Hospital Information Systems and their application in public health

The objective of this study was to survey the scientific production of applications for data from the Hospital Information System of Brazil's Unified National System (SUS) in analyses of relevant Public Health issues. To find articles published in scientific journals from 1984 to 2003, the authors consulted the SciELO, MEDLINE, and Virtual Public Health Library databases. To locate monographs, theses, and dissertations, the authors consulted the websites of institutions providing Master's and doctoral courses in Public Health. A total of 76 articles were identified for the reference period, and they were classified into five categories with different analytical approaches. Although the Hospital Information System in the SUS has incomplete coverage and there are uncertainties about the reliability of its data, the range of studies showed internal consistency with current knowledge, reinforcing the system's importance and the need to understand its strengths and weaknesses.     

Changes in nursing administration in supporting transplantation in Brazil

This historical and bibliographic study aimed to understand how Nursing was organized to support care in transplantation. The HISA, LILACS, BDENF, PERIENF and DEDALUS databases were consulted, and thirteen references were found, ten of which were scientific articles, two were master's dissertations and one was a doctoral thesis. The span of time chosen for study ranges from the date of the first kidney transplant in Brazil (1965), to the date of publication of the last scientific article found in the databases mentioned above (2003). After reading these articles, the ones that were similar in topic were grouped together, thus creating the thematic axis for the presentation of the results. The results showed that the Nursing profession has played an important and active role in transplants ever since the first procedure in 1965.     

Narrative synthesis of equine‐assisted psychotherapy literature: Current knowledge and future research directions

Equine‐assisted psychotherapy (EAP) is an innovative emerging approach to mental health treatment. This narrative synthesis explores the current state of knowledge and areas for future research in EAP. Specifically reviewed are qualitative and quantitative empirical studies, including both articles published in peer‐reviewed journals and research presented in theses and dissertations. We selected 24 studies for final inclusion in this study, dating between 2005 and 2013, and including the first EAP empirical research completed in 2005. Four of these studies are peer‐reviewed journal articles, while 20 are master's theses or doctoral dissertations. The reviewed qualitative research provides initial evidence for the value of EAP for enhancing adolescents' communication and relationship skills. The reviewed experimental and quasi‐experimental research provides initial evidence for the value of EAP for enhancing children's and adolescents' emotional, social and behavioural functioning. Yet, conclusions about the effectiveness of EAP must still be considered preliminary due to various methodological limitations in the reviewed research. The narrative review describes these methodological limitations and concludes with recommendations for future research.     

《肠外与肠内营养》2001～2010年高被引文献分析

目的:通过《肠外与肠内营养》高被引文献的调查,分析该期刊的学术水平和价值,同时了解临床营养及相关专业医师和研究人员对该刊载文的吸收和利用情况。方法:利用中国引文数据库,选择《肠外与肠内营养》2001～2010年刊登,且被引次数≥20次的文献,从文献刊用形式,时间、地区、单位及作者分布,基金资助情况,以及被院校、期刊、重要会议引用情况进行统计分析。结果:被引次数≥20次的文献有38篇,其中论著占31.58%,综述占26.32%,院士论坛和讲座各占15.79%。地区分布前三位是南京、上海、广州;单位分布前三位是南京军区南京总医院、上海复旦大学附属中山医院、上海交通大学附属第六人民医院;作者分布前三位是黎介寿院士、吴国豪教授、秦环龙教授;38篇文献中被63所院校263篇中国优秀硕博学位论文和340种期刊引用。结论:《肠外与肠内营养》刊登的文献被引次数较多,论文质量和学术水平较高,是我国临床营养及相关专业最重要的信息来源之一。     

Knowledge derived from studies on crack: an incursion into Brazilian dissertations and theses

This is a systematic review based on the integrative review method, which sought to analyze the characteristics of knowledge produced by studies on crack, in Brazilian Master's and Doctoral courses. The investigation comprised 33 studies (18 dissertations and 15 theses). Among them, 51.5% were from the Health Science area with emphasis on the Postgraduate Program in Psychiatry (and Medical Psychology), which provided five dissertations/theses. Most of the knowledge on the epidemic (51.5%) are from the Universidade Federal de S?o Paulo and Universidade de S?o Paulo, with the largest number of studies (81.8%) concentrated in the southeast. The themes most analyzed were: organic alterations, drug trafficking and crack use, HIV/Aids, types and strategies of treatment. The results showed that Brazilian stricto sensu knowledge about crack is still incipient, sketchy and ineffectual, albeit promising due to demands and implications that this epidemic imposes upon society.     

