Search

Background: Approximately 10 to 20% of pregnant women worldwide experience perinatal depression (PND), a depressive episode with onset during pregnancy or after childbirth. We performed a systematic review to identify, summarize and discuss studies on inflammatory biomarkers described in relation to PND., Method: Inclusion criteria defined the selection of observational studies written in English, French, Spanish or Portuguese, that evaluate analytical levels of inflammatory molecules (protein levels) in biological fluids in women, with a diagnosis of depression using ICD/DSM diagnostic criteria or depressive symptoms assessed by standardized psychometric instruments, during pregnancy and/or postpartum. Case reports, experimental studies, reviews, qualitative analysis, meta-analysis, gray literature or replicated data were excluded. Three electronic databases were used for search (Pubmed, Web of Science and PsychInfo) and quality assessment of selected studies were performed using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. Data extraction included study design; number of subjects; obstetric information; tools and timepoints of depression and inflammatory markers assessment., Results: 56 studies (sample size for cross-sectional and case-control studies ranging from 10 to 469; sample size for longitudinal studies ranging from 26 to 467), where the major aim was to analyze the association between depression and inflammatory biomarkers during pregnancy and postpartum period were included in this systematic review. Overall, the findings of our systematic review lend support to the hypothesis that several inflammatory markers may be associated with peripartum depressive symptoms. The associations were somewhat different looking at pregnancy compared to the delivery time-point and postpartum, and mainly referred to increased levels of IL-6, IL-8, CRP and TNF-α among depressed., Discussion: In summary, our systematic review findings provide evidence supporting the hypothesis that several inflammatory markers may correlate with peripartum depressive symptoms. However, our work also highlighted notable differences in the timing of biological sampling for inflammatory markers and in the methodologies used to assess depression during the perinatal period. Additionally, variations were observed in how inflammatory biomarkers and depression were approached, including their classification as exposure or outcome variables, and the timing of assessments. It is essential for future research to investigate the influence of biological fluids and the timing of assessments for both inflammatory biomarkers and depression to gain a deeper understanding of their association. This comprehensive exploration is pivotal for elucidating the intricate relationship between inflammation and perinatal depression., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Silva-Fernandes et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Background: The lack of instruments to assess the level of physical activity in pregnant women, led to the development of the PPAQ (Pregnancy Physical Activity Questionnaire), a self-administered questionnaire, which has already been translated in several countries and has already been used in several studies., Aim(s): Translate and adapt the PPAQ into Portuguese and test its reliability and validity., Methods: An analytical observational study was carried out. Linguistic and semantic equivalence was performed through translation and back-translation and content validity was tested by a panel of experts. To test reliability, a test-retest was performed on a sample of 184 pregnant women, with an interval of 7 days and the ICC was used. To test the criterion validity, Pearson's correlation coefficient (r) was used between the PPAQ and the accelerometer, in a sample of 226 pregnant women., Findings: The questionnaire was considered comprehensive. The ICC values of Reliability were: total score (0.77); sedentary activities (0.87); light-intensity activities (0.76); moderate-intensity activities (0.76); vigorous-intensity activities (0.70). For criterion validity was obtained a coefficient correlation of r = -0.030, considered weak and negative, for total activity., Discussion: This study describes the translation and validation process of the PPAQ questionnaire from English to Portuguese. The final version of the PPAQ was considered as a valid instrument in terms of content to measure physical activity and was referred to as being simple to apply and easy to understand., Conclusion: The PPAQ has content validity, excellent reliability and weak criterion validity, as in the original version., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2023 Santos et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Introduction: Communication apprehension (CA) refers to an individual's level of fear or anxiety toward either real or anticipated communication with another person or persons. The Personal Report of Communication Apprehension (PRCA-24) is the most widely used measure of CA, even among healthcare students., Objective: This study aimed to undertake a cross-cultural adaptation of this scale, translate it into Brazilian Portuguese, and examine its psychometric properties among healthcare students., Methods: The translation and cross-cultural adaptation procedures were undertaken with the objective of establishing compatibility between the original and translated scales. The content validity of the scale was established based on the feedback of a multidisciplinary expert committee. Its psychometric properties were evaluated using a convenience sample of 616 healthcare students. Its construct validity was examined using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Its internal consistency was examined by computing Cronbach's alpha and McDonald's omega coefficients. Its criterion validity was examined against the Interpersonal Communication Competence Scale (ICCS)., Results: The adapted scale demonstrated acceptable content validity. EFA showed that it was undergirded by one dimension, and this observation was confirmed by the results of CFA. The scale demonstrated excellent internal consistency. Its convergent validity was examined by conducting correlation analysis, and scores on the adapted PRCA-24 were negatively correlated with scores on the ICCS., Conclusion: The Brazilian version of the PRCA-24 has satisfactory psychometric properties and is, therefore, suitable for use with Brazilian healthcare students. It can be used to assess their communication needs for the purpose of designing tailored training programs., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Background: In recent years, pharmacists have been involved in expanded patient care responsibilities, for example patient counseling in self-medication, medication review and pharmaceutical care, which require graduates to develop the necessary competences. Consequently, reorientation of pharmacy education has become necessary. As such, active learning strategies have been introduced into classrooms to increase problem-solving and critical thinking skills of students. The objective of this study was to evaluate the performance and perceptions of competency of students in a new pharmaceutical care course that uses active learning methodologies., Methods: This pharmaceutical care course was conducted in the first semester of 2014, in the Federal University of Sergipe. In the pharmaceutical care course, active learning methods were used, consisting of dialogic classroom expository, simulation and case studies. Student learning was evaluated using classroom tests and instruments that evaluated the perception of competency in pharmaceutical care practice. Furthermore, students' satisfaction with the course was evaluated., Results: Thirty-three students completed the four evaluations used in the course (i.e., a discursive written exam, seminars, OSCE, and virtual patient); 25 were female (75.75%), and the median age was 23.43 (SD 2.82) years. The overall mean of student scores, in all evaluation methods was 7.97 (SD 0.59) on a scale of 0 to 10 points, and student performance on the virtual patient method was statistically superior to other methods. With respect to the perception of competency in pharmaceutical care practice, a comparison of pre- and post-test scores revealed statistically significant improvement for all evaluated competences. At the end of the semester, the students presented positive opinions of the pharmaceutical care course., Conclusions: The results suggest that an active learning course can enhance the learning of pharmaceutical care competences. In future studies it will be necessary to compare active learning to traditional methods.