Investigating the Life Expectancy at Birth of Companion Dogs in Portugal Using Official National Registry Data.

This study aimed to provide a comprehensive picture of the life expectancy of dogs in Portugal, focusing on the impact of diverse factors including breed, sex, size, and skull shape. The final dataset, gathering data from the national registry database, consisted of 278,116 dogs with confirmed deaths. The mean lifespan at birth for all the dogs was around 8.

Association of Mycobacterium avium paratuberculosis serostatus with age at first calving, calving interval, and milk production in dairy cows.

Mycobacterium avium ssp. paratuberculosis (MAP) is the causative agent of bovine paratuberculosis, also known as Johne's disease. This infection is responsible for negative effects, ranging from reduction of milk production to reproductive compromise and increased susceptibility to other diseases such as mastitis.

Multiple autoimmune syndrome: Clinical, immunological and genotypic characterization.

Introduction: The existence of subphenotypes common to several autoimmune diseases (AIDs) suggests a shared physiopathology - autoimmune tautology. Multiple Autoimmune Syndrome (MAS) - the coexistence of three or more AIDs in one person-, best illustrates that polyautoimmunity is more than a coincidence.

Objectives: Characterize and compare the monoautoimmune and MAS patients.

One-year rehospitalisation and mortality after acute heart failure hospitalisation: a competing risk analysis.

Objective: To identify factors that independently predict the risk of rehospitalisation and death after acute heart failure (AHF) hospital discharge in a real-world setting, considering death without rehospitalisation as a competing event.

Methods: Single-centre, retrospective, observational study enrolling 394 patients discharged from an index AHF hospitalisation. Overall survival was evaluated using Kaplan-Meier and Cox regression models.

One-year mortality after hospitalization for acute heart failure: Predicting factors (PRECIC study subanalysis).

Introduction And Objectives: One-year mortality after hospitalization for heart failure (HF) is high. This study aims to identify predictive factors of one-year mortality.

Methods: This is a retrospective, single-center and observational study.

Dealing with missing information on covariates for excess mortality hazard regression models - Making the imputation model compatible with the substantive model.

Missing data is a common issue in epidemiological databases. Among the different ways of dealing with missing data, multiple imputation has become more available in common statistical software packages. However, the incompatibility between the imputation and substantive model, which can arise when the associations between variables in the substantive model are not taken into account in the imputation models or when the substantive model is itself nonlinear, can lead to invalid inference.

Effects of a nursing care program focused on basic self-care in older acute medical in-patients: a randomized controlled trial.

Background: Acute illness and hospitalization are often associated with decreased independence in basic activities of daily living. The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that a nursing care program focused on basic self-care (N_BSC) improves functional outcomes in older patients admitted to an acute medical unit.

Methods: This was a 2-group randomized controlled trial with repeated measures: 182 older patients admitted to an acute medical unit were randomly allocated to the usual care group (n = 91) and intervention group (n = 91).

Functional trajectories of older acute medical inpatients.

Objectives: To describe the changes in basic activities of daily living (BADL) function before and during hospital admission in older patients admitted to an acute medical unit and to assess the effect of age on loss of BADL function.

Methods: Prospective observational study. The study included 91 patients aged 65 and older consecutively admitted to an acute medical unit of an urban public teaching hospital in Portugal, between May and September 2017.

Deprivation-specific life tables using multivariable flexible modelling - trends from 2000-2002 to 2010-2012, Portugal.

Background: Completing mortality data by information on possible socioeconomic inequalities in mortality is crucial for policy planning. The aim of this study was to build deprivation-specific life tables using the Portuguese version of the European Deprivation Index (EDI) as a measure of area-level socioeconomic deprivation, and to evaluate mortality trends between the periods 2000-2002 and 2010-2012.

Methods: Statistics Portugal provided the counts of deaths and population by sex, age group, calendar year and area of residence (parish).

Large normal alleles of ATXN2 decrease age at onset in transthyretin familial amyloid polyneuropathy Val30Met patients.

Objective: Transthyretin (TTR)-related familial amyloid polyneuropathy (FAP) is an autosomal dominant neurological disease, caused most frequently by a Val30Met (now classified as Val50Met) substitution in TTR. Age at onset (AO) ranges from 19 to 82 years, and variability exists mostly between generations. Unstable oligonucleotide repeats in various genes are the mechanism behind several neurological diseases, found also to act as modifiers for other disorders.

The hospital anxiety and depression scale, in patients with multiple sclerosis.

Purpose: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a long-lasting disabling disease with psychological implications. Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) is a questionnaire developed to screen anxiety and depression among patients in hospital settings. The objective of this report was to study the metric properties of the Portuguese version of HADS regarding MS.

The breastfeeding self-efficacy scale-short form: Psychometric characteristics in Portuguese pregnant women.

Background: The Breastfeeding Self-Efficacy Scale-Short Form is a reliable instrument to measure mother's confidence in her ability to breastfeed. The Breastfeeding Self-Efficacy Scale-Short Form has traditionally been used postnatally, but evidence suggests that it can be used antenatally to identify mothers at-risk of requiring additional support to improve breastfeeding outcomes.

Objective: The aim of this study was to examine the psychometric characteristics of an antenatal version of the Breastfeeding Self-Efficacy Scale-Short Form, among pregnant Portuguese women.