The use of REBEn as source in 2 strict sense programs the city of Rio de Janeiro

This paper is concerned with the use of REBEn (Brazilian Journal of Nursing) in dissertations and theses produced in two public programs in Rio de Janeiro. OBJECTIVES: 1) to investigate the impact of this journal in the production of the knowledge in the field of nursing from 1992 to 2001, and 2) to analyze, comparatively, the use of the journal in theses and dissertations. Document analysis was done, based on bibliographical references. Data were analyzed quantitatively. The study demonstrated that REBEn remains an important publication for the development scientific knowledge in the nursing field. Approximately 50% of the authors cite it in dissertations, and 60% cite it in theses. Literature revision was numerically smaller in dissertations compared to theses. Regarding theses, 1995 was the year in which there were more references from REBEn.     

Turning postgraduate students' research into publications: a survey of New Zealand masters in public health students

The authors attempted to contact all 157 graduates from the University of Auckland's Master's in Public Health (MPH) program who completed theses from 1991 to 2005 about publications arising from their research. Of the 104 students contacted, 77 (74%) completed the questionnaire: 34 (45%) submitted a total of 46 articles, 31 (66%) of which were accepted or published. An expectation of publication and being supported financially were both associated with submission for publication. The most commonly reported barriers were lack of time (62%), lack of staff support (35%), and low confidence in ability to write (29%). For those regarding time as a barrier, work demands were commonly cited (90%). Sustained commitment from supervisors plus practical support (seminars, workshops, and cosupervision) was considered likely to be helpful. More effective supervisor-student engagement, funding, and setting an expectation of publication could increase MPH research outputs, but the additional supervisor workload must be realistic.     

Use of theories and models on papers of a Latin-American journal in public health, 2000 to 2004

OBJECTIVE: To characterize frequency and type of use of theories or models on papers of a Latin-American journal in public health between 2000 and 2004. METHODS: The Revista de Saúde Pública was chosen because of its history of periodic publication without interruption and current impact on the scientific communication of the area. A standard procedure was applied for reading and classifying articles in an arbitrary typology of four levels, according to the depth of the use of models or theoretical references to describe problems or issues, to formulate methods and to discuss results. RESULTS: Of 482 articles included, 421 (87%) were research studies, 42 (9%) reviews or special contributions and 19 (4%) opinion texts or assays . Of 421 research studies, 286 (68%) had a quantitative focus, 110 (26%) qualitative and 25 (6%) mixed. Reference to theories or models is uncommon, only 90 (19%) articles mentioned a theory or model. According to the depth of the use, 29 (6%) were classified as type I, 9 (2%) as type II, 6 (1.3%) were type III and the 46 remaining texts (9.5%) were type IV. CONCLUSIONS: Reference to models was nine-fold more frequent than the use of theoretical references. The ideal use, type IV, occurred in one of every ten articles studied. It is of relevance to show theoretical and models frames used when approaching topics, formulating hypothesis, designing methods and discussing findings in papers.     

Multiple issues researched and to research in nursing

The present study aims at analyzing topics of master's thesis and doctoral dissertations submitted to nursing graduate programs in Brazil from 1998 to 2000. The sample comprised abstracts of 337 thesis and 153 dissertations that were analyzed based on scheme category proposed by Carvalho (2000) to group nursing graduate scientific production. Results evidenced that research carried out addressed a great range of themes, comprehending all research lines of the three areas of the referred scheme. The Assistance and Organizational fields concentrated most of the production (45.0% and 38.8% respectively) and the Professional field relied on 16.2% of the studies. Based on the results, authors emphasize the need to bind together thematic-affinity projects in order to deepen studies and to move forward in the process of nursing knowledge construction.     

A study of the references used in Cochrane protocols and reviews. Three bibles, three dictionaries, and nearly 25,000 other things

OBJECTIVES: To describe the types of report that are cited by protocols and reviews included in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. METHODS: The citation for each reference included in the Cochrane protocols and reviews published in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews in issue 1, 1999 of The Cochrane Library were categorized by reference type (e.g., journal article, conference proceeding, book chapter, personal communication, Cochrane review). RESULTS: Of a total of 24,913 citations, 21,694 (87.1%) were references to journal articles. There was a significant difference between the proportion of references to studies that were journal articles (12,348 of 13,472; 91.7%) and the proportion of other references in this category (9,346 of 11,441; 81.7%). CONCLUSION: The great majority of studies included in Cochrane reviews at the beginning of 1999 had been published as journal articles.     

