Prenatal dental care: evaluation of professional knowledge of obstetricians and dentists in the cities of Londrina/PR and Bauru/SP, Brazil, 2004

The purpose of this study was to assess the current knowledge and recommendations of obstetricians and dentists as to the dental care to pregnant patients in the cities of Londrina/PR and Bauru/SP, Brazil. Questionnaires were distributed to professionals of both cities, arguing on the following issues: oral health during pregnancy; contact between prenatal care and dental care providers; prenatal fluoride supplementation; selection of therapeutic agents for local anesthesia, pain control and treatment of infection; and dental procedures that can be performed during each trimester. Data were analyzed by frequency of responses and statistical analyses were carried out using X² (type of workplace/service) and t test (time since graduation), significant if

Medicine prescription and local anesthesia for pregnant women: dentist’s profi le from Londrina, PR, Brazil.

Objetivos: a) Identificar o perfil dos cirurgiões-dentistas da cidade de Londrina quanto à prescrição medicamentosa e indicação de anestésicos locais para gestantes. b) Verificar se o tempo de formação ou especialização dos professionais influencia nas respostas corretas segundo a literatura odontológica. Metodologia: Estudo transversal quantitativo e descritivo, onde foram analisados 183 questionários do total distribuído no ano de 2005. Resultados: O Paracetamol foi o analgésico mais recomendado para gestantes (68% dos profissionais). Os antiinflamatórios não foram recomendados às gestantes por 31,1% dos entrevistados assim como o Nimesulide e Piroxicam foram indicados pela mesma porcentagem de profissionais. As Penicilinas foram indicadas por 81,9% como antibiótico de 1ª escolha. A maioria dos profissionais (82,2%) não indicou ansiolíticos às gestantes, porém recomendou a Lidocaína como anestésico associado aos vasoconstrictores. Conclusão: Os profissionais formados até 10 anos e especialistas são os profissionais que apresentaram mais respostas em concordância com a literatura científica, porém existem muitas dúvidas entre os cirurgiões-dentistas especialmente para os clínicos gerais e os profissionais formados há mais de 20 anos. Existe uma clara necessidade de requalificação dos profissionais para que a indicação de medicamentos e anestésicos locais para gestantes seja feita de forma correta e segura.Purposes: a) Identify the profile of dentists from Londrina about drug prescription and local anesthesia indication during pregnancy. b) Verify if professional’s graduation time and specialization degree modulate the achievement of answers in agreement with dental literature. Methods: This cross-sectional descriptive study was performed using 183 validated questionnaires with dentists from Londrina-PR collected from 2004 to 2005. Results: Acetominophen was recommended by 68% of professionals to pregnant women as an analgesic drug. Anti-infl ammatory drugs were not prescribed by 31,1% of the interviewed professionals, however the same number of professionals recommended other non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs, like Piroxicam and Nimesulide. Penicillins were indicated by 81,9% as the first choise of antimicrobial drugs. Most of the professionals did not indicate ansiolitic drugs during pregnancy, but the majority of them recommended Lidocaine and the use of vasoconstrictor associated with local anesthetics. Conclusions: Recent graduated (from less than 10 years ) and especialists were the professionals who had the major agreement to scientific literature. However, there were many doubts among dentists regarding dental prescription for pregnant women, especially from general dentists and older graduated ones. There is a great need of professional requalification to achieve a secure medicine and local anesthesia indication during pregnancy by dentists

