The impact of frailty on admission to home care services and nursing homes: eight-year follow-up of a community-dwelling, older adult, Spanish cohort.

Background: Frailty in older adults is a common multidimensional clinical entity, a state of vulnerability to stressors that increases the risk of adverse outcomes such as functional decline, institutionalization or death. The aim of this study is to identify the factors that anticipate the future inclusion of community-dwelling individuals aged ≥70 years in home care programmes (HC) and nursing homes (NH), and to develop the corresponding prediction models.

Methods: A prospective cohort study was conducted in 23 primary healthcare centers located in Catalonia, Spain, with an eight-year follow-up (2005-2013).

Effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of Improving clinicians' diagnostic and communication Skills on Antibiotic prescribing Appropriateness in patients with acute Cough in primary care in CATalonia (the ISAAC-CAT study): study protocol for a cluster randomised controlled trial.

Background: Despite their marginal benefit, about 60% of acute lower respiratory tract infections (ALRTIs) are currently treated with antibiotics in Catalonia. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of a continuous disease-focused intervention (C-reactive protein [CRP]) and an illness-focused intervention (enhancement of communication skills to optimise doctor-patient consultations) on antibiotic prescribing in patients with ALRTIs in Catalan primary care centres.

Methods/design: A cluster randomised, factorial, controlled trial aimed at including 20 primary care centres (N = 2940 patients) with patients older than 18 years of age presenting for a first consultation with an ALRTI will be included in the study.

Repeated Renal Biopsy - A Predictive Tool to Assess the Probability of Renal Flare in Lupus Nephritis.

Background: How one responds to treatment of lupus nephritis (LN) is based on clinical features, but the activity in renal biopsy (RB) is uncertain. We have described the therapeutic decisions after performing a repeated RB on the assessment of response to intravenous cyclophosphamide (IC) and the possible prognostic role of this repeated RB.

Methods: Clinical, laboratory and histological features at the initial RB and repeated RB were analyzed in 35 patients.

[Statistical methods to analyze risk with spatial distribution patterns].

The development of the geographic information systems has improved the interest in analyzing the characteristics of the population, taking into account the place where they live. The health of the population, measured as the risk of morbidity or mortality, is conditioned by the variety of risk factors characteristic of the region which cannot be measured. Analysis of spatial models considers the dependence of the health indicators between close regions.