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The COVID-19 pandemic crisis, among so many social, economic and health problems, also brought new opportunities. The potential of telemedicine to improve health outcomes had already been recognised in the last decades, but the pandemic crisis has accelerated the digital revolution. In 2020, a rapid increase in the use of remote consultations occurred due to the need to reduce attendance and overcrowding in outpatient clinics. However, the benefit of their use extends beyond the pandemic crisis, as an important tool to improve both the efficiency and capacity of future healthcare systems. This article reviews the literature regarding telemedicine and teleconsultation standards and recommendations, collects opinions of Portuguese experts in respiratory medicine and provides guidance in teleconsultation practices for Pulmonologists., (Copyright © 2022 Sociedade Portuguesa de Pneumologia. Published by Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.)

Aims: The Portuguese health system is mainly described as a National Health Service (NHS), but it also has some Bismarckian features. On top of these two layers of health insurance coverage, there is a market for voluntary private health insurance (VPHI). Usually, seniors are not eligible for this type of health insurance and this may serve as a complement or supplement to the NHS. The purpose of this work is to identify the main factors associated with holding a VPHI policy among seniors before the COVID-19 pandemic., Material and Methods: We use data collected by the National Health Survey of 2019/20 and estimate a multivariate logistic regression., Results: The main findings show that VPHI may be bought by seniors as a facilitator to access health care, either specialised or dental care. While oral health is not covered by the NHS, specialist care is only available after referral by a gatekeeper and requires a long waiting time to be scheduled. Results show that people who had an appointment with a dentist or a specialist in the last 12 months are more likely to have a VPHI policy. Additionally, it was found that people benefiting from occupation-based insurance schemes are less likely to buy private health insurance., Conclusion: The current Portuguese health system organization based on different layers of health protection raises some issues concerning equity to health care access by seniors., (© 2022 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

The study aims to understand the foremost challenges in the transition to online teaching and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study adopts the PRISMA approach to screening the selection of journal articles and review papers according to the research aims and the inclusion criteria. The journal articles and review papers were extracted and stored in Microsoft Excel and Google Scholar, Academic. Microsoft, Semantic Scholar, Elsevier, and Emerald Insight databases searched relevant documents using formulated keywords. A statistical technique was applied using the M.S. Excel analysis tool (PivotTable and an independent t-Test) to analyze data and determine the differences between teachers and students. The review revealed the evidence that the majority of the studies were primarily focused on the individual developing countries and results from other developing countries were not considered. In addition, the foremost challenges in the transition to online teaching and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic were inadequate skills and training, inadequate Internet/Infrastructure, lack of supporting resources and lack of online student engagement and feedback. Finally, the independent t-test reveals there is no statistically significant difference in challenges in the transition to online teaching and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Both teachers and students encounter similar challenges. The systematic review raised concerns that higher learning needs to effectively implement long term strategies and support teachers and students in getting into online teaching and learning.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is a worldwide event that has caused significant changes in the daily lives of individuals and families. The combined effect of the pandemic and the stress associated with major life cycle changes, such as the transition to parenthood, is yet to be understood. The aim of the current study was to validate the Portuguese version of the recently developed COVID-19 Household Environment Scale (CHES) and examine its psychometric properties in a sample of mothers who had given birth during the pandemic. The CHES is a self-report measure assessing the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic in household cohesion and conflict and includes two sections. Section 1 contains 25 descriptive items pertaining to sociodemographic and household characteristics and COVID-19 stressors. Section 2 encompasses household cohesion and conflict, assessing any change in household experiences and activities following the onset of social distancing. The participants consisted of 342 mothers, aged between 19 and 50 years (M = 31.43; SD = 4.38). A confirmatory factor analysis supported the original CHES bifactor structure of household cohesion and conflict, which obtained an acceptable fit (CFI = 0.900, RMSEA = 0.065). Correlations between household cohesion and conflict and family cohesion and dyadic coping contributed to developing the construct validity of this scale. Furthermore, both CHES subscales demonstrated very good internal consistency. Further research is warranted to assess the CHES in other cultural contexts. This is a useful tool to assess change in family households due to the unprecedented adverse pandemic experience., (© 2022 The Authors. Family Process published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Family Process Institute.)

In the last two years, a growing number of studies have focused on the promotion of students' mental health to address the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, less studies have been conducted on sustaining teachers' mental health which has been affected by the sudden changes in online teaching and the difficulties in keeping and building relationship with students. Even before the pandemic, teaching has long been recognised as one of the most challenging occupations characterized by high levels of stress. Although the research highlighted the key role of mental health promotion among teachers, there is still a lack of programs enhancing teachers' wellbeing. This study examined the impact of the PROMEHS program, a school-based curriculum, on teachers' mental health. A total of 687 teachers participated in the study. Applying a pre- and post-training study design with experimental and waiting list groups, teachers were evaluated in social and emotional learning, resilience, and self-efficacy. The results showed that there was a significant improvement in all competences of the teachers in the experimental group compared to those in the waiting list group. The paper discusses the implications of the findings with recommendations for further studies in the area.

School-home communication is a growing research field in social sciences, particularly in education sciences and communication studies. While previous studies have paid much attention to the importance of school-home interaction in supporting primary academic socialisation and progress of elementary school pupils, the role of teacher-parent communication and collaboration in influencing the development of children's and adolescents' digital skills remains an under-researched area. This paper employed thematic analysis of in-depth interviews with education experts in six European countries, providing an insight into their opinions and views on the problems in communication between homes and schools. The analysis identified main problems in and obstacles to school-home collaboration on children's digital skills development, and the changes the COVID-19 pandemic brought along in this field of education. The paper provides five policy recommendations for enhancing school-home collaboration on digital skills development.

