Family practice
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Village doctors, as gatekeepers of the health system for rural residents in China, are often confronted with adversity in providing the basic public healthcare services. ⋯ Village doctors in various regions of China have similar preferences for training. Thus, future training should focus more on the training needs and preferences of village doctors.
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Most anaemia studies focus on children and women of childbearing age. We assessed the frequency and main aetiologies of anaemia according to sociodemographic characteristics at the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Adult Health (ELSA-Brasil), a cohort of middle-aged adults. ⋯ Anaemia was associated with age, female sex, Black race, and low socioeconomic status. Unexplained anaemia was common and more frequent in individuals of Black and Mixed races. ELSA-Brasil follow-up data may provide further insight into the relevance of unexplained anaemia in this setting.
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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.
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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.
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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.