Antioxidant intake among Brazilian adults - The Brazilian Osteoporosis Study (BRAZOS): a cross-sectional study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Antioxidant nutrient intake and the lesser formation of free radicals seem to contribute to chronic diseases. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the intake profile of the main dietary antioxidants in a representative sample of the adult Brazilian population and discuss the main consequences of a low intake of these micronutrients on overall health.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The sample comprised 2344 individuals aged 40 years or older from 150 cities and was based on a probabilistic sample from official data. The research was conducted through in-home interviews administered by a team trained for this purpose. Dietary intake information was obtained through 24-h recall. The Nutrition Data System for Research software program was used to analyze data on the intake of vitamins A, C and E, selenium and zinc, which was compared to Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs). Differences in intake according to sex, anthropometrics, socioeconomic status and region were also evaluated. The SPSS statistical package (version 13) was used for the statistical analysis. P-values < 0.05 were considered significant.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Higher proportions of low intake in relation to recommended values were found for vitamin E (99.7%), vitamin A (92.4%) and vitamin C (85.1%) in both genders. Intake variations were found between different regions, which may reflect cultural habits.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These results should lead to the development of public health policies that encourage educational strategies for improving the intake of micronutrients, which are essential to overall health and prevention of non-communicable diseases.</p

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear un derstanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5–7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8–11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world’s most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepre sented in biodiversity databases.13–15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may elim inate pieces of the Amazon’s biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological com munities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple or ganism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region’s vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most ne glected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lostinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear understanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5,6,7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8,9,10,11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world's most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepresented in biodiversity databases.13,14,15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may eliminate pieces of the Amazon's biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological communities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple organism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region's vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most neglected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lost

Prenatal dental care: evaluation of professional knowledge of obstetricians and dentists in the cities of Londrina/PR and Bauru/SP, Brazil, 2004

The purpose of this study was to assess the current knowledge and recommendations of obstetricians and dentists as to the dental care to pregnant patients in the cities of Londrina/PR and Bauru/SP, Brazil. Questionnaires were distributed to professionals of both cities, arguing on the following issues: oral health during pregnancy; contact between prenatal care and dental care providers; prenatal fluoride supplementation; selection of therapeutic agents for local anesthesia, pain control and treatment of infection; and dental procedures that can be performed during each trimester. Data were analyzed by frequency of responses and statistical analyses were carried out using X² (type of workplace/service) and t test (time since graduation), significant if p<0.05. Seventy-nine obstetricians and 37 dentists responded the questionnaires. Most physicians referred the patient to dental care only when a source of dental problem was mentioned, limiting the adoption of a preventive approach. Forty-three percent of dentists and 34% of obstetricians did not know the potential contribution of periodontal infection as a risk factor for preterm low birth-weight babies. There was divergence from scientific literature as to the recommendation of local anesthetics (dentists and obstetricians), prenatal fluoride supplementation (obstetricians) and dental radiographs (dentists). The findings of this survey with dentists and obstetricians showed that dental management during pregnancy still presents some deviations from scientific literature recommendations, indicating the need to update these health care professionals in order to establish guidelines for prenatal dental care

Differences between genders in relation to factors associated with risk of diabetic foot in elderly persons: A cross-sectional trial

Aims: This trial aims to identify differences between genders in relation to factors associated with the risk of diabetic foot in elderly persons. Methods: We evaluated 187 older adults diagnosed with diabetes type 2. The variables investigated were sociodemographic data, clinical history of diabetes mellitus and complaints about the feet. The plantar sensitivity was evaluated on both feet, with the use of Semmes–Weinstein monofilaments. For data analysis we used chi-square test and binary logistic regression (p < 0.05; 95% CI). Results: We included 174 elderly people who had no history of stroke and peripheral vascular disease. Most (58.6%) were female and among them the risk factors for diabetic foot were older age (p < 0.021; OR 6.0), presence of calluses (p < 0.046; OR 2.83) and claw toes (p < 0.041; OR 3.18). And among men, the risk factors for diabetic foot were insulin use (p < 0.008; OR 5.22), presence of sensory comorbidities (p < 0.007; OR 5.0), ulcers (p < 0.001), numbness (p < 0.002; OR 6.6) and stiffness in the feet (p < 0.009; OR 5.44). Conclusion: The factors associated with the development of diabetic foot were presented differently in women and men, so a targeted and more specific preventive approach is required