Background: COVID-19 pandemic placed unprecedented pressure on societies and healthcare systems around the world. Over the last years, measures imposed in almost all countries dealing with the pandemic sent the entire world into an extensive crisis and thus into a deep global recession. Since the outbreak began, many European countries have faced three/four waves of pandemic. Portugal has mainly dealt with three waves (March/April'2020; October/November'2020; January/February'2021), the third being the deadliest one. The purpose of this article is to provide evidence on the impact of the COVID-19 on health-related quality of life (HRQol) and well-being (W-B) of Portuguese citizens. It aims to (i) characterize these outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic; (ii) compare them to pre-COVID-19 Portuguese population; and (iii) identify the social determinants that may affect these outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic., Methods: This study used data from a survey that collected data on HRQoL, W-B, satisfaction with life, economic and labour impacts, access to healthcare, mental and physical health, amongst others. The survey was implemented by telephone to a representative random sample of 1,255 respondents from the general adult Portuguese population, stratified by sex, age group and region. Data was collected during the end of the second national lockdown. For comparison purposes, we have also used two other representative databases from the general Portuguese population: (i) data from before the pandemic (n = 1,006); and (ii) data from a survey conducted during the first lockdown, (n = 904)., Results: Looking at health and access to healthcare, 4% of citizens had their surgeries postponed or cancelled because of COVID-19, more than a quarter had medical appointments or complementary exams postponed or cancelled, with 7% over 65 years old with surgeries cancelled or postponed and 32% medical appointments. COVID-19 pandemic also impacted negatively on the HRQoL of citizens, especially in the first lockdown. Half of the respondents reported feeling nervous, anxious, or on edge, about 45% of citizens felt sad or depressed. Sleeping problems were reported for almost 39% of citizens, and loneliness is reported by 29% of citizens. For about 70-85% of citizens, these feelings were more so than before the pandemic. Citizens with fair/strong economic stability were the most economically affected by the pandemic., Conclusions: We provided evidence on the impact of COVID-19 on health and W-B of Portuguese citizens. Their health was worse than before the pandemic and the access to healthcare was highly affected., (© 2023. International Society for Quality of Life Research (ISOQOL).)

The closure of higher education institutions as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated a sudden and unexpected transition from face-to-face to online teaching and learning. This paper draws on data from a broader study focusing on higher education students' perceptions and experiences of online learning during the first lockdown in 2020. In total, 2,718 students from different Portuguese institutions participated in the study. Findings indicate that students who felt they had been provided with more feedback reported less difficulty in online teaching and learning. Students reported more perceived difficulty than perceived feedback in online teaching and learning. Findings point to the importance of feedback in fostering self-regulation of learning, thereby helping students better adapt to online teaching and learning.

Since the 2010s, Portugal has experienced a considerable growth in the number of Chinese international students, who have been attracted by the country's image of tolerance and openness for diversity. However, as it was reported in other contexts, throughout the health crisis, these students were blatantly confronted with racial microaggressions in their daily routines inside and outside their higher education institutions' facilities. Drawing on evidence from 30 in-depth interviews conducted with Chinese international students in Portugal and following a thematic analysis approach, this paper analyses how they frame and perceive their encounters with racism in their daily lives during the pandemic. We argue that Chinese international students resort on distinct discursive strategies to negotiate their encounters with racism during their sojourns in Portugal throughout the health crisis and to negate their "otherness" as a racial minority in the country.

Objective: This review summarizes evidence pertaining to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the psychological health of children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Materials and Methods: An electronic search was conducted using four major databases--PubMed, ScienceDirect, Web of Science, and Google Scholar. Using an umbrella methodology, the reference lists of relevant papers were reviewed, and citation searches were conducted. The study included articles written in English between January 2020 and March 2021 that focused on the psychological health of autistic children and adolescents. Results: All eight studies included in the final review were cross-sectional. Three of the eight studies were conducted in Italy, two in Turkey, and one study each in Portugal, Spain, and the United Kingdom, with a total of 1,407 participants. All studies used a mixture of standardized and non-standardized questionnaires to collect data. The total number of patients were 1407 at a mean age of 9.53 (SD = 2.96) years. Seven studies report gender; male 74.7% (657/880) and female 25.3% (223/880). The finding showed that behavioral issues in children and adolescents with ASD have significantly increased; 521 (51.9 percent) of the 1004 individuals with ASD presented with behavioral changes, including conduct problems, emotional problems, aggression, and hyperactivity. Some studies also found increased anxiety and difficulties managing emotions. Only one study reported clinical stabilization in children with ASD during COVID-19. Finally, 82.7% of families and caregivers of children with ASD (544 out of 658) faced challenges during COVID-19. Conclusion: Although the studies in this review suggest a general worsening of ASD children's clinical status, it remains difficult to draw definitive conclusions at this moment, with newer COVID-19 variants on the rise worldwide. During this difficult pandemic period, caregivers, families, and healthcare professionals are recommended to pay more attention to the ASD patients' health and care needs.

The paper analyses the influence of COVID-19 on Portuguese institutions' intake of international students and their responses to the pandemic. Two dimensions are considered: quantitative impact on international enrolments and higher education institutions' strategies for the recruitment and support of international students. The first dimension is analysed through national statistics and comparison of enrolments over the past five years. Then, the institutional strategies implemented to encourage recruitment of new international students and to support existing ones during the lockdown are explored. Statistics show that COVID-19 had a negative impact on international enrolments, although less severe than expected. Growth has continued, but at a much slower pace than in the past few years. The slowdown in growth was much more pronounced in polytechnics than in universities. Additionally, the measures implemented by Portuguese higher education institutions suggest that these have coped with COVID-19 as an opportunity to rethink and redefine strategies.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on education, he transformation of didactics and technological methods was necessary to promote students' self-learning and motivation, alongside teachers' tutoring, guiding students' academic journey. This paper aims to investigate the effect of COVID-19 on digitalization accounting in higher education and explores the students' perception of the adapted hybrid model. The study follows a qualitative approach and rely on the final-year students of the accounting and management degree of Accounting and Business of Porto Polytechnic School. Data were collected through a questionnaire from students who experienced both distance and face-to-face education and completed the course of Management Simulation. The study highlights the digitalization of accounting teaching and the pandemic's effect on the future of digital accounting education. In sum, the hybrid model meets the needs of this practical course and can be a model to be applied in the future.

In this article, the authors analyze the current situation in Portugal, in terms of the relationship between basic education and higher education, focusing on the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic in these processes. Moreover, this piece also addresses the quality of student preparation in basic education for a positive and successful experience in higher education.

This paper examines preservice teachers' perspectives on assessment feedback developed in a teacher education course during the first lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As initially negotiated with students, feedback was learner-centred and involved a formative intervention approach applied iteratively by the teacher educator over the course of one semester. Although such feedback was initially face-to-face, it had to be given exclusively online following the unexpected closure of the university. Analysis of student teachers' perspectives, which were collected through an online questionnaire completed after their final assessment, reveals both positive and critical aspects regarding the feedback provided by the teacher educator. While reaffirming the significance of feedback as a crucial element for learning in online teacher education contexts, the findings also show that the clarity, affective bonding and multimodal meaning-making involved in face-to-face interaction are particularly challenging when the communication of feedback is digitally mediated. The implications and limitations of such findings are discussed.

This paper presents a compilation of personal reflections from 66 contributors on the impact of, and responses to, COVID-19 in accounting education in 45 different countries around the world. It reveals a commonality of issues, and a variability in responses, many positive outcomes, including the creation of opportunities to realign learning and teaching strategies away from the comfort of traditional formats, but many more that are negative, primarily relating to the impact on faculty and student health and well-being, and the accompanying stress. It identifies issues that need to be addressed in the recovery and redesign stages of the management of this crisis, and it sets a new research agenda for studies in accounting education.

This paper focuses on the national, institutional and pedagogical responses as a result of the closure of schools and universities in March 2020 in Portugal. It includes a brief description and analysis of the initiatives and responses to the crisis as well as the difficulties, the challenges and the opportunities. The paper concludes with the discussion of the implications for teaching and teacher education in such uncertain times, particularly in regard to the role of practice as well as issues of mentoring within the context of a practicum as a 'real practice' versus 'an ideal(ised) practice'.

The COVID-19 pandemic brought about a global crisis affecting all sectors of society. Higher education is no exception. The closure of higher education institutions has dictated a sudden and unexpected transition from face-to-face to remote teaching to mitigate the spread of the SARS-CoV-2. This paper draws upon a wider piece of research which aimed to understand how higher education students adapted to the closure of their institution and how they looked at their experience of online teaching and learning. In total, 2718 students from different Portuguese higher education institutions participated in the study. Findings showed that both personal and contextual factors explained students' positive or negative adaptation to online teaching and learning as a result of the closure of higher education institutions. Institutional and pedagogical responses, individual self-regulatory and socio-emotional competencies and adequate resources were factors that led to either a more positive or negative student experience of online teaching and learning in times of COVID-19.

This paper suggests possible futures for astronomy activities in a post-COVID environment. A corpus of video recordings of astronomy education sessions held in different settings allowed the authors to analyse how sessions are achieved, with inclusive focus on the astronomers, the public attending sessions, and people looking through telescopes. Videos were recorded in Portugal in 2019 and the beginning of 2020. From these video data, and experience as science educators, the authors identify practices that are characteristic of astronomy education--some of these will no longer be safe procedures while living with COVID-19. With planning, both indoor and outdoor astronomy education sessions can continue safely without sacrificing the excitement of seeing objects in the sky. There is more to astronomy than looking through a telescope.

When schools were closed due to the COVID-19 restrictions, teachers were challenged to engage children with Special Educational Needs (SEN) through remote teaching, particularly in physical education. The European Standards in Adapted Physical Activity (EUSAPA) have been used to define the competencies of adapted physical education (APE) teachers. Through a consensus building exercise, the standards were updated in this paper to include technologically supported pedagogy. Evidence from 125 APE teachers, who completed a technological communication inventory, modified versions of the technology, pedagogy and content knowledge scale (TPACK-21), and self-efficacy on including students with disabilities in physical education scale (SE-PETE-D), were used to inform experts to create technological indicators for the EUSAPA. Teachers used 3 to 4 technologies (email, phone, SMS, Whatsapp) to communicate with students and colleagues, and many reported low levels of technological content knowledge. Experts considered the need to add 13 new functions to the EUSAPA. Most of the functions were considered to be feasible to implement in existing practices and the other requiring extra resources or skills. As further training is planned, consideration of expertise is warranted when mapped against meeting standards.

In this paper, we consider a compartmental model to fit the real data of confirmed active cases with COVID-19 in Portugal, from March 2, 2020 until September 10, 2021 in the Primary Care Cluster in Aveiro region, ACES BV, reported to the Public Health Unit. The model includes a deterministic component based on ordinary differential equations and a stochastic component based on bootstrap methods in regression. The main goal of this work is to take into account the variability underlying the data set and analyse the estimation accuracy of the model using a residual bootstrapped approach in order to compute confidence intervals for the prediction of COVID-19 confirmed active cases. All numerical simulations are performed in R environment (R version. 4.0.5). The proposed algorithm can be used, after a suitable adaptation, in other communicable diseases and outbreaks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19 has become one of the critical health issues globally, which surfaced first in latter part of the year 2019. It is the topmost concern for many nations’ governments as the contagious virus started mushrooming over adjacent regions of infected areas. In 1980, a vaccine called Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) was introduced for preventing tuberculosis and lung cancer. Countries that have made the BCG vaccine mandatory have witnessed a lesser COVID-19 fatality rate than the countries that have not made it compulsory. This paper’s initial research shows that the countries with a longtermcompulsory BCGvaccination system are less affected by COVID-19 than those without a BCG vaccination system. This paper discusses analytical data patterns for medical applications regarding COVID-19 impact on countries with mandatory BCG status on fatality rates. The paper has tackled numerous analytical challenges to realize the full potential of heterogeneous data. An analogy is drawn to demonstrate how other factors can affect fatality and infection rates other than BCG vaccination only, such as age groups affected, other diseases, and stringency index. The data of Spain, Portugal, and Germany have been taken for a case study of BCG impact analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemics and the lockdowns imposed to mitigate the rise of infections beyond manageable levels strongly affected international trade. Although the health crisis and the mobility restrictions associated with lockdowns are closely related, their impacts on international trade have a different nature. This paper uses monthly firm-level trade data for Portuguese firms to measure the impact of partner countries' lockdowns on nominal export and import flows during 2020 and the first half of 2021, while also assessing the impact of the health crisis. The high time frequency and granularity of the data contribute to the identification of the impact of these obstacles on trade. We conclude that the detrimental impact of lockdowns is sizeable and broadly similar in exports and imports, and the impact of the health conditions is slightly stronger in exports. There is evidence that the detrimental impact of lockdowns was stronger for larger firms, for those with higher geographical concentration of trade, more integrated in global value chains and in the upper quartiles of the trade unit value distribution. The negative impact is also estimated to be larger for industries with high import content and for trade partners that are more important as sources of value added to be embodied in Portuguese exports. Results also suggest that exports adapted to the prevailing circumstances as of June 2020, but such an effect is not clear in imports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the COVID-19 pandemic reached its peak, many countries implemented genomic surveillance systems to track the evolution and transmission of SARS-CoV-2. Transition from the pandemic to the endemic phase prioritized alternative testing strategies to maintain effective epidemic surveillance at the population level, with less intensive sequencing efforts. One such promising approach was Wastewater-Based Surveillance (WBS), which offers non-invasive, cost-effective means for analysing virus trends at the sewershed level. From 2020 onwards, wastewater has been recognized as an instrumental source of information for public health, with national and international authorities exploring options to implement national wastewater surveillance systems and increasingly relying on WBS as early warning of potential pathogen outbreaks. In Portugal, several pioneer projects joined the academia, water utilities and Public Administration around WBS. To validate WBS as an effective genomic surveillance strategy, it is crucial to collect long term performance data. In this work, we present one year of systematic SARS-CoV-2 wastewater surveillance in Portugal, representing 35 % of the mainland population. We employed two complementary methods for lineage determination - allelic discrimination by RT-PCR and S-gene sequencing. This combination allowed us to monitor variant evolution in near-real-time and identify low-frequency mutations. Over the course of this year-long study, spanning from May 2022 to April 2023, we successfully tracked the dominant Omicron sub-lineages, their progression and evolution, which aligned with concurrent clinical surveillance data. Our results underscore the effectiveness of WBS as a tracking system for virus variants, with the ability to unveil mutations undetected via massive sequencing of clinical samples from Portugal, demonstrating the ability of WBS to uncover new mutations and detect rare genetic variants. Our findings emphasize that knowledge of the genetic diversity of SARS-CoV-2 at the population level can be extended far beyond via the combination of routine clinical genomic surveillance with wastewater sequencing and genotyping., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cancer screening in Portugal, and its consequences on cancer morbidity and mortality., Methods: The pre-pandemic and pandemic periods were compared using publicly available data on performance and health outcomes indicators of the Portuguese NHS, namely the numbers and proportions of eligible individuals who underwent cancer screening (breast, cervical or colorectal). Pre-pandemic data were modelled to project hypothetical scenarios without a pandemic using an exponential smoothing algorithm, and then compared with data collected during the COVID-19 pandemic. A Markov model was developed to estimate years of life lost (YLL) due the reduction in the number of cancer screenings during the pandemic. The MS Excel and the PRISM symbolic model checker software were used., Results: There was a decrease in the number of breast (13 %), cervical (15 %) and colorectal (9-11 %) cancers screenings during the first two years of the pandemic. The model projections are 506, 41, and 148 additional deaths, losses of 11, 6, and 4 months of life per patient, and 12.8 thousand, 576, and 4 thousand YLL by the population due to breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer, respectively, over a 25-year time horizon in Portugal., Conclusions: The disruption in cancer screening may contribute to increase cancer morbidity and mortality, with significant YLL. The long-term implications of the impaired cancer screening should be assessed, and proactive measures put in place to mitigate the increase in cancer morbidity, and mortality associated with the COVID-19 pandemic., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Indoor air quality (IAQ) in the built environment is significantly influenced by particulate matter, volatile organic compounds, and air temperature. Recently, the Internet of Things (IoT) has been integrated to improve IAQ and safeguard human health, comfort, and productivity. This review seeks to highlight the potential of IoT integration for monitoring IAQ. Additionally, the paper details progress by researchers in developing IoT/mobile applications for IAQ monitoring, and their transformative impact in smart building, healthcare, predictive maintenance, and real-time data analysis systems. It also outlines the persistent challenges (e.g., data privacy, security, and user acceptability), hampering effective IoT implementation for IAQ monitoring. Lastly, the global developments and research landscape on IoT for IAQ monitoring were examined through bibliometric analysis (BA) of 106 publications indexed in Web of Science from 2015 to 2022. BA revealed the most significant contributing countries are India and Portugal, while the top productive institutions and researchers are Instituto Politecnico da Guarda (10.37% of TP) and Marques Goncalo (15.09% of TP), respectively. Keyword analysis revealed four major research themes: IoT, pollution, monitoring, and health. Overall, this paper provides significant insights for identifying prospective collaborators, benchmark publications, strategic funding, and institutions for future IoT-IAQ researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the start of the pandemic, questions were raised concerning how the pandemic could change or even transform relationships to our living environments. COVID-19 has had a disproportionate impact on the health and well-being of older people due to the increased risk of severity of the disease with both advancing age and associated co-morbidities. Restrictions on the movement of older people have also been more severe, with many countries imposing restrictions based on chronological age. In Portugal, confinement measures were targeted at older persons in terms of sheltering-at-home orders for those over 70. This paper looks at the impact of these restrictions on the lives of older people and asks what we can learn from the pandemic about the concept of age-friendly cities (WHO, 2007a). We look at the lived experience of older people to understand how their well-being and mobility were impacted during the crisis and its aftermath. The study was undertaken in four urban areas: Aveiro, Coimbra, Lisbon, and Faro. Data was collected using semi-structured interviews analysed using a process of thematic coding based on the eight pillars of the WHO's Age-Friendly City Checklist (WHO, 2007b). The results are discussed using conceptualisations from the new mobilities paradigm: existential mobility, connection and (im)mobility governance, offering new ways of thinking about age-friendliness in and out of crisis., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The main purpose of this study is to understand how Portuguese restaurants' solvency was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, considering the factors that influence it. Financial information was collected for the years 2019 and 2020 in the SABI database to elaborate a quantitative methodology; a descriptive analysis was used and Pearson's correlation coefficient, a Paired t-test, a one-way ANOVA test, and a multiple linear regression were used to test the formulated hypotheses. The findings confirm that solvency is affected by several determinants, such as financial autonomy, indebtedness, financial leverage, asset turnover, return on equity, and long-term bank debt. Solvency is influenced positively by financial autonomy and financial leverage. In contrast, solvency is negatively influenced by indebtedness, asset turnover, and long-term bank debt. Additionally, this paper represents the first study, in the restaurant sector in Portugal, which analyses the importance of solvency and its determinants, by facing a normal year with a crisis year. The paper is innovative in terms of knowledge about restaurant solvency behavior in periods of financial crisis and also because the COVID-19 pandemic has added an additional variable to restaurant solvency: short-term bank debt. In terms of theoretical implications, this study provides further insights about the factors influencing solvency in restaurant businesses during periods of a financial crisis. The main practical contributions are linked to improving the leadership skills of restaurant owners and managers to deal with periods of crisis in general, thus improving the solvency of their businesses and decreasing the risks associated with bankruptcy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In November 2020, the Portuguese Payment Systems Forum issued the Portuguese Retail Payments Strategy | Horizon 2022. The strategy has been formulated to support the implementation of secure, efficient and innovative payment solutions, while promoting broad accessibility to retail payment services. As this paper will discuss, the strategy envisions 42 initiatives for stakeholders in the payments market. These initiatives fall under four pillars: (1) ensuring consumers are better informed about the payment instruments available to them; (2) fostering the benefits of digital transformation; (3) contributing to a regulatory framework that promotes innovation and efficiency; and (4) driving the adoption of safer payment solutions. This paper describes key initiatives under these pillars, and reports on how the strategy is progressing towards its goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the emergence of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in Portugal, a geostatistical tool was developed to model the spatial distribution of COVID-19 risk to support decision-making and policymakers. Based on a block direct sequential simulation algorithm, the model provides detailed disease risk estimates and associated spatial uncertainty. However, uncertainty is difficult to visualize with the estimated risk, and is usually overlooked as a tool to support decision-making. Ignoring uncertainty can be misleading in evaluating risk, since the amount of uncertainty varies throughout the spatial domain. The EpiGeostats R package was developed to solve this problem, since it integrates the geostatistical model and visualization tools to deliver a single map summarizing disease risk and spatial uncertainty. This paper briefly describes the methodology and package functions implemented for interfacing with the tools in question. The use of EpiGeostats is illustrated by applying it to real data from COVID-19 incidence rates on mainland Portugal. EpiGeostats is a powerful tool for supporting decision-making in the context of epidemics, since it combines a well-established geostatistical model for disease risk mapping with simple and intuitive ways of visualizing results, which prevent fine-scale inference in regions with high-risk uncertainty. The package may be used for similar problems such as mortality risk, or applied to other fields such as ecology or environmental epidemiology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Infectious disease epidemics are challenging for medical and public health practitioners. They require prompt treatment, but it is challenging to recognize and define epidemics in real time. Knowing the prediction of an infectious disease epidemic can evaluate and prevent the disease's impact. Mathematical models of epidemics that work in real time are important tools for preventing disease, and data-driven deep learning enables practical algorithms for identifying parameters in mathematical models. In this paper, the SIR model was reduced to a logistic differential equation involving a constant parameter and a time-dependent function. The time-dependent function leads to constant, rational, and birational models. These models use several constant parameters from the available data to predict the time and number of people reported to be infected with the COVID-19 Omicron variant. Two out of these three models, rational and birational, provide accurate predictions for countries that practice strict mitigation measures, but fail to provide accurate predictions for countries that practice partial mitigation measures. Therefore, we introduce a time-series model based on neural networks to predict the time and number of people reported to be infected with the COVID-19 Omicron variant in a given country that practices both partial and strict mitigation measures. A logistics-informed neural network algorithm was also introduced. This algorithm takes as input the daily and cumulative number of people who are reported to be infected with the COVID-19 Omicron variant in the given country. The algorithm helps determine the analytical solution involving several constant parameters for each model from the available data. The accuracy of these models is demonstrated using error metrics on Omicron variant data for Portugal, Italy, and China. Our findings demonstrate that the constant model could not accurately predict the daily or cumulative infections of the COVID-19 Omicron variant in the observed country because of the long series of existing data of the epidemics. However, the rational and birational models accurately predicted cumulative infections in countries adopting strict mitigation measures, but they fell short in predicting the daily infections. Furthermore, both models performed poorly in countries with partial mitigation measures. Notably, the time-series model stood out for its versatility, effectively predicting both daily and cumulative infections in countries irrespective of the stringency of their mitigation measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In 2020, Portugal had high levels of unmet health care needs. Primary Care was reported as the main source of unmet needs., Objectives: To describe face-to-face and remote access to GPs in Portugal during the COVID-19 pandemic. To discover patient experiences and attitudes to access to care. To identify determinants of access to care., Methods: A survey of a random sample of 4,286 adults registered in a group of Family Practices was conducted in 2021. Paper questionnaires were sent by post to patients who had no e-mail address registered with the practice. Patients with an e-mail address were sent a link to an online questionnaire. Outcomes were reported waiting times for face-to-face and remote contacts with GPs, dichotomized to ascertain compliance with standards. Associations between participant characteristics and outcome variables were tested using logistic regression., Results: Waiting times for face-to-face consultations with GPs during the pandemic often exceeded the maximum waiting times (MWT) set by the National Health Service. Remote contacts were mostly conducted within acceptable standards. Waiting times for speaking with the GP over the phone were rated as 'poor' by 40% and 27% reported requests for these calls as unmet. The odds of getting care over MWT increased for participants who reported poorer digital skills. Participants were less likely to get non-urgent consultations over MWT if they found it easy to use the online patient portal to book appointments (odds ratio 0.24; 99% confidence intervals 0.09-0.61), request prescriptions (0.18; 0.04-0.74) or insert personal data (0.18; 0.04-0.95)., Conclusion: Patient reported access to GPs during the pandemic was uneven in Portugal. Obtaining non-urgent consultations and remote contacts over MWT affected mainly those patients with poor digital skills. Telephone access to GPs received the worse ratings. Access through traditional pathways must remain available, to prevent the widening of inequities., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2023 Granja et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

This paper aims to describe and discuss the significance of the social policy measures implemented in Southern European countries—Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain—in response to the first wave of COVID‐19. Our analysis covers interventions from 1 March to June 30, 2020. Despite significant differences in how the COVID‐19 pandemic spread—with Italy and Spain experiencing much higher rates of infection and lethality—Southern European economies are among the most hard‐hit—and are likely to find themselves in the eye of the storm, once more. The paper shows that despite differences in how countries have countered the spread of COVID‐19, there are important commonalities in the actions governments took to counteract the economic impact of the pandemic. Foremost efforts were directed at wage subsidy schemes to contain mass job destruction, additional temporary benefits to compensate self‐employed and other non‐standard workers for the loss of earnings; the expansion of unemployment insurance; and finally, the introduction and/or strengthening of schemes to provide support to families with care responsibilities. The scale of the social policy and employment protection response has nevertheless been constrained by the fiscal position of each individual country in the post‐Euro crisis context. We argue that, in the long run, the response capacity of these governments and the social and economic consequences of this crisis will need to be contextualised against the backdrop of the deep and prolonged impact of austerity‐driven measures on public budgets, production and welfare regimes over the last decade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 crisis increased unemployment all over the World, with significant regional heterogeneity. This paper intends to analyze this territorial heterogeneity for the Portuguese case and investigate which regional factors complement personal and job characteristics in explaining individual vulnerability to COVID-19 unemployment. By considering personal, job and regional dimensions, we extended the literature and provided a more comprehensive understanding of this new phenomenon in the immediate and medium-term. Furthermore, this knowledge is essential to support policy suggestions for quick and effective action in preventing job losses in the current and future crises. Detailed information on all individuals that lost their jobs in Portugal 1 year after (and before) the COVID-19 outset was used to estimate three logit models that compare the odds of losing a job after and during the pandemic. Significant territorial heterogeneity of the COVID-19 impact on unemployment is obtained. Along with personal and job characteristics, we conclude that regional characteristics are essential for explaining individual vulnerabilities. In particular, workers are more prompted to lose their jobs if they live in regions with higher population densities, lower pre-crisis unemployment, and more dependable international flow. Conversely, individual and regional human capital investment contributes to protecting employment, revealing the existence of external effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought increased attention to the existing gender asymmetries in academia, which have been extensively studied in the literature. Using the analytical lens of "gendered academic citizenship", this paper takes a micropolitical perspective to examine how the pandemic has impacted the dynamics of academic work, specifically focusing on the often-overlooked aspect of everyday interactions in the work environment. Through qualitative and quantitative analysis of survey data collected from 1750 lecturers and researchers in Portuguese higher education and research institutions, the study uncovers that women, especially those who are younger, single, have specific caregiving responsibilities, and are in the early stages of their careers, were more vulnerable to experiencing "everyday" microaggressions such as silencing, exclusion, belittlement, being ignored, lack of validation, and invisibility compared to men during the pandemic. These findings suggest that, while the marginalization of women in academia is a longstanding issue, the virtual work model has created a platform for the expression of subtle forms of disempowerment and discrimination against women. These dynamics are perpetuated within the micropolitics of organizations, shaping subjective feelings of belonging and circulating differential levels of recognition within academic institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a time of serious health crisis worldwide, this study is the extension of a case study already started (in February and March 2020) about the issue, reading behaviors, and preferences between the use of books and e-books. The COVID-19 pandemic came to impose social distancing in the world, closing universities, schools, and other services. The implementation of Internet services has presented itself as a valid response to the change that has so brutally arisen. Naturally, everyone had to adapt to it. In this context, the question about the preferences in using books or e-books is now even more relevant. This paper analyses the impact of COVID-19 in the behavioral trends in the use of scientific information from printed books and e-books in Portugal and Brazil. To this end, a survey was conducted on a user sample from various Portuguese and Brazilian higher education schools and public libraries. The first part focused on the characterization of the respondents, which includes data on gender and qualifications attended. In the second part, we obtained viewpoints about the advantages and disadvantages of each medium, frequency of use, choice of medium according to the purpose of reading, and devices used. The results let us examine the factors that influence and change the behaviors of users concerning their choice. Research such as this is beneficial to support the decision not only in selecting the information resources to be bought or pondering user preferences, but also to define strategies for advocating the use of various media that, rather than competitors, should be complimentary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The need to control the sanitary situation during the COVID-19 pandemic has led governments to implement several restrictions with substantial social and economic impacts. We explored people's trade-offs in terms of their income, life restrictions, education, and poverty in the society, compared to their willingness to avoid deaths. We applied a web-based discrete choice experiment to elicit preferences of the Portuguese citizens for these attributes and computed the marginal rate of substitution in terms of avoided deaths. We recorded 2,191 responses that faced the possibility of having 250 COVID-19 related deaths per day as the worst possible outcome from the choice levels presented. Estimates suggested that individuals would be willing to sacrifice 30% instead of 10% of their income to avoid approximately 47 deaths per day during the first six months of 2021. For the same period, they would also accept 30% of the students' population to become educationally impaired, instead of 10%, to avoid approximately 25 deaths; a strict lockdown, instead of mild life restrictions, to avoid approximately 24 deaths; and 45% of the population to be in risk of poverty, instead of 25%, to avoid approximately 101 deaths. Our paper shows that avoiding deaths was strongly preferred to the remaining societal impacts; and that being a female, as well as working on site, led individuals to be more averse to such health hazards. Furthermore, we show how a DCE can be used to assess the societal support to decision-making during times of crisis., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2022 Filipe et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Vaccination strategies to control COVID-19 have been ongoing worldwide since the end of 2020. Understanding their possible effect is key to prevent future disease spread. Using a modelling approach, this study intends to measure the impact of the COVID-19 Portuguese vaccination strategy on the effective reproduction number and explore three scenarios for vaccine effectiveness waning. Namely, the no-immunity-loss, 1-year and 3-years of immunity duration scenarios. We adapted an age-structured SEIR deterministic model and used Portuguese hospitalisation data for the model calibration. Results show that, although the Portuguese vaccination plan had a substantial impact in reducing overall transmission, it might not be sufficient to control disease spread. A significant vaccination coverage of those above 5 years old, a vaccine effectiveness against disease of at least 80% and softer non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs), such as mask usage and social distancing, would be necessary to control disease spread in the worst scenario considered. The immunity duration scenario of 1-year displays a resurgence of COVID-19 hospitalisations by the end of 2021, the same is observed in 3-year scenario although with a lower magnitude. The no-immunity-loss scenario presents a low increase in hospitalisations. In both the 1-year and 3-year scenarios, a vaccination boost of those above 65 years old would result in a 53% and 38% peak reduction of non-ICU hospitalisations, respectively. These results suggest that NPIs should not be fully phased-out but instead be combined with a fast booster vaccination strategy to reduce healthcare burden., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Copyright of Geopolitica(s): Revista de Estudios Sobre Espacio y Poder is the property of Universidad Complutense de Madrid and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The COVID-19 pandemic spread rapidly worldwide in the year 2020, which was initially restrained by drastic mobility restrictions. In this work, we investigated the use of illicit drugs (amphetamine, methamphetamine, ecstasy, cocaine and cannabis), and licit substances of abuse (alcohol and tobacco) during the earlier months (March-July 2020) of the pandemic restrictions in four Spanish (Bilbao and its metropolitan area, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Castellón and Santiago de Compostela) and two Portuguese (Porto and Vila do Conde) locations by wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE). The results show that no methamphetamine was detected in any of the locations monitored, while amphetamine use was only detectable in the two locations from the Basque Country (Bilbao and its metropolitan area and Vitoria-Gasteiz), with high estimated average usage rates (700-930 mg day -1 1000 inhabitant -1 ). The remaining substances were detected in all the investigated catchment areas. In general, no remarkable changes were found in population normalized loads compared to former years, except for cocaine (i.e. its main metabolite, benzoylecgonine). For this drug, a notable decrease in use was discernible in Castellón, while its usage in Porto and Santiago de Compostela seemed to continue in a rising trend, already initiated in former years. Furthermore, two events of ecstasy (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine, MDMA) dumping in the sewage network were confirmed by enantiomeric analysis, one in Santiago de Compostela just prior the lockdown and the second one in the Bilbao and its metropolitan area in July after relieving the more stringent measures. The latter could also be associated with a police intervention. The comparison of WBE with (web) survey data, which do not provide information at a local level, points towards contradictory conclusions for some of the substances, thereby highlighting the need for stable WBE networks capable of near real-time monitoring drug use., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

