Alexandre Hannