The Roma population's fear of donating their own organs for transplantation

BACKGROUND

The refusal rate for donating organs among the Roma people is much higher than that of any other social group.

OBJECTIVE

To analyze the attitude towards the donation of one's own organs among the Roma population living in Spain.

METHOD

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TYPE OF STUDY

Spanish national observational sociological study stratified by gender and age.

STUDY POPULATION

Roma population aged ≥15 years living in Spain.

SAMPLE SIZE

1,253 respondents. Assessment instrument: Validated questionnaire on attitude towards organ donation for transplantation "PCID - DTO Ríos". Field work: Random selection based on stratification. Anonymous and self-administered completion. The collaboration of people of Roma ethnicity was required.

STATISTICS

Student's t test, χ², Fisher's exact test and a logistic regression analysis.

RESULTS

The degree of completion was 18.2% (n = 228). Of those who completed the questionnaire, 42.1% (n = 96) were in favor of donation, 30.3% (n = 69) were undecided and the remaining 27.6% (n = 63) were against it. Of the 1,025 (81.8%) who declined to complete the questionnaire, 1,004 (98%) indicated that it was for fear of speaking about and filling in a questionnaire that raises the issue of death and organ donation after death. If those who did not complete the questionnaire due to fear of death and donating organs after death are considered not in favor, the results would be as follows: 7.8% (n = 96) in favor of donating their organs compared to 92.2% (n = 1166) not in favor (against or undecided).

CONCLUSIONS

A majority of the Roma population prefer not speak of death nor organ donation after death. These findings show that current campaigns to promote organ donation are not effective in this population group.

[Psychosocial aspects associated with excessive attendance in primary care paediatric clinics]

OBJECTIVE

Hyper-attendance is a significant problem in paediatric Primary Care clinics. The aim of our study was to analyse the level of attendance in these clinics and its relationship with certain psychosocial aspects of the families attending them.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

Observational descriptive study was conducted using questionnaires collected during a period of 6months, as well as recording the frequency of attendance in the previous 6months. A total of 346 questionnaires of children between 6months and 13years of age belonging to 2 urban Primary Care clinics in Madrid were completed. The raw data was analysed, and comparisons between groups and multivariate analysis were performed.

RESULTS

The mean number of consultations in the last 6months, of the total included in the study, was 3.06 in the Primary Care centre, and 0.77 in the emergency services. It was considered over-frequent for those who had attended the Primary Care health centre 6 or more times in this period (>p90), of which there were 33 children (9.53%). In the multivariate analysis, the variables related to being frequent users of Primary Care clinics were: the presence of high level of anxiety in the parents (OR=5.50; 95%CI: 2.49-12.17, P<.0001), and the age of the children (OR=0.73; 95%CI: 0.58-0.91, P=.005). The model presented an area under the curve of 0.761 (95%CI: 0.678-0.945, P<.0001).

CONCLUSIONS

The frequency of visits in paediatric Primary Care clinics is directly related to the high level of anxiety of the parents, and inversely to the age of the children. It would be advisable to detect and, if possible, intervene in cases of high parental anxiety in order to try to reduce the over-frequency in the paediatric primary health care.

[Screening of adverse childhood experiences in preschoolers: scoping review]

The aim of the present article was to describe available scientific publications detailing strategies and screening tools for Adverse Childhood Experiences in preschoolers (2 to 5 years of age). A scoping review of the topic was carried out through investigative articles published in peer review journals from January 1998 to June 2017 and indexed in seven international databases (Cochrane Library, EBSCO, PubMed, Science Direct, Springer, Web of Science and Scielo). The articles were selected based on predefined criteria, using limiters and manual screening. Twenty articles published between 1999 and 2017 were selected. The screening of adverse childhood experiences is performed through opportunistic recruitment in a professional context aimed at caregivers and children, which integrates training actions, application of screening tools and reception of identified cases. Screening tools differ between interviews and questionnaires. Furthermore, we report the periodicity of the screening, the behaviors and beliefs of the professionals against it and the barriers to its implementation. This review confirms that the screening of Adverse Childhood Experiences is an emerging topic in the research field. We emphasize the need to systematize and evaluate the strategies and tools for screening Adverse Childhood Experiences, as well as to develop local approaches to respond to the needs of children exposed to adversity.

Association between self-perceived psychological stress and transitory ischaemic attack and minor stroke: A case-control study

INTRODUCTION

Stroke has a complex aetiopathogenesis influenced by numerous risk factors. There is growing interest in the study of the pathophysiological changes associated with stress and their potential relationship with cerebrovascular disease. The purpose of this paper is to assess the strength of association between exposure to stress and stroke.

METHODS

We conducted a case-control study (1:1) to compare exposure to stress in a group of patients with a history of a first transient ischaemic attack (TIA) or minor stroke and in a control group. Participants were asked a subjective question about their perception of stress in the previous months and completed the standardised Effort-Reward Imbalance (ERI) questionnaire. Logistic regression models were used for data analysis.

RESULTS

The study included data on 50 cases and 50 controls. There were no significant differences in demographic variables and economic, social, and employment status between cases and controls. Fifty percent of the cases reported moderate to severe stress, compared to 30% of controls (OR: 2.33; 95% CI: 1.02-5.30; P=.041). ERI questionnaire results found that greater effort at work (OR: 1.48; 95% CI: 1.19-1.83) and greater commitment is associated with stroke (OR: 1.34; 95% CI: 1.17-1.54), while higher reward constitutes a protective factor against the disease (OR: 0.71; 95% CI: 0.61-0.82).

CONCLUSIONS

There is a strong association between self-perceived psychological stress and TIA. The imbalance between effort and reward at work is also clearly related to TIA.

[Psychosocial Factors and Burnout Syndrome Found in Workers in the Dough Processing Industry, Tepic, Mexico]

INTRODUCTION

The workers in the dough processing industry are a population exposed to psychosocial risk factors due to the conditions in the workplace; therefore, they are likely to suffer from one of the consequences of chronic stress to which a worker is exposed daily: burnout syndrome.

OBJETIVE

The aim of this study was to analyze the relationship between psychosocial factors and the burnout syndrome in workers in the dough processing industry in the city of Tepic, Mexico.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

A cross-sectional and descriptive study was conducted in five companies from the dough processing industry. The total population consisted of 122 workers who were administered the scale of Psychosocial Factors Identification of the Mexican Social Security Institute and the Maslach Burnout Inventory scale, in order to gather information.

RESULTS

The presence of adverse psychosocial factors was reported in 18.3%, and 79.8% with the syndrome. There were several variables that behaved as risk factors, specifically, the system of working with the emotional exhaustion.