Acta Medica Port
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Patients and health staff frequently need to stay in health care facilities for quite a long time. Therefore, it's necessary to create the conditions that allow the ingestion of food during those periods, namely through the existence of automatic food dispensers. However, the available food and beverages might not always be compatible with a healthy diet. ⋯ The beverages in the recommended and sometimes recommended groups were the most frequently available and sold. The not recommended food items were reported as being the most available, while both the recommended and not recommended food items were equally reported as being the most sold. Results show that unhealthy food and beverages are widely available in public health care facilities of the Portugal North Health Region.
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The objective of the current study was to adapt and validate the Roland Morris disability questionnaire (RMDQ) to the Portuguese patients because there are no European Portuguese psychometric instruments to evaluate patients suffering from low back pain. After translation and back translation the Portuguese version of the RMDQ was tested in 112 patients with low back pain (30 males and 82 females) to analyse psychometric characteristics. ⋯ The results revealed a large correlation between the RMDQ and END (r = 0.73) and a medium correlation with TS and GFA (in this order, r = -0,52 and r = 0,42). The psychometric analysis showed that the RMDQ gives reliable measures for the disability of patients with back pain and was successfully adapted and validated to the European Portuguese patients.
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The use of herbal complementary and alternative medicines is growing among Portuguese cancer patients, contributing to a higher risk for unwanted interactions, especially due to the narrow therapeutic index of most oncolytic drugs. A literature review was carried out in order to determine which medicinal plants are most commonly used by cancer patients, in Europe and USA, and their risk of interaction with the multiple medications taken by those patients. The collected information reveals a high degree of herb-drug interaction suggesting that patients under antineoplastic treatments should avoid the concomitant use of herbal medicines. These findings show that it is extremely important to have a clear knowledge of the herbal complementary and alternative medicines used by Portuguese cancer patients and to assess healthcare professionals' familiarity and attitude towards its use by cancer patients.