Effects of a nursing care program on functional outcomes in older acute medical in-patients: protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

Background: Hospitalization often leads to long periods of bed rest and inactivity which is associated with an increase in length of hospital stay, loss of capacity for basic self-care and discharge into a nursing home.

Objective: This trial aims to verify if a nursing care program centered on basic self-care and predefined physical activity, improves functional outcomes in older hospitalized patients.

Methods: This is a 2-group randomized controlled trial with repeated measures: 182 older acute medical patients will be blindly randomly allocated to the control group (n = 91) or intervention group (n = 91).

Childhood cancer: incidence and spatial patterns in the city of Campinas, Brazil, 1996-2005.

This article analyzes cancer incidence and spatial patterns in children and adolescents (0-19 years of age) residing in the city of Campinas in Southeastern Brazil who were diagnosed from 1996-2005. Cancers were classified according to the Third International Classification of Childhood Cancer (ICCC-3) Groups. The four most common groups were studied: leukemias, lymphomas, and central nervous system and soft tissue neoplasms.

Basic self-care in older acute medical in-patients: a retrospective cohort study.

Background: Older patients hospitalized for acute illness are vulnerable to decline in basic self-care. This functional decline determines future health needs and can lead to negative health outcomes.

Aim: To compare basic self-care needs in older acute medical in-patients between admission and discharge using the Nursing Patient Classification System data.

Two-stage model for multivariate longitudinal and survival data with application to nephrology research.

In many follow-up studies different types of outcomes are collected including longitudinal measurements and time-to-event outcomes. Commonly, it is of interest to study the association between them. Joint modeling approaches of a single longitudinal outcome and survival process have recently gained increasing attention from both frequentist and Bayesian perspective.

Characteristics and outcomes of heart failure hospitalization before implementation of a heart failure clinic: The PRECIC study.

Objective: This study aims to characterize patients hospitalized for acute heart failure (HF) in an internal medicine department and their one-year mortality and rate of rehospitalization for decompensated HF.

Methods: This retrospective observational study enrolled all patients discharged in 2012 after hospitalization for acute HF. Discharge summaries, clinical records and telephone interviews were analysed.

Familial amyloid polyneuropathy in Portugal: New genes modulating age-at-onset.

Objectives: Familial amyloid polyneuropathy (FAP ATTRV30M) shows a wide variation in age-at-onset (AO) between clusters, families, and among generations. We will now explore some candidate genes involved in altered disease pathways in order to assess their role as genetic modifiers of AO, using a family-centered approach.

Methods: We analyzed 62 tagging SNPs from nine genes-,,,,,,,, and - in a sample of 318 V30M Portuguese patients (106 families), currently under follow-up.

Age of onset of mesial temporal lobe epilepsy with hippocampal sclerosis: the effect of apolipoprotein E and febrile seizures.

Purpose: Mesial temporal lobe epilepsy with hippocampal sclerosis (MTLE-HS) is the most frequent pharmaco-resistant epilepsy. It has been associated with febrile seizures (FS) in childhood. Its aetiology remains unclear but genetic factors are involved.

Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels in a healthy population from the North of Portugal.

Vitamin D status in human populations has become a matter of great concern, in the wake of a multitude of published works that document widespread vitamin D deficiency across Europe, even in countries with abundant sunlight. In Portugal there are no measures of 25-hydroxyvitamin D - 25(OH)D - levels in the general adult population. The purpose of this study was to measure 25(OH)D levels in a healthy population cohort and investigate the possible association with season and selected demographic and laboratory measurements.

No inequalities in survival from colorectal cancer by education and socioeconomic deprivation - a population-based study in the North Region of Portugal, 2000-2002.

Background: Association between cancer survival and socioeconomic status has been reported in various countries but it has never been studied in Portugal. We aimed here to study the role of education and socioeconomic deprivation level on survival from colorectal cancer in the North Region of Portugal using a population-based cancer registry dataset.

Methods: We analysed a cohort of patients aged 15-84 years, diagnosed with a colorectal cancer in the North Region of Portugal between 2000 and 2002.

[Inequalities in self-rated health: an analysis of the Brazilian and Portuguese populations].

The aim of this study was to analyze the prevalence of poor self-rated health according to socio-demographic variables and the presence of chronic diseases in the populations of Brazil and Portugal. A total of 13,894 individuals ≥ 30 years of age were studied in capitals in Northeast Brazil (VIGITEL 2011) and 20,579 in Portugal (4th NHI, 2005/2006). Poisson regression was used in both analyses of associations, adjusted by covariates.

Variants in RBP4 and AR genes modulate age at onset in familial amyloid polyneuropathy (FAP ATTRV30M).

Familial amyloid polyneuropathy (FAP) ATTRV30M is a neurodegenerative disorder due to point mutations in the transthyretin gene, with V30M being the commonest. FAP ATTRV30M shows a wide variation in age at onset (AO) between clusters, families and generations. Portuguese patients also show remarkable AO differences between genders.

A triple-biomarker approach for the detection of delayed graft function after kidney transplantation using serum creatinine, cystatin C, and malondialdehyde.

Introduction: Serum creatinine (SCr) alone does not allow for the early diagnosis of delayed graft function (DGF) following kidney transplantation (KTx).

Objective, Design And Methods: The diagnostic utility of urinary neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (uNGAL), serum leptin, malondialdehyde (MD.A), and cystatin C (CysC) for the early detection of DGF was previously evaluated by our group in a prospective cohort study of 40 consecutive adults undergoing KTx.