Family practice
-
Self-care is crucial in the prevention and treatment of chronic diseases. It is important to identify patients who need support with self-care. ⋯ SCPI seems to identify individuals with different levels of preparedness in self-care. This provides means for health care providers to individualize the levels of support and counselling. SCPI seems to be a promising tool in primary health care but needs further validation before use in large scale trials or clinical practice.
-
The Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) is a validated questionnaire that estimates nutritional status. Given that this questionnaire uses stature measurement, which are unreliable in older adults, Mindex and Demiquet are alternatives to BMI for assessing malnutrition risk. However, the correlation of Mindex and Demiquet values with MNA scores has not been investigated. ⋯ Mindex and Demiquet values were positively correlated with MNA scores and BMI. In addition, LDL-C predicted MNA scores in male older adults.
-
Little is known about how variation in the scheduled length of primary care visits can impact patients' patterns of health care utilization. ⋯ PCPs' choices about the scheduled length of in-person visits may impact their patients' specialty care use, and have varying impacts across different racial/ethnic groups.
-
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and associated infodemic increased depression and anxiety. Proper information can help combat the infodemic and promotes mental health; however, rural residents have more difficulties in getting correct information than urban residents. ⋯ In rural areas with local governments, analogue information may be effective to prevent depression.
-
Pregnancy complications can impact the mother and child's health in the short and longterm resulting in an increased risk of chronic disease later in life. Telomere length is a biomarker of future cardiometabolic diseases and may offer a novel way of identifying offspring most at risk for future chronic diseases. ⋯ GPs were generally supportive of potential telomere screening in infants, particularly via a saliva test that could be embedded in current antenatal care. However, several challenges, such as lack of knowledge, ethical considerations, and time and financial constraints, need to be overcome before such a test could be implemented into practice.