Effectiveness of Text Messaging as an Adjuvant to Health Advice in Smoking Cessation Programs in Primary Care. A Randomized Clinical Trial.

Introduction: Smoking remains a major risk factor for chronic diseases. Health advice is considered one of the most cost-effective interventions; however, changes produced by counseling tend not to persist over time, it is necessary to implement enforcement mechanisms.

Methods: Randomized clinical trial to evaluate the effectiveness of a combined program that includes health advice and text messaging to mobile phone (SMSalud®).

Platelet-rich plasma in skin ulcer treatment.

Introduction: Chronic vascular ulcers are associated with a high use of resources. Conventional treatment consists of wound cleansing, necrotic tissue debridement, prevention, diagnosis, and, if necessary, treatment of infection and dressing application; although conventional treatment has limited effectiveness with wound healing (around 15-30%).8-11 Platelet-rich plasma, used in various fields of medicine, improves chronic vascular ulcer results, but is more expensive.

[Efficacy of hospital at home (HaH) in the treatment of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) with different degrees of severity].

Background And Objective: Different scientific societies propose the use of scales of severity and additional criteria (AC) in order to determine the setting for the treatment of Community-Acquired Pneumonia (CAP).The objective of this study is to correlate the risk regarding three clinical prediction rules (PSI, CURB-65 and PSCRUXO-80) and AC with the effectiveness of hospital at home (HaH).

Patients And Method: Evaluation of cases of CAP referred from the Emergency Unit to HaH between January 2000 and May 2008.

[Variations in health-related quality of life in critical patients].

Objective: To determine the changes in the health-related quality of life (hRQOL) six months after discharge from the ICU and the conditions associated to them.

Design: A prospective cohort study.

Setting: 14 beds medical-surgical intensive care unit (ICU).

Health-related quality of life as a prognostic factor of survival in critically ill patients.

Objective: To evaluate whether health-related quality of life prior to admission into an intensive care unit (ICU) is a prognostic factor of hospital and 1 year mortality.

Design: Prospective cohort study.

Setting: Fourteen-bed medical-surgical ICU.

[Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in the setting of hospital at home. Study of 522 episodes].

Objectives: To assess the effectiveness, respiratory status, services of origin and outcome of patient with exacerbated COPD attended in Hospital at Home (HaH) regimen.

Patient And Method: Study of patients with an exacerbated COPD in HaH from Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain during the period March 1999-October 2004, in whom hospital admission had been recommended after medical assessment. We studied: age, gender, patient's stay, oxygen-saturation or arterial blood gas analysis, FEV1 (basal), dyspnea status (basal and current), coexisting diseases, exacerbation causes, Services of origin, use of home nebulizers and oxygen therapy, intravenous drugs, course (discharges/admissions/deaths).

[Pneumonia in the elderly. Factors related with the mortality during the episode and after the discharge].

Background And Objective: Pneumonia in the elderly (PIE) is a growing disease that causes great morbidity and mortality with frequent admissions to hospital and increasing health costs. The objective of our study was yo analyze the characteristics of PIE in an internal medicine hospital ward, the influence of quality of life (Katz index and scale of Karnofsky) on its evolution and after the discharge and the factors of poor prognosis during the episode of PIE and throughout the ambulatory follow-up.

Patients And Method: All the patients suffering from PIE admitted to the internal medicine ward of our hospital during a two years period were included in the study (125).

[Quality analysis of clinical practice guidelines on cardiovascular risks in the Basque country and a proposal for their evaluacion].

Objectives: To find the implantation and quality of clinical practice guidelines (CPG) to manage the major cardiovascular risks: tobacco dependency, hypertension, hyperlipaemia and diabetes mellitus. To work out a model to evaluate the quality of the CPG in primary care.

Design: Cross-sectional descriptive study.

[Effectiveness of the protocols on cardiovascular risks in the Basque Country].

Objectives: To find the effectiveness of clinical protocols in detecting and monitoring the most important cardiovascular risk factors: tobacco dependency, high blood pressure, hyperlipaemia and diabetes mellitus.

Design: Cross-sectional descriptive study.

Setting: Primary care centres in the Basque Country.

[White coat and non-dipper hypertension in patients recently diagnosed with mild hypertension].

Objective: To calculate the prevalence of white coat hypertension (WCH) in patients recently diagnosed with light hypertension. To compare their demographic features, cardiovascular risk factors, and the level of early organic effect of WCH versus sustained hypertension, and dippers versus non-dippers.

Design: Descriptive, crossover study.

[Barriers to verbal communication and consumer satisfaction with consultations in general medicine].

With the objective of knowing the barriers to verbal communication experienced by general practice users, and their satisfaction with the information received, a sample of 1553 adults (> 14 years old), users of the Basque Health Service general practice services, was interviewed. A questionnaire of 13 questions, administered after the consultation, was employed. The most frequently experienced barrier was the lack of written information, that affected to a 77.