[Diagnostic delay in rare diseases: between fear and resilience].

Objective: To describe the impact of diagnosis delay in rare diseases and analyze psychosocial needs related to this delay in patients.

Method: The qualitative approach has been used by conducting online group interviews with patients and family members in the Valencian Region (Spain) and a content analysis has been carried out. Two categories were differentiated: with diagnostic delay of 1 year or more and without diagnostic delay.

Rare Diseases: Needs and Impact for Patients and Families: A Cross-Sectional Study in the Valencian Region, Spain.

Families with rare diseases (RDs) have unmet needs that are often overlooked by health professionals. Describing these needs and the impact of the disease could improve their medical care. A total of 163 surveys were obtained from patients visiting primary care centres in the Valencian Region (Spain), during 2015-2017, with a confirmed or suspected diagnosis of RD.

[Prevalence of oral anticoagulation and quality of its management in primary healthcare: A study by the Health Sentinel Network of the Region of Valencia (Spain)].

Objective: To estimate the prevalence of patients with oral anticoagulant therapy (OAT) in the Region of Valencia and to evaluate the quality of management of OAT with vitaminK antagonists (VKA) carried out in primary healthcare.

Design: Observational cross-sectional study conducted through the Health Sentinel Network of the Region of Valencia, which includes a survey and the retrospective analysis of OAT monitoring.

Setting: Primary healthcare, Region of Valencia, Spain.

Care provided and care setting transitions in the last three months of life of cancer patients: a nationwide monitoring study in four European countries.

Background: This is an international study across four European countries (Belgium[BE], the Netherlands[NL], Italy[IT] and Spain[ES]) between 2009 and 2011, describing and comparing care and care setting transitions provided in the last three months of life of cancer patients, using representative GP networks.

Methods: General practitioners (GPs) of representative networks in each country reported weekly all non-sudden cancer deaths (+18y) within their practice. GPs reported medical end-of-life care, communication and circumstances of dying on a standardised questionnaire.

Burden on family carers and care-related financial strain at the end of life: a cross-national population-based study.

Background: The rising number of deaths from cancer and other life-limiting illnesses is accompanied by a growing number of family carers who provide long-lasting care, including end-of-life care. This population-based epidemiological study aimed to describe and compare in four European countries the prevalence of and factors associated with physical or emotional overburden and difficulties in covering care-related costs among family carers of people at the end of life.

Methods: A cross-national retrospective study was conducted via nationwide representative sentinel networks of general practitioners (GPs).

Inequalities in perinatal mortality rates among immigrant and native population in Spain, 2005-2008.

We compared perinatal mortality rates (PMRs) and the risk from certain causes among immigrant and native population in the Valencian Community (Spain). Using data from the Perinatal Mortality Registry, crude and age standardized mortality ratios were obtained in the different groups of mothers. Mortality rate ratios were calculated to compare the causes of death resulting from prematurity, congenital anomalies, infectious diseases and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome between Spanish and foreign women.

Factors associated with childhood obesity in Spain. The OBICE study: a case-control study based on sentinel networks.

Objective: To estimate the association strength of dietary behaviour and sedentary habits in relation to childhood obesity in Spain.

Design: A matched case-control study was carried out using data collected by sentinel network paediatricians in general practices.

Setting: Five Spanish autonomous communities.

[Perinatal mortality assessment in native and immigrant women: influence of exhaustiveness and quality of the registries].

Objective: To analyze the exhaustiveness and reliability of the data on perinatal mortality in two Spanish registries, namely, the National Statistics Institute and the Perinatal Mortality Registry of the Valencian Community and to calculate and compare the perinatal mortality rate (PMR) and its components in native and immigrant women, based on the cases reported to both registries in 2005 and 2006.

Methods: Perinatal mortality and its components were defined according to the World Health Organization's criteria. The magnitude of underreporting was calculated by taking into account the frequencies and percentages of deaths not declared for 2005-2006.

Bayesian Markov switching models for the early detection of influenza epidemics.

The early detection of outbreaks of diseases is one of the most challenging objectives of epidemiological surveillance systems. In this paper, a Markov switching model is introduced to determine the epidemic and non-epidemic periods from influenza surveillance data: the process of differenced incidence rates is modelled either with a first-order autoregressive process or with a Gaussian white-noise process depending on whether the system is in an epidemic or in a non-epidemic phase. The transition between phases of the disease is modelled as a Markovian process.