On the use of the E-value for sensitivity analysis in epidemiologic studies.

This study illustrates the use of a recently developed sensitivity index, the E-value, helpful in strengthening causal inferences in observational epidemiological studies. The E-value aims to determine the minimum required strength of association between an unmeasured confounder and an exposure/outcome to explain the observed association as non-causal. Such parameter is defined as E - v a l u e = R R + R R R R - 1 , where RR is the risk ratio between the exposure and the outcome.

Association between Prenatal Care Adequacy Indexes and Low Birth Weight Outcome.

Objective:  To investigate the association between prenatal care (PNC) adequacy indexes and the low birth weigth (LBW) outcome.

Methods:  A total of 368,093 live term singleton births in the state of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) from 2015 to 2016 were investigated using data from the Brazilian Live Birth Information System (Sistema de Informações sobre Nascidos Vivos, SINASC, in Portuguese). Seven PNC adequacy indexes were evaluated: four developed by Brazilian authors (Ciari Jr.

Pattern of Live Births in Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil, According to Robson Groups and the Kotelchuck Index Classification - 2015/2016.

Objective:  To investigate the patterns of hospital births in the state of Rio de Janeiro (RJ), Brazil, between 2015 and 2016; considering the classification of obstetric characteristics proposed by Robson and the prenatal care index proposed by Kotelchuck.

Methods:  Data obtained from the Information System on Live Births of the Informatics Department of the Brazilian Unified Health System (SINASC/DATASUS, in the Portuguese acronym) databases were used to group pregnant women relatively to the Robson classification. A descriptive analysis was performed for each Robson group, considering the variables: maternal age, marital status, schooling, parity, Kotelchuck prenatal adequacy index and gestational age.

Prevalence of corrected arterial hypertension based on the self-reported prevalence estimated by the Brazilian National Health Survey.

The objective was to correct the self-reported prevalence of systemic arterial hypertension (SAH) obtained from the Brazilian National Health Survey (PNS 2013). SAH prevalence estimates were corrected by means of sensitivity/specificity of information. Sensitivity and specificity values from a similar study (same self-report question, age range and gold standard) were used to this end.

Predictors of adverse drug reactions associated with ribavirin in direct-acting antiviral therapies for chronic hepatitis C.

Purpose: To identify factors associated with the development of adverse drug reactions (ADR) in ribavirin therapeutic regimens.

Methods: A multicenter, prospective study was conducted in three public health hospitals in Rio de Janeiro between November 2015 and March 2018. Inclusion criteria were defined by patient follow-up at pharmaceutical consultation at the time of drug dispensing as those who used sofosbuvir in combination with simeprevir, daclatasvir, and/or ribavirin.

[Correction of self-reported prevalence in epidemiological studies with large samples].

Disease prevalence rates are useful when formulating and evaluating public policies. Self-reported measurement is commonly used, since it is easy to collect and does not require specific health training or additional cost. However, this measurement process can produce a biased measure.

Assessing vaccine data recording in Brazil.

Objectives: Vaccines represent an important advancement for improving the general health of a population. The effective recording of vaccine data is a factor for the definition of its supply chain. This study investigated vaccine data recording relatively to data collected from vaccination rooms and data obtained from a government-developed Internet platform.

Retractions in general and internal medicine in a high-profile scientific indexing database.

Context And Objective: Increased frequency of retractions has recently been observed, and retractions are important events that deserve scientific investigation. This study aimed to characterize cases of retraction within general and internal medicine in a high-profile database, with interest in the country of origin of the article and the impact factor (IF) of the journal in which the retraction was made.

Design And Setting: This study consisted of reviewing retraction notes in the Thomson-Reuters Web of Knowledge (WoK) indexing database, within general and internal medicine.

[Correspondence analysis: a theoretical basis for categorical data interpretation in health sciences].

Categorical variables are common in the biomedical field, and many descriptive methods have been proposed for revealing intrinsic patterns in data. Correspondence Analysis is an especially useful method for categorical data analysis of large contingency tables. Although numerous studies have been published on this method, most Portuguese-language articles have failed to explore its full potential, focusing only on graphical interpretation.

Factors associated with dietary patterns among low-income adults.

Objective: To describe the association of socio-economic, demographic and lifestyle characteristics with three eating patterns identified among low-income adults living in the Rio de Janeiro metropolitan area, Brazil.

Design: Data were obtained in a population-based cross-sectional study. The analysed patterns were: (i) 'Mixed', in which diverse foods had similar factor loadings; (ii) 'Western', which included items with high energy density; and (iii) 'Traditional', which relied in rice and beans, traditional staple foods in Brazil.

A comparison of three statistical methods applied in the identification of eating patterns.

This work aimed to compare the results of three statistical methods applied in the identification of dietary patterns. Data from 1,009 adults between the ages of 20 and 65 (339 males and 670 females) were collected in a population-based cross-sectional survey in the Metropolitan Region of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Information on food consumption was obtained using a semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire.

Association of dietary patterns with BMI and waist circumference in a low-income neighbourhood in Brazil.

Traditional analysis of food intake usually fails to show an association between energy and nutrient intake and indicators of obesity. The analysis of food patterns can contribute to the understanding of the association between eating habits and anthropometric indicators. A population-based cross-sectional study was carried out on a low-income neighbourhood in the Rio de Janeiro metropolitan area, and 1009 subjects between 20 and 65 years of age completed an FFQ.

Knee bioelectric impedance assessment in healthy/with osteoarthritis subjects.

The present study analyzes parameters estimated by bioelectric impedance spectroscopy (BIS) in subjects with healthy and with osteoarthritis (OA) knees. Thirty-two male volunteers, members of the Parachute Military Infantry Brigade of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, participated in the study (62 knee joints). Clinical specialists used the Dejour scale for OA classification and divided the subjects into a control (without OA) and a pathological group (with different degrees of OA).

Military parachuting injuries in Brazil.

The purpose of the present study was to identify the main injuries caused by military parachuting jumping techniques in Brazil. With this aim, their distribution by anatomical site and their association with aircraft type and drop zone characteristics were analysed. Data for the study were obtained by the analysis of accident reports, completed after each jumping training mission in which an injury occurred, during the period January 2005-August 2006.