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Background: Efficient planning of the oral health workforce in Primary Health Care (PHC) is paramount to ensure equitable community access to services. This requires a meticulous examination of the population's needs, strategic distribution of oral health professionals, and effective human resource management. In this context, the average time spent on care to meet the needs of users/families/communities is the central variable in healthcare professional workforce planning methods. However, many time measures are solely based on professional judgment or experience., Objective: Calculate the average time parameters for the activities carried out by the oral health team in primary health care., Method: This is a descriptive observational study using the time-motion method carried out in five Primary Health Care Units in the city of São Paulo, SP, Brazil. Direct and continuous observation of oral health team members occurred for 40 h spread over five days of a typical work week., Results: A total of 696.05 h of observation were conducted with 12 Dentists, three Oral Health Assistants, and five Oral Health Technicians. The Dentists' main activity was consultation with an average duration of 24.39 min, which took up 42.36% of their working time, followed by documentation with 12.15%. Oral Health Assistants spent 31.57% of their time on infection control, while Oral Health Technicians spent 22.37% on documentation., Conclusion: The study establishes time standards for the activities performed by the dental care team and provides support for the application of workforce planning methods that allow for review and optimization of the work process and public policies., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Introduction : The SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 pandemic has triggered the need to develop rapidly effective and safe vaccines to prevent infection, particularly in those at-risk populations such as medical personnel. This study's objective was to assess the perception of COVID-19 vaccination amongst Colombian physicians featuring two different scenarios of COVID-19 vaccination. Methods : A cross-sectional analytical study was carried out through an online survey directed at medical staff in several cities in Colombia. The percentage of physicians who have a positive perception to be vaccinated and the associated factors that determine that decision were determined. A binomial regression analysis adjusted for age and sex was carried out, taking as a dependent variable the acceptance of free vaccination with an effectiveness of 60 and 80%. The most significant factors were determined in the non-acceptance of vaccination. Results : Between 77.0% and 90.7% of physicians in Colombia accept COVID-19 vaccination, according to the scenario evaluated where the vaccine's effectiveness was 60 or 80%, respectively. Medical specialty, having never paid for a vaccine, recommending the administration of the vaccine to their parents or people over 70 years, and dispensing the vaccine to their children, were the factors to consider to be vaccinated for free with an effectiveness of 60% and 80%. Conclusions : There is a high perception of the intention to vaccinate physicians in Colombia against COVID-19, and this is very similar to that of the general population.

Objective: COVID-19 diagnosis is a critical problem, mainly due to the lack or delay in the test results. We aimed to obtain a model to predict SARS-CoV-2 infection in suspected patients reported to the Brazilian surveillance system., Methods: We analysed suspected patients reported to the National Surveillance System that corresponded to the following case definition: patients with respiratory symptoms and fever, who travelled to regions with local or community transmission or who had close contact with a suspected or confirmed case. Based on variables routinely collected, we obtained a multiple model using logistic regression. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) and accuracy indicators were used for validation., Results: We described 1468 COVID-19 cases (confirmed by RT-PCR) and 4271 patients with other illnesses. With a data subset including 80% of patients from Sao Paulo (SP) and Rio Janeiro (RJ), we obtained a function which reached an AUC of 95.54% (95% CI: 94.41-96.67%) for the diagnosis of COVID-19 and accuracy of 90.1% (sensitivity 87.62% and specificity 92.02%). In a validation dataset including the other 20% of patients from SP and RJ, this model exhibited an AUC of 95.01% (92.51-97.5%) and accuracy of 89.47% (sensitivity 87.32% and specificity 91.36%)., Conclusion: We obtained a model suitable for the clinical diagnosis of COVID-19 based on routinely collected surveillance data. Applications of this tool include early identification for specific treatment and isolation, rational use of laboratory tests, and input for modelling epidemiological trends., (© 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Introduction: Human vitamin D levels have been increasingly related to a wide range of clinical outcomes. There is a large amount of reports on its associations, especially with obstetric complications, including preeclampsia and gestational diabetes. These results are scarcely consistent and there is still a lack of quality intervention studies to confirm the role of vitamin D in those outcomes. Objective: To review the available scientific evidence on the role of maternal vitamin D in the development of preeclampsia., Materials and Methods: The methodology used followed the recommendations of the Cochrane guide for the preparation of systematic reviews, and for metaanalysis, the Guide of the Metaanalysis of Observational Studies in Epidemiology group (MOOSE). The search included both observational studies and controlled clinical trials., Results: Low vitamin D levels, measured by the 25-hydroxyvitamin D test, are common in pregnancy. The results of this systematic review and metaanalysis suggest an inverse ratio between vitamin D levels and the development of preeclampsia. There was heterogeneity among the studies with regard to the design, population, geographic location, definitions of exposure, and the outcome. We excluded randomized controlled trials from this meta-analysis., Conclusion: The inverse association we found suggests that the higher the levels of vitamin D the lesser the probability of developing preeclampsia, in spite of the heterogeneity of the global measurement in this type of analysis.

Introduction: hospitalary malnutrition is highly prevalent and is related with prolonged hospital stay, increase in attention costs and associated clinic complications., Objective: to determine the risk of malnutrition in hospitalized patients in a highly specialized health center and its associated factors., Methods: questionnaires of the Nutrition Day initiative were applied to 70 adult patients of a health institution of high level of complexity in Bucaramanga, Colombia. The parameters included anthropometric and socio demographic data, clinical history, factors related to the diet, and the patients' perception regarding their health status. Malnutrition Screening Tool (MST) was applied to assess the risk of malnutrition. To establish the reasons for prevalence (RP), binomial regression models were used., Results: age and length of hospital stay, at the time of the baseline, were in average, 61.89 ± 15.17 years old and 7.96 ± 9.79 days. The prevalence of risk of malnutrition was 52.86% (CI 95%: 40.55% - 64.91%); 40.91% for women and 58.33% for men (p = 0.175). 18.57% of the patients did not consume any food at lunch. 40.00% of the participants manifested having had an intake lower than normal, during the previous week. The variables associated to risk of malnutrition, adjusted by age and sex, were: food intake at baseline, readmission, and length of hospital stay during follow up., Conclusion: evidence about the importance of early diagnosis and of proper nutritional management of hospitalary malnutrition support the need to implement effective nutritional interventions., (Copyright AULA MEDICA EDICIONES 2014. Published by AULA MEDICA. All rights reserved.)