram contato com os recém-nascidos na sala de parto (RP = 0,62; IC99% 0,29;0,95), as que tiveram parto cesariano (RP = 0,48; IC99% 0,24;0,72); e cujo parto ocorreu em maternidade privada (RP = 0,06; IC99% 0,01;0,19) ou conveniada com o Sistema Único de Saúde (RP = 0,16; IC99% 0,01;0,30). O efeito de contexto das maternidades foi estatisticamente significativo. CONCLUSÕES: Em nível individual, a amamentação na primeira hora de nascimento foi prejudicada por práticas inadequadas nas maternidades, em particular as privadas e conveniadas com o Sistema Único de Saúde. O efeito de grupo das maternidades e a ausência de fatores individuais maternos que expliquem o desfecho sugerem que as mães têm pouco ou nenhum poder de decisão sobre essa amamentação e dependem das práticas institucionais vigentes nas maternidades

SARS-CoV-2 introductions and early dynamics of the epidemic in Portugal

Genomic surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 in Portugal was rapidly implemented by the National Institute of Health in the early stages of the COVID-19 epidemic, in collaboration with more than 50 laboratories distributed nationwide. Methods By applying recent phylodynamic models that allow integration of individual-based travel history, we reconstructed and characterized the spatio-temporal dynamics of SARSCoV-2 introductions and early dissemination in Portugal. Results We detected at least 277 independent SARS-CoV-2 introductions, mostly from European countries (namely the United Kingdom, Spain, France, Italy, and Switzerland), which were consistent with the countries with the highest connectivity with Portugal. Although most introductions were estimated to have occurred during early March 2020, it is likely that SARS-CoV-2 was silently circulating in Portugal throughout February, before the first cases were confirmed. Conclusions Here we conclude that the earlier implementation of measures could have minimized the number of introductions and subsequent virus expansion in Portugal. This study lays the foundation for genomic epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2 in Portugal, and highlights the need for systematic and geographically-representative genomic surveillance.We gratefully acknowledge to Sara Hill and Nuno Faria (University of Oxford) and Joshua Quick and Nick Loman (University of Birmingham) for kindly providing us with the initial sets of Artic Network primers for NGS; Rafael Mamede (MRamirez team, IMM, Lisbon) for developing and sharing a bioinformatics script for sequence curation (https://github.com/rfm-targa/BioinfUtils); Philippe Lemey (KU Leuven) for providing guidance on the implementation of the phylodynamic models; Joshua L. Cherry (National Center for Biotechnology Information, National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health) for providing guidance with the subsampling strategies; and all authors, originating and submitting laboratories who have contributed genome data on GISAID (https://www.gisaid.org/) on which part of this research is based. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not reflect the view of the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Health and Human Services, or the United States government. This study is co-funded by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia and Agência de Investigação Clínica e Inovação Biomédica (234_596874175) on behalf of the Research 4 COVID-19 call. Some infrastructural resources used in this study come from the GenomePT project (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-022184), supported by COMPETE 2020 - Operational Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalisation (POCI), Lisboa Portugal Regional Operational Programme (Lisboa2020), Algarve Portugal Regional Operational Programme (CRESC Algarve2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), and by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

MAMMALS IN PORTUGAL : A data set of terrestrial, volant, and marine mammal occurrences in P ortugal

Mammals are threatened worldwide, with 26% of all species being includedin the IUCN threatened categories. This overall pattern is primarily associatedwith habitat loss or degradation, and human persecution for terrestrial mam-mals, and pollution, open net fishing, climate change, and prey depletion formarine mammals. Mammals play a key role in maintaining ecosystems func-tionality and resilience, and therefore information on their distribution is cru-cial to delineate and support conservation actions. MAMMALS INPORTUGAL is a publicly available data set compiling unpublishedgeoreferenced occurrence records of 92 terrestrial, volant, and marine mam-mals in mainland Portugal and archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira thatincludes 105,026 data entries between 1873 and 2021 (72% of the data occur-ring in 2000 and 2021). The methods used to collect the data were: live obser-vations/captures (43%), sign surveys (35%), camera trapping (16%),bioacoustics surveys (4%) and radiotracking, and inquiries that represent lessthan 1% of the records. The data set includes 13 types of records: (1) burrowsjsoil moundsjtunnel, (2) capture, (3) colony, (4) dead animaljhairjskullsjjaws, (5) genetic confirmation, (6) inquiries, (7) observation of live animal (8),observation in shelters, (9) photo trappingjvideo, (10) predators dietjpelletsjpine cones/nuts, (11) scatjtrackjditch, (12) telemetry and (13) vocalizationjecholocation. The spatial uncertainty of most records ranges between 0 and100 m (76%). Rodentia (n=31,573) has the highest number of records followedby Chiroptera (n=18,857), Carnivora (n=18,594), Lagomorpha (n=17,496),Cetartiodactyla (n=11,568) and Eulipotyphla (n=7008). The data setincludes records of species classified by the IUCN as threatened(e.g.,Oryctolagus cuniculus[n=12,159],Monachus monachus[n=1,512],andLynx pardinus[n=197]). We believe that this data set may stimulate thepublication of other European countries data sets that would certainly contrib-ute to ecology and conservation-related research, and therefore assisting onthe development of more accurate and tailored conservation managementstrategies for each species. There are no copyright restrictions; please cite thisdata paper when the data are used in publications.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Mammals in Portugal: a data set of terrestrial, volant, and marine mammal occurrences in Portugal

Mammals are threatened worldwide, with ~26% of all species being included in the IUCN threatened categories. This overall pattern is primarily associated with habitat loss or degradation, and human persecution for terrestrial mammals, and pollution, open net fishing, climate change, and prey depletion for marine mammals. Mammals play a key role in maintaining ecosystems functionality and resilience, and therefore information on their distribution is crucial to delineate and support conservation actions. MAMMALS IN PORTUGAL is a publicly available data set compiling unpublished georeferenced occurrence records of 92 terrestrial, volant, and marine mammals in mainland Portugal and archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira that includes 105,026 data entries between 1873 and 2021 (72% of the data occurring in 2000 and 2021). The methods used to collect the data were: live observations/captures (43%), sign surveys (35%), camera trapping (16%), bioacoustics surveys (4%) and radiotracking, and inquiries that represent less than 1% of the records. The data set includes 13 types of records: (1) burrows | soil mounds | tunnel, (2) capture, (3) colony, (4) dead animal | hair | skulls | jaws, (5) genetic confirmation, (6) inquiries, (7) observation of live animal (8), observation in shelters, (9) photo trapping | video, (10) predators diet | pellets | pine cones/nuts, (11) scat | track | ditch, (12) telemetry and (13) vocalization | echolocation. The spatial uncertainty of most records ranges between 0 and 100 m (76%). Rodentia (n =31,573) has the highest number of records followed by Chiroptera (n = 18,857), Carnivora (n = 18,594), Lagomorpha (n = 17,496), Cetartiodactyla (n = 11,568) and Eulipotyphla (n = 7008). The data set includes records of species classified by the IUCN as threatened (e.g., Oryctolagus cuniculus [n = 12,159], Monachus monachus [n = 1,512], and Lynx pardinus [n = 197]). We believe that this data set may stimulate the publication of other European countries data sets that would certainly contribute to ecology and conservation-related research, and therefore assisting on the development of more accurate and tailored conservation management strategies for each species. There are no copyright restrictions; please cite this data paper when the data are used in publications