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- Demand for emergency services during the COVID-19 pandemic and disease burden: a case study in PortugalPublication . Nunes, Alcina ; Costa, Catarina ; Martins, João P.; Ferreira, Pedro L.; Pimenta, RuiThe COVID-19 pandemic brought changes in the pattern of care use. A significant increase in the volume of emergencies was expected. However, a significant decrease was observed worldwide. An observational, analytical and cross-sectional study of all records of emergency episodes of patients aged 18 years or older admitted to the emergency services of the University of Porto Hospital Centre (2018–2022) were analysed. : During the pandemic, a significant reduction in emergency episode admissions (up to 40% during lockdowns), an increase in pre-emergency services, and discharges from Infectious Diseases and Internal Medicine was observed. The discharges from General Practice and General Practice and Family Medicine were residual. The lower use and type of use of emergency services during the COVID-19 pandemic had a negative impact on the disease burden. This could be prevented in future pandemics through the development of strategies to promote confidence in the use of health resources and establishing contingency plans for virtual assistance.
- Health care expenses impact on the disability-adjusted life years in non-communicable diseases in the European UnionPublication . Torres, Margarida ; Nunes, Alcina ; Martins, João P.; Ferreira, Pedro L. ; Pimenta, RuiNon-communicable diseases are a global health problem. The metric Disability-Adjusted Life Years was developed to measure its impact on health systems. This metric makes it possible to understand a disease’s burden, towards defining healthcare policies. This research analysed the effect of healthcare expenditures in the evolution of disability-adjusted life years for noncommunicable diseases in the European Union between 2000 and 2019. Data were collected for all 27 European Union countries from Global Burden of Disease 2019, Global Health Expenditure, and EUROSTAT databases. Econometric panel data models were used to assess the impact of healthcare expenses on the disability-adjusted life years. Only models with a coefficient of determination equal to or higher than 10% were analysed. There was a decrease in the non-communicable diseases with the highest disability-adjusted life years: cardiovascular diseases (−2,952 years/105 inhabitants) and neoplasms (−618 years/105 inhabitants). Health expenditure significantly decreased disability-adjusted life years for all analysed diseases (p 0.05) whereas public health expenditure did not significantly influence skin and subcutaneous diseases (p > 0.05). Health expenditure have proved to be effective in the reduction of several diseases. However, some categories such as musculoskeletal and mental disorders must be a priority for health policies in the future since, despite their low mortality, they can present high morbidity and disability.
- A meta-analysis on the role of sonication in the diagnosis of cardiac implantable electronic device-related infectionsPublication . Araújo, Daniela; Martins, João P.; Ferreira, Stephanie; Mota, Sandra; Ferreira, Pedro L. ; Pimenta, RuiOne of the biggest obstacles in diagnosing Implant-Associated Infections is the lack of infection criteria and standardized diagnostic methods. These infections present a wide range of symptoms, and their diagnosis can be hampered by the formation of microbial biofilms on the surface of implants. This study aimed to provide insight into the performance of sonication in the diagnosis of infections associated with Cardiac Implantable Electronic Devices, to help define a consensus on the algorithm for the microbial diagnosis of these infections. We carried out a systematic review with meta-analysis. The PRISMA methodology guidelines were followed, and an advanced search was carried out in PubMed and Web of Science, which enabled 8 articles to be included in the review, in which a meta-analysis was also carried out. QUADAS-2 was used to assess the risk of bias and effect measures were calculated to assess publication bias. The overall sensitivity of the method was 0.823 (95% CI: 0.682–0.910) and the specificity was 0.632 (95% CI: 0.506–0.743). These results suggest that sonication may offer advantages in diagnosing these infections. However, it is essential to approach these findings carefully and take into account the recommendations provided in the EHRA 2019 guidelines. This study highlights the importance of more effective diagnostic approaches for implantable medical device-associated infections to improve the quality of treatment and minimize the risks associated with these challenging medical conditions.
- Mean value estimation using low size samples extracted from skewed populationsPublication . Martins, João P.; Felgueiras, Miguel; Santos, RuiThe use of the 𝑇-statistic in statistical inference procedures is usually restricted to normal populations or to large samples. However, these conditions may not be fulfilled in some situations: the population can be moderate/highly skewed, or the sample size can be small. In this work, we use the Pearson’s system of distributions, namely, type IV distributions to model 𝑇. By some simulation work, it is shown that this approximation leads to confidence intervals whose coverage is close to the nominal coverage even for low sample sizes.