Search

Failure to comply with therapeutic treatments implies negative repercussions for the patient's quality of life, their social environment, and health system. The use of information and communication technologies, especially mobile applications, has favored the increase in global therapeutic adherence figures. The objective of this study is to characterize the use of mobile applications as a strategy to increase therapeutic adherence in adults. A systematic literature review in Web of Science and Scopus was performed following the Preferred Information elements for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis. Information such as: the year of publication, the study population, the medical conditions of the participants, the main characteristics or functionalities of the mobile applications, and the methods or tools used to measure treatment adherence were extracted from each included article. The risk of bias was assessed. Twelve randomized controlled trials (RCTs), published in English from 1996 to May 2021, were included. Chronic diseases have been mostly addressed through interventions with mobile applications. The most reported functions of mobile applications were reminders, educational modules, two-way communication, and games. Tools such as: "Morisky Medication Adherence Scale of eight items"; "Medication adherence questionnaire"; "Self-reported adherence"; among others, were used to evaluate and report the treatment adherence. In conclusion, including treatment interventions using mobile applications in clinical practice has proven to be beneficial to improve therapeutic adherence. However, it is necessary to develop high-quality clinical trials (size and duration) to generalize results and justify their use in conventional health services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problems involved in obtaining authorization in favor of organ donation have led us to evaluate the level of knowledge and attitudes of a group of Spanish adolescents (14-16 years) regarding organ donation, transplantation, and brain death. The evaluation was carried out before and after a health education intervention by nursing personnel. Experimental, prospective and quantitative study. The educational intervention was carried out at Las Salinas high school (Laguna de Duero, Spain). We collected 86 preworkshop questionnaires and 88 post-workshop questionnaires. The composition of the groups did not differ significantly in sex (P =.653), age (P =.266), or in the desire to be a donor (P =.099). We found significant postworkshop improvements in knowledge about brain death (P <.001) and which organs can be donated (P <.001), as well as in the total score (18.29 ± 2.45 before vs 21.47 ± 2.70 after) (P <.001). We discovered a vast lack of knowledge about the organs that cannot be transplanted, which included the penis (38.4%), uterus (31.4%), prostate (41.9%), or bladder (37.2%); these beliefs decreased significantly after the intervention (P <.01). The increase in knowledge of the organs that can be donated, including eye (P =.024), lung (P =.025), stomach (P <.001), intestine (P =.001), and skin (P <.001), was also significant. The good results reflected the importance of conducting educational programs taught by health personnel on donation and organ transplantation in adolescents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(1) Background: The aim was screening the performance of nine Early Warning Scores (EWS), to identify patients at high-risk of premature impairment and to detect intensive care unit (ICU) admissions, as well as to track the 2-, 7-, 14-, and 28-day mortality in a cohort of patients diagnosed with an acute neurological condition. (2) Methods: We conducted a prospective, longitudinal, observational study, calculating the EWS [Modified Early Warning Score (MEWS), National Early Warning Score (NEWS), VitalPAC Early Warning Score (ViEWS), Modified Rapid Emergency Medicine Score (MREMS), Early Warning Score (EWS), Hamilton Early Warning Score (HEWS), Standardised Early Warning Score (SEWS), WHO Prognostic Scored System (WPSS), and Rapid Acute Physiology Score (RAPS)] upon the arrival of patients to the emergency department. (3) Results: In all, 1160 patients were included: 808 patients were hospitalized, 199 cases (17%) required ICU care, and 6% of patients died (64 cases) within 2 days, which rose to 16% (183 cases) within 28 days. The highest area under the curve for predicting the need for ICU admissions was obtained by RAPS and MEWS. For predicting mortality, MREMS obtained the best scores for 2- and 28-day mortality. (4) Conclusions: This is the first study to explore whether several EWS accurately identify the risk of ICU admissions and mortality, at different time points, in patients with acute neurological disorders. Every score analyzed obtained good results, but it is suggested that the use of RAPS, MEWS, and MREMS should be preferred in the acute setting, for patients with neurological impairment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(1) Background: The increasing life expectancy brings an increase in geriatric syndromes, specifically frailty. The literature shows that exercise is a key to preventing, or even reversing, frailty in community-dwelling populations. The main objective is to demonstrate how an intervention based on multicomponent exercise produces an improvement in frailty and pre-frailty in a community-dwelling population. (2) Methods: a prospective observational study of a