São Paulo medical journal = Revista paulista de medicina
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Extensive evidence shows that well over 50% of people prefer to be cared for and to die at home provided circumstances allow choice. Despite best efforts and policies, one-third or less of all deaths take place at home in many countries of the world. ⋯ The results provide clear and reliable evidence that home palliative care increases the chance of dying at home and reduces symptom burden in particular for patients with cancer, without impacting on caregiver grief. This justifies providing home palliative care for patients who wish to die at home. More work is needed to study cost-effectiveness especially for people with non-malignant conditions, assessing place of death and appropriate outcomes that are sensitive to change and valid in these populations, and to compare different models of home palliative care, in powered studies.
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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. ⋯ The study identified greater incidence of plagiarism/duplication among retractions from countries with lower scientific impact.
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Lifestyle includes the personal attitudes or behavioral patterns that result in risks or benefits to the individual's own health or that of others. Children's health is particularly determined by their mother's lifestyle. The objective here was to develop and evaluate the reliability of a questionnaire capable of describing the lifestyles of preschoolers' mothers in terms of their activities, interests, opinions and values. ⋯ The questionnaire described five lifestyle domains, with good reliability, and can be used in combination with preschoolers' health and nutritional outcomes.
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Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP) has attracted the interest of researchers because of similarities between paratuberculosis and Crohn's disease (CD). The aim of this study was to evaluate the frequency of MAP through cultures, histology and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) on intestinal biopsies from Brazilian CD patients. Quantitative real time PCR (qRT-PCR) was performed on positive samples. ⋯ This study does not provide evidence for a role of MAP in the etiology of CD, although MAP DNA was detected in all three patient groups. This is the first report of MAP presence in human intestinal biopsies in Brazil.
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Accelerometry provides objective measurement of physical activity levels, but is unfeasible in clinical practice. Thus, we aimed to identify physical fitness tests capable of predicting physical inactivity among adults. ⋯ The six-minute walk test should be included in epidemiological studies as a simple and cheap tool for screening for physical inactivity.