Avaliação da satisfação do utente na comunicação com os profissionais de saúde construção e validação de um instrumento

A satisfação do utente na comunicação com profissionais de saúde é um indicador de qualidade dos serviços ou instituições. Na literatura não encontramos instrumentos padronizados e validados, que avaliem a satisfação do utente na comunicação com os profissionais de saúde. O presente estudo tem como objetivo construir e validar um instrumento para avaliar a satisfação do utente na comunicação com os profissionais de saúde. Desenvolvemos este estudo em três ciclos. Um primeiro, revisão da literatura, para identificar dimensões e itens da comunicação interpessoal na saúde. No segundo ciclo, conduzimos um método de Delphi modificado em três rondas, com recurso à plataforma informática de questionários Survey Monkey, no qual participou um painel de 25 peritos; estabelecemos como critério mínimo de retenção para a ronda seguinte os itens que recebessem 70% do consenso por parte do painel. Após as três rondas, obtivemos um instrumento com seis dimensões comunicacionais (comunicação verbal, comunicação não verbal, empatia, respeito, resolução de problemas e material de apoio), vinte e cinco itens específicos, e mais seis dimensões genéricas, que avaliam cada uma das dimensões. No terceiro ciclo avaliamos as características psicométricas, em termos de sensibilidade, validade do construto e fidelidade, numa amostra de 348 participantes. Os resultados mostram que todas as categorias de resposta estavam representadas em todos os itens. Validade do construto- a análise fatorial identificou uma solução de seis componentes que explicam 71% da variância total. Fiabilidade - os valores da correlação item-total variam entre 0,387 e 0,722, existindo uma correlação positiva moderada a forte. O valor de alfa de Cronbach (α=0,928) indica que a consistência interna é excelente. O instrumento construído apresenta boas propriedades psicométricas. Fica assim disponível uma nova ferramenta para auxiliar na gestão e no processo de planeamento necessários ao incremento da qualidade nos serviços e instituições de saúde.

Forest soil short term response to prescribed fire: an approach by Principal Components Analysis

In the current context of serious climate changes, where the increase of the frequency of some extreme events occurrence can enhance the rate of periods prone to high intensity forest fires, the National Forest Authority often implements, in several Portuguese forest areas, a regular set of measures in order to control the amount of fuel mass availability (PNDFCI, 2008). In the present work we’ll present a preliminary analysis concerning the assessment of the consequences given by the implementation of prescribed fire measures to control the amount of fuel mass in soil recovery, in particular in terms of its water retention capacity, its organic matter content, pH and content of iron. This work is included in a larger study (Meira-Castro, 2009(a); Meira-Castro, 2009(b)). According to the established praxis on the data collection, embodied in multidimensional matrices of n columns (variables in analysis) by p lines (sampled areas at different depths), and also considering the quantitative data nature present in this study, we’ve chosen a methodological approach that considers the multivariate statistical analysis, in particular, the Principal Component Analysis (PCA ) (Góis, 2004). The experiments were carried out in a soil cover over a natural site of Andaluzitic schist, in Gramelas, Caminha, NW Portugal, who was able to maintain itself intact from prescribed burnings from four years and was submit to prescribed fire in March 2008. The soils samples were collected from five different plots at six different time periods. The methodological option that was adopted have allowed us to identify the most relevant relational structures inside the n variables, the p samples and in two sets at the same time (Garcia-Pereira, 1990). Consequently, and in addition to the traditional outputs produced from the PCA, we have analyzed the influence of both sampling depths and geomorphological environments in the behavior of all variables involved.

Effect of active components from Garlic on AGEs formation

Advanced glycation end-products are Maillard reaction products that are found in thermal processed food. This compounds are often referred as unhealthy for human diet, namely because of their capacity to form amino-acid dimers. There is a broad range of answers to get about how these products are formed, how they interact with the organism and how these reactions can be inhibited to prevent the referred effects. Some compounds from garlic are thought to be able to inhibit these reactions. This study using spectrophotometric, High Performance Liquid Chromatography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS) and Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis, helps to understand better not only not only the effect of some compounds obtained from garlic, diallyl sulfide (DAS), diallyl disulfide (DADS) and diallyl trisulfide (DATS), on these AGEs production reaction, but also helped to understand better the reaction itself.

The effect of method, standard and sample components on the total antioxidant capacity of commercial waters assessed by optical conventional assays

The total antioxidant capacity (TAC) of 28 flavoured water samples was assessed by ferric reducing antioxidant potential (FRAP), oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC), trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity (TEAC) and total reactive antioxidant potential (TRAP) methods. It was observed that flavoured waters had higher antioxidant activity than the corresponding natural ones. The observed differences were attributed to flavours, juice and vitamins. Generally, higher TAC contents were obtained on lemon waters and lower values on guava and raspberry flavoured waters. Lower and higher TACs were obtained by TRAP and ORAC method, respectively. Statistical analysis suggested that vitamins and flavours increased the antioxidant content of the commercial waters.