INTRODUCTION AND AIMS Anticoagulation control as assessed by time in therapeutic range (TTR) correlates positively with the safety and efficacy of thromboprophylaxis in atrial fibrillation. We set out to assess TTR in our unit and to investigate determinants of better control. METHODS This was a case series study of atrial fibrillation patients anticoagulated with warfarin or acenocoumarol at...

BACKGROUND Obtaining a comprehensive quantitative figure of the determinants of influenza infection will help identify priority targets for future influenza mitigation interventions. We developed an original causal model integrating highly diverse factors and their dependencies, to identify the most critical determinants of pandemic influenza infection (H1N1pdm09) during the 2010-2011 influenza...

INTRODUCTION Social and economic conditions are powerful determinants of women's health status. Microcredit, which involves the provision of small loans to low-income women in the hopes of improving their living conditions, is an increasingly popular intervention to improve women's socioeconomic status. Studies examining the health effects of microcredit programs have had mixed results. METHO...

Adolescence is a crucial time period with especial vulnerability for development of mental health problems. Growing interest focusing on the determinants positive in order to find key concepts that could be influenced promotion well-being adolescents. In this study we aim explore relations between self-esteem, character strengths and experience social inclusion as adolescents’ controlled select...

BACKGROUND Given the documented links between body satisfaction, weight-related behaviors, and weight change in adolescents, we sought to examine the prevalence of poor body satisfaction in prepubescent girls and boys and its associations with body weight, socioeconomic factors, and rural residence. METHODS We obtained data from 4254 girls and boys participating in a population-based survey o...

AIM To describe changes in leisure time and occupational physical activity status in an urban Mediterranean population-based cohort, and to evaluate sociodemographic, health-related and lifestyle correlates of such changes. METHODS Data for this study come from the Cornellè Health Interview Survey Follow-Up Study, a prospective cohort study of a representative sample (n = 2500) of the populat...

Background The responsiveness of a health system is considered to be an intrinsic goal of  health systems and an essential aspect in performance assessment. Numerous studies have analysed health system responsiveness and related concepts, especially across different countries and health systems. However, fewer studies have applied the concept for the evaluation of specific healthcare delivery s...

BACKGROUND Studies on anxiety in patients having intra-alveolar extraction as well as the effect of patient's sociodemographic characteristics influencing level of associated anxiety are few in our environment. The aim of this study was to statistically analyze the sociodemographic determinants of dental anxiety in patients scheduled for intra-alveolar extraction. METHODS A cross-sectional st...

OBJECTIVE To describe smoking habits and to identify their determinants in adolescent students. METHODS A cross-sectional study was carried out on smoking habits comprising 1,052 girls and 984 boys aged 13 years attending public and private schools in the city of Porto, Portugal. The proportion of participation was 77.5%. Information on sociodemographic and behavioral characteristics was obta...