Algerian medical teachers’ research output and its determinants during the 2000–2009 decade

BackgroundPublications are the primary output of scientific research. We conducted a national study to quantify Algerian medical teachers’ research output and identify its determinants during the 2000–2009 decade.MethodsThe American Medline database and the French Pascal database were used. A publication was eligible only if the lead author was an Algerian medical teacher (in medicine, pharmacy, or dentistry) working in Algeria. The same questionnaire was completed by cases (teachers who were first authors of an original article during the study period) and randomly selected controls. Logistic regression analysis was used to identify factors related to research output.ResultsA total of 79 original articles (42.2% of publications) were retrieved, a quarter of which were listed in Pascal alone. The publication rate was 2.6 original articles per 1000 teachers per year. The journals that published these original articles had a median impact factor of 0.83. The ability to publish an original article was 4.3 times higher if the teacher had undergone training in biostatistics and/or epidemiology (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 4.31, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.79–10.38). A promotion evaluation grid that did not encourage writing (aOR = 3.44, 95% CI: 1.42–8.33), a doctoral thesis, seniority, foreign collaboration, and English language proficiency were found to be associated with publication output.ConclusionsAlgerian medical teachers’ research output was particularly low. Replacing the current promotion grid with a grid that promotes writing, developing abilities to read and write articles and developing English language proficiency are likely to improve this situation.     

Tracking the epidemiology of human genes in the literature: the HuGE Published Literature database

Completion of the human genome sequence has inspired a new wave of epidemiologic studies on the prevalence of gene variants and their associations with diseases in human populations. In 2001, the Human Genome Epidemiology (HuGE) Network launched the HuGE Published Literature database (HuGE Pub Lit), a searchable, online knowledge base of published, population-based epidemiologic studies of human genes. The database contains links to PubMed articles and can be searched by gene, disease, interacting factor, type of study design or analysis, or any combination of terms in these categories. The search output contains a link to each identified article, along with a table summarizing key features of the reported study. As of September 6, 2005, some 17,665 articles were indexed in the database. Most described gene-disease associations (86%); fewer evaluated gene-gene or gene-environment interactions (17%), the prevalence of gene variants (10%), or genetic tests (3%). Although not comprehensive, this database is a unique tool for epidemiologic researchers and others concerned with the role of genetic variation in population health. Here, the authors provide an overview of the database and its characteristics and uses.     

Searching for religion and mental health studies required health,social science,and grey literature databases

ObjectiveTo determine the optimal databases to search for studies of faith-sensitive interventions for treating depression.Study Design and SettingWe examined 23 health, social science, religious, and grey literature databases searched for an evidence synthesis. Databases were prioritized by yield of (1) search results, (2) potentially relevant references identified during screening, (3) included references contained in the synthesis, and (4) included references that were available in the database. We assessed the impact of databases beyond MEDLINE, EMBASE, and PsycINFO by their ability to supply studies identifying new themes and issues. We identified pragmatic workload factors that influence database selection.ResultsPsycINFO was the best performing database within all priority lists. ArabPsyNet, CINAHL, Dissertations and Theses, EMBASE, Global Health, Health Management Information Consortium, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, and Sociological Abstracts were essential for our searches to retrieve the included references. Citation tracking activities and the personal library of one of the research teams made significant contributions of unique, relevant references. Religion studies databases (Am Theo Lib Assoc, FRANCIS) did not provide unique, relevant references.ConclusionLiterature searches for reviews and evidence syntheses of religion and health studies should include social science, grey literature, non-Western databases, personal libraries, and citation tracking activities.     

中毒严重度评分在预测氢氟酸灼伤患者预后中的应用

目的 研究中毒严重度评分(PSS评分)与氢氟酸灼伤患者预后的关系,为氢氟酸灼伤临床救治提供参考。 方法 电子检索2005年1月1日到2014年12月31日同方知网全文数据库、万方数字化期刊数据库、维普科技期刊数据库、中国生物医学文献数据库,收集氢氟酸灼伤病例,按统一标准筛选文献后进行数据提取。回顾性分析筛选后氢氟酸灼伤病例入院即刻PSS评分,观察预后情况。 结果 共有40篇文献(213例)收录。统计分析表明,PSS评分越高,氢氟酸灼伤患者病死率越高,预后越差(趋势χ2=26.860,P<0.01);多因素Logistic回归分析表明,PSS评分与患者预后有相关性,PSS评分>1是病例死亡的危险因素(P<0.05)。 结论 入院时PSS评分可考虑作为评估患者氢氟酸灼伤严重程度的指标,并可反映患者预后情况。