multicomponent exercise program for geriatric revitalization with people aged over 65 holding Barthel Index scores equal to, or beyond, 90. The program was developed over 30 weeks, three times a week, in sessions lasting 45–50 min each. Frailty levels were registered by the Short Physical Performance Battery, FRAIL Questionnaire Screening Tool, and Timed "Up & Go" at the beginning of the program, 30 weeks later (at the end of the program), and following 13 weeks without training; (3) Results: 360 participants completed the program; a greater risk of frailty was found before the program started among older women living in urban areas, with a more elevated fat percentage, more baseline pathologies, and wider baseline medication use. Furthermore, heterogeneous results were observed both in training periods and in periods without physical activity. However, they are consistent over time and show improvement after training. They show a good correlation between TUG and SPPB; (4) Conclusions: A thirty-week multicomponent exercise program improves frailty and pre-frailty status in a community-dwelling population with no functional decline. Nevertheless, a lack of homogeneity is evident among the various tools used for measuring frailty over training periods and inactivity periods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The aim of this study was to compare the ability to predict 30‐day in‐hospital mortality of lactate versus the modified Rapid Emergency Medicine Score (mREMS) versus the arithmetic sum of the mREMS plus the numerical value of lactate (mREMS‐L). Methods: A prospective, multicentric, emergency department delivery, pragmatic study was conducted. To determine the predictive capacity of the scales, lactate was measured and the mREMS and mREMS‐L were calculated in adult patients (aged>18 years) transferred with high priority by ambulance to the emergency department in five hospitals of Castilla y Leon between 1 January 2020 and 31 December 2021. The area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve of each of the scales was calculated in terms of mortality for 30 days. Results: A total of 5371 participants were included, and the in‐hospital mortality rate at 30 days was of 11.4% (615 cases). The best cut‐off point determined in the mREMS was 7.0 points (sensitivity of 67% and specificity of 84%), and for lactate, the cut‐off point was 1.4 mmol/L (sensitivity of 88% and specificity of 67%). Finally, the combined mREMS‐L showed a cut‐off point of 7.9 (sensitivity of 83% and a specificity of 83%). The area under the ROC curve of the mREMS, lactate and mREMS‐L for 30‐day mortality was 0.851, 0.853, and 0.903, respectively (p < 0.001 in all cases). Conclusions: The new score generated, mREMS‐L, obtained better statistical results than its components (mREMS and lactate) separately. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the challenges in the emergency department (ED) is the early identification of patients with a higher risk of clinical deterioration. The objective is to evaluate the prognostic capacity of ΔLA (correlation between prehospital lactate (pLA) and hospital lactate (hLA)) with respect to in-hospital two day mortality. We conducted a pragmatic, multicentric, prospective and blinded-endpoint study in adults who consecutively attended and were transported in advanced life support with high priority from the scene to the ED. The corresponding area under the receiver operating characteristics curve (AUROC) was obtained for each of the outcomes. In total, 1341 cases met the inclusion criteria. The median age was 71 years (interquartile range: 54–83 years), with 38.9% (521 cases) females. The total 2 day mortality included 106 patients (7.9%). The prognostic precision for the 2 day mortality of pLA and hLA was good, with an AUROC of 0.800 (95% CI: 0.74–0.85; p < 0.001) and 0.819 (95% CI: 0.76–0.86; p < 0.001), respectively. Of all patients, 31.5% (422 cases) had an ΔLA with a decrease of <10%, of which a total of 66 patients (15.6%) died. A lactate clearance ≥ 10% is associated with a lower risk of death in the ED, and this value could potentially be used as a guide to determine if a severely injured patient is improving in response to the established treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Syncope is defined as the nontraumatic, transient loss of awareness of rapid onset, short duration and with complete spontaneous recovery, and accounts for 1%–3% of all visits to the emergency department. The objective of this study was to evaluate the predictive capacity of the National Early Warning Score 2 (NEWS2) and prehospital lactate (pLA), individually and combined, at the prehospital level to detect patients with syncope at risk of early mortality (within 48 h) in the hospital environment. A prospective, multicenter cohort study without intervention was carried out on syncope patients aged over 18 who were given advanced life support and taken to the hospital. Our study included a total of 361 cases. Early mortality affected 21 patients (5.8%). The combined score formed by the NEWS2 and the pLA (NEWS2-L) obtained an AUC of 0.948 (95% CI: 0.88–1) and an odds ratio of 86.25 (95% CI: 11.36–645.57), which is significantly higher than that obtained by the NEWS2 or pLA in isolation (p = 0.018). The NEWS2-L can help stratify the risk in patients with syncope treated in the prehospital setting, with only the standard measurement of physiological parameters and pLA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]