Home care for heart failure: can caregiver education prevent hospital admissions? A randomized trial in primary care.

Aim: To assess the feasibility and effectiveness of a low-complexity, low-cost model of caregiver education in primary care, targeted to reduce hospitalizations of heart failure patients.

Methods: A cluster-randomized, controlled, open trial was proposed to general practitioners, who were invited to identify patients with heart failure, exclusively managed at home and continuously attended by a caregiver. Participating general practitioners were then randomized to: usual treatment; caregiver education (educational session for recognizing early symptoms/signs of heart failure, with recording in a diary of a series of patient parameters, including body weight, blood pressure, heart rate).

Opportunistic prostate-specific antigen screening in Italy: 6 years of monitoring from the Italian general practice database.

The practice of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening has been increasing in Italy despite uncertain scientific evidence and contrary recommendations from most scientific societies. In 2002, a survey of PSA screening diffusion among general practices was performed, looking for screening frequency and age pattern of screened individuals. The objective of this study was to assess whether the features of PSA screening did change after 6 years in the same considered setting.