This paper addresses the broad topic of what older people think about nursing homes in Portugal. In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and considering the tragic events taking place in nursing homes, the challenge of reimagining the sector involves not only improving procedures and models of care, making sure they meet what citizens consider adequate, but also rehabilitating the image people have about nursing homes and rebuilding trust. Current and future decisions about how one meets LTC needs is influenced by the extent to which individuals see the alternatives as adequate. The paper presents evidence collected from a qualitative study run just before the COVID-19 pandemic began, with a sample of 45 community-dwelling individuals aged 60 plus, in Portugal. Opinions and views about nursing homes were collected and the results point to enduring negative aspects that are considered at odds with what constitutes adequate care. The paper discusses in length what those aspects are and concludes that future reforms of the nursing homes sector in Portugal need to consider what current and future users think and feel about that specific type of service. Debates in Portugal tend to be more focused on discussions about expanding the sector and less on aspects of quality of care. Views and opinions of interviewed participants, however, suggest that people may be more worried about quality of care.

Chronic pain affects almost 38% of the Portuguese adult population, with high costs for both patients and society. Those who suffer with chronic pain frequently complain of feeling misunderstood and of lack of support. These complaints are the main reason why support telephone lines for chronic pain were created in some countries. However, there is no scientific data supporting their creation or evaluating their performance. This paper presents a qualitative study protocol to assess patients and healthcare professionals' perspectives on the creation of a telephone support line for chronic pain. It constitutes the first step to attain the main goal of developing and implementing a functioning support line for chronic pain in Portugal. The methodology to assess patients and healthcare professionals' perspectives and needs is presented. In order to gather information as close to reality as possible, focus groups interviews were chosen as data sources. Given the present context of the COVID-19 pandemic, meetings will take place online, using a digital platform. All interviews will be transcribed verbatim, coded and synthesised into categories and main themes. Thematic analysis will be conducted using NVivo® V12 software, employing an iterative and reflexive approach. Finally, comparative and relational analysis will be performed in order to identify topics where patients and professionals converge or greatly diverge. The findings will be useful for grounding the creation of a telephone support line for chronic pain patients. Results dissemination will be important for policy-makers to develop a new perspective towards chronic pain services available., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Introduction: Identified skeletal and skull collections are centrepiece for research in biological anthropology. However, until recently, the same relevance has not been placed on dental cast collections. This perspective evolved, mainly, with the research on population variation and human identification through dental characteristics. While dental collections exist throughout the world, their reports and documentation are scarce in the literature., Aims: This work aims to present the new Dental Cast Reference Collection - University of Coimbra (DCRC - UC) housed in the Laboratory of Prehistory of the Department of Life Sciences of the University of Coimbra (Portugal)., Basic Procedures: The modern dental cast collection (DCRC - UC) was created in 2016 for teaching and research purposes. The casts were obtained from volunteers who answered a brief questionnaire (sex, age, nationality, previous orthodontic and dental data) after informed consent., Main Findings: The collection includes the dental casts of 90 adult individuals of both sexes: 69 females and 21 males. The volunteers were students, teachers and visiting researchers of the Department of Life Sciences of the University of Coimbra. Age ranges from 17 to 49 years, including individuals of Portuguese (n = 79) and non-Portuguese nationality (n = 11). Lastly, the strategy of the conservation and storage conditions of the casts are underlined, a vital aspect of this working collection, emphasizing its protection while also allowing it to function as a usable resource., Principal Conclusions: Currently, the addition of new individuals to the dental cast collection is paused due to the COVID-19 pandemic, however the future work and expected expansion will require new logistic solutions. The DCRC - UC is an invaluable resource to both research and teaching activities., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022. Published by Elsevier GmbH.)

The social conditions created by the COVID-19 pandemic had a great potential to affect the mental health of individuals. Meta-analyses indicate a rise in these problems in these periods among general populations, patients and health professionals, even with substantial heterogeneous results. This paper examines mental health impacts specifically during the first wave of COVID-19. An online survey was conducted with a Portuguese convenience sample (N = 1.062) comprising questions about substance use, perceived stress, post-traumatic stress disorder and self-damage behaviors. The results concerning substance use show an extensive use of medication to sleep or calm down, especially among women and older respondents, a small percentage of alcohol consumers with a high pattern of use and less frequent cannabis consumption, even with a quarter of users who began only in the COVID-19 period. The rates of perceived stress and PTSD were higher compared with international prevalence estimations during the pandemic conditions. Both correlated measures were worse for women and young people. Another problematic issue was the rate of suicidal ideation, with a relevant proportion of starters during this period. These data reinforce the need to promote access to mental health services.

Purpose: This paper aims to address the immediate effects of the COVID-19 crisis in the Portuguese tourism and hospitality industry by examining whether some specific characteristics make people more vulnerable or more immune to unemployment. Design/methodology/approach: Using an extensive micro-level data set of personal and job-related attributes containing all unemployed individuals in the Portuguese tourism and hospitality industry, a logit model with 56,142 observations is estimated to assess how each characteristic contributed to the unemployment odds during the COVID-19 crisis (until the end-July 2020), relatively to the pre-COVID period. Findings: The most vulnerable workers to COVID-19 unemployment seem to be older, less educated, less qualified, women and residents in regions with a higher concentration of people and tourism activity. Moreover, the COVID-19 crisis is generating a new type of unemployment by also affecting those who were never unemployed before, with more stable jobs and more motivated at work, while reducing voluntary disruptions. Practical implications: Public effort should be made not only to increase workforce education but especially to reinforce job-specific skills. The COVID-19 crisis has broken traditional protective measures against unemployment and separated workers from their desired occupations, which justifies new and exceptional job preservation measures. Policy recommendations are given aiming at strengthening worker resilience and industry competitiveness in the most affected sub-sectors and regions. Originality/value: This study extends the current understanding of worker vulnerability to economic downturns. Herein, this paper used a three-level approach (combining socio-demographic, work-related and regional factors), capturing the immediate effects of the COVID-19 crisis and focussing on the tourism and hospitality industry (the hardest-hit sector worldwide). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Digital de Derecho Administrativo is the property of Universidad Externado de Colombia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revista Ibero-Americana de Estudos em Educação is the property of Jose Luis Bizelli, editor of Revista Ibero-Americana de Estudos em Educacao and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The COVID-19 pandemic had an enormous impact on the tourism sector. Economies with a large weight of external tourism were especially affected, as was the case with the Azores region. This paper aims to analyse the level of this crisis and the resilience of tourism recreation companies specializing in canyoning in the Azores region, and whether these reactions led to more sustainable business models. The adopted methodology considered the analysis of recent statistical data on tourism and the available information on COVID-19 pandemic-related impacts. In parallel, questionnaires were applied to all tourism recreation companies in Portugal, and semi-structured interviews were conducted with all the canyoning providers in the Azores region. Results show that all companies survived the crisis, and some have made significant changes to their business models. Furthermore, some degree of success was observed in how services adapted to new demand characteristics, given the small size of most of these businesses and the specialization of their products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

aime Correia de Sousa41Centre for Health Evaluation & Research/Infosaude (CEFAR/IS), National Association of Pharmacies (ANF), Lisbon, Portugal; 2Medical Department, AstraZeneca, Barcarena, Portugal; 3MEDIDA – Medicina, Educação, Investigação, Desenvolvimento e Avaliação, Porto, Portugal; 4Life and Health Sciences Research Institute (ICVS), PT Government Associate Laboratory, School of Medicine, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal; 5Center for Health Technology and Services Research (CINTESIS), Faculty of Medicine, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal; 6CUF Allergy Unit, Porto Hospital and Institute, Porto, PortugalCorrespondence: Mariana Romão, Centre for Health Evaluation & Research/Infosaude (CEFAR/IS), National Association of Pharmacies (ANF), Rua Marechal Saldanha 1, Lisboa, 1249-069, Portugal, Email [email protected] Purpose: Oral corticosteroids (OCS) are frequently used in asthma management but have an important risk-profile. The aim of the study is to characterize and compare the sociodemographic and clinical characteristics, treatment regimen and asthma control between OCS users and non-users among the population of asthma patients (≥ 18 years) at GINA step 3 and above treated with a fixed combination of an inhaled corticosteroid and a long-acting beta-agonist (ICS/LABA). Methods: Cross-sectional study in Portuguese community pharmacies. Data was collected via paper-based interview delivered at the pharmacy (sociodemographic characteristics and asthma treatment regimen, namely ICS/LABA and OCS utilization), followed by a telephonic interview collecting smoking history, comorbidities, body mass index (BMI), history of exacerbations and asthma-related healthcare resource utilization (HCRU) in the previous 12 months, as well as asthma control using the Control of Allergic Rhinitis and Asthma Test (CARAT®). Results: A total of 347 patients recruited in 98 pharmacies were included in the analysis. Of those, 328 had completed both questionnaires. A quarter of the individuals reported OCS use in the previous 12 months (OCS users), either as add-on therapy (6%) or exacerbation treatment (19%). Patients were mostly females (72%), with an average age of 59.5 years (SD=15.4). OCS users were significantly older and reported more frequently having conjunctivitis (25.9% vs 15.0%), osteoporosis (25.9% vs 13.4%), arthritis (14.6% vs 6.9%), and gastrointestinal disease (16.1% vs 8.1%). OCS users also reported greater urgent HCRU: unscheduled consultations (33.3% vs 9.3%) and emergency department (ED) visits (32.1% vs 12.1%). Both groups presented poor disease control (85.2% of OCS users vs 72.9% of non-OCS users). Conclusion: These results highlight the burden of OCS therapy to asthma patients and the need to improve asthma management, by adopting OCS sparing strategies in this subgroup of patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Profesorado: Revista de Currículum y Formación del Profesorado is the property of Profesorado: Revista de Curriculum y Formacion del Profesorado and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)