Improving the objectivity of the current World Para Swimming motor coordination test for swimmers with hypertonia, ataxia and athetosis using measures of movement smoothness, rhythm and accuracy.

The current protocol for classifying Para swimmers with hypertonia, ataxia and athetosis involves a physical assessment where the individual's ability to coordinate their limbs is scored by subjective clinical judgment. The lack of objective measurement renders the current test unsuitable for evidence-based classification. This study evaluated a revised version of the Para swimming assessment for motor coordination, incorporating practical, objective measures of movement smoothness, rhythm error and accuracy.

[Health on the fringes: dilemmas of the territoriality of Primary Health Care for refugees in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil].

This article presents and analyzes the tensions, negotiations and arrangements that comprise the process of devising a care structure for the refugee population in the municipality of Rio de Janeiro within the scope of Primary Health Care (PHC). We are of the opinion that the creation of this care structure is derived from the intersection of more than one normative regime, namely that of health and that of the refuge location, which represent an organization and structure that is often conflicting. In this respect, we examine the intermediary agency work that the health operators perform with the government regulations they have at their disposal to combine the notions of territoriality that orient both PHC and the dimension experienced by the refugees.

What matters most? Evidence-based findings of health dimensions affecting the societal preferences for EQ-5D health states.

This study analyzes how different health dimensions defined by the EQ-5D-3L instrument affect average individual preferences for health states. This analysis is an important benchmark for the incorporation of health technologies as it takes into consideration Brazilian population preferences in health resource allocation decisions. The EQ-5D instrument defines health in terms of five dimensions (mobility, daily activities, self-care activities, pain/discomfort, and anxiety/depression) each divided into three levels of severity.

Societal Preferences for EQ-5D Health States from a Brazilian Population Survey.

Objective: To elicit preference weights for a subset of EuroQol five-dimensional (EQ-5D) questionnaire health states from a representative sample for the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, using a time trade-off (TTO) method and to analyze these data so as to estimate social preference weights for the complete set of 243 states.

Methods: Data came from a valuation study with 3362 literate individuals aged between 18 and 64 years living in urban areas. The present study was based on quota sampling by age and sex.

[Labor market structure and access to private health insurance in Brazil].

This paper aims to describe health insurance coverage among different types of workers in Brazil. Health insurance coverage and labor market insertion are used to define homogeneous groups of workers. The Grade of Membership method is used to build a typology of workers.

Cost-benefit of the telecardiology service in the state of Minas Gerais: Minas Telecardio Project.

Background: Telecardiology is a tool that can aid in cardiovascular care, mainly in towns located in remote areas. However, economic assessments on this subject are scarce and have yielded controversial results.

Objective: To evaluate the cost-benefit of implementing a Telecardiology service in remote, small towns in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil.