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To assess whether the use of a band-based electrocardiographic (ECG) monitoring system improves the diagnostic accuracy of traditional diagnostic methods for the detection of atrial fibrillation (AF).Multicenter and observational study of primary care patients at risk of AF. To be included, patients had to be aged ≥70 years, with no known AF, and have at least 1 major criterion (obesity, hyperthyroidism, heart failure) or 2 minor criteria (hypertension, diabetes, female sex, ischemic stroke, transient ischemic attack or systemic embolism, COPD, dyslipidemia, ischemic heart disease, peripheral artery disease). All patients were monitored using the Nuubo™ system for a single 2-week period.A total of 600 patients were included (median age 77 years; 70% women; 84.3% hypertension, 27.2% diabetes, 9.2% prior stroke). The global rate of diagnosis of new AF in the overall population was 2.83%. All patients with AF were anticoagulated. In numerical terms, patients with AF (vs no AF) had a higher number of supraventricular extrasystoles and episodes of supraventricular tachycardia, as well as longer P wave duration; however, these differences did not reach statistical significance. Overall, participants were very satisfied with the device, and no relevant limitations in daily activities were observed during the 2-week study period.In an elderly population at risk of AF, a band-based ECG monitoring approach applied for only 2 weeks detected approximately 3% of new cases of AF, leading to a change in antithrombotic therapy. Most participants considered the device easy to use and comfortable.

Vacunas.org (http://www.vacunas.org), a website founded by the Spanish Association of Vaccinology offers a personalized service called Ask the Expert, which answers any questions posed by the public or health professionals about vaccines and vaccination. The aim of this study was to analyze the factors associated with questions on vaccination safety and determine the characteristics of questioners and the type of question asked during the period 2008–2010. A total of 1341 questions were finally included in the analysis. Of those, 30% were related to vaccine safety. Questions about pregnant women had 5.01 higher odds of asking about safety (95% CI 2.82–8.93) than people not belonging to any risk group. Older questioners (>50 years) were less likely to ask about vaccine safety compared to younger questioners (OR: 0.44, 95% CI 0.25–0.76). Questions made after vaccination or related to influenza (including H1N1) or travel vaccines were also associated with a higher likelihood of asking about vaccine safety. These results identify risk groups (pregnant women), population groups (older people) and some vaccines (travel and influenza vaccines, including H1N1) where greater efforts to provide improved, more-tailored vaccine information in general and on the Internet are required.

The Internet contains a large amount of useful information on many subjects, but also information of doubtful quality. To help identify Web sites on vaccine safety that fulfil good practice, the Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety of the World Health Organization (WHO) has published criteria to which sites should adhere and a listing of Web sites that fulfil them. There are no studies describing the common attributes of these sites. Objective To examine the attributes, design characteristics and resources of Web sites belonging to the Vaccine Safety Net (VSN) of the WHO. Material and methods A cross-sectional, descriptive observational study using an evaluation questionnaire was carried out applied to the VSN web sites listed in March–April 2007. Results Twenty-six Web sites accredited by the VSN by April 2007 were analysed. With respect to design and quality, all sites contained information about the site manager. Postal and Email addresses were available for 84.6% of the sites. About privacy and personal data processing, 73.1% of sites specified the data protection procedure used and stated that data were not sold or passed third parties. The most-used language was English (76.9%). 96.3% of sites had links to other pro-vaccination sites and 19.2% provided the addresses of vaccination centres. 63.6% of webs were aimed at general public and health care workers but there was no clear separation of documents or different entry routes. With respect to information on vaccine safety, 84.6% of sites had information on adverse effects. In the general information section, 92.3% of sites had a new developments section. Some sites had multiple sources of financing and in 57% of sites, the financing was public. Conclusions The most-important plus factors found were the transparency of financing, the lack of links to the pharmaceutical industry, the transparency of site management and responsibility and the proven scientific quality and constant updating of contents.