Publications by authors named "Ana Margarida Cruz"
Introduction Family planning is fundamental in primary care (PC), and informed counseling helps to guide contraceptive choices. Combined hormonal contraceptives (CHC) pose cardiovascular risks, particularly when combined with smoking. According to the World Health Organization, the recommended global clinical decision is to refrain from employing CHC in female smokers aged 35 or older.
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- - The study compares three methods of measuring adherence to asthma inhalers: an asthma app, patient self-report, and physician assessment, focusing on the importance of understanding both patient and physician perspectives in clinical practice for better shared decision-making.
- - Conducted with 193 patients in Portugal, the results showed that app-based adherence (31% for 1 week, 18% for 1 month) was significantly lower than self-reported adherence (80%) and physician assessments (82%).
- - The findings indicate a weak correlation between app measurements and subjective assessments, while a moderate correlation exists between patient self-reports and physician evaluations, suggesting that the app may not fully capture adherence levels.
Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic forced the reorganization of primary health care services. The aim of this study was to describe how the health services responded to organizational requests; how the health services involved and supported their employees; how professionals perceived their involvement in the procedures and what support was provided to them. Additions aims included assessing the levels of anxiety and depression of professionals and their association with the perceived support, availability of personal protective equipment and involvement in pandemic-related tasks.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Health and fitness apps have potential benefits to improve self-management and disease control among patients with asthma. However, inconsistent use rates have been reported across studies, regions, and health systems. A better understanding of the characteristics of users and nonusers is critical to design solutions that are effectively integrated in patients' daily lives, and to ensure that these equitably reach out to different groups of patients, thus improving rather than entrenching health inequities.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Recent evidence suggests that incidence of Anorexia nervosa (AN) has remained stable over the last decades in Western Europe, while decreasing for Bulimia nervosa (BN). It is well-known that most individuals with an ED (Eating disorder) do not seek medical treatment.
Objective: The present study analyses hospitalizations related with EDs held in mainland Portuguese public hospitals between 2000 and 2014.
Background: Self-assessment of asthma and a stronger doctor-patient relationship can improve asthma outcomes. Evidence for the influence of patient enablement on quality of life and the control of asthma is lacking.
Aims: To assess asthma severity, medication use, asthma control, and patient enablement in patients with asthma treated in primary care and to study the relationship between these variables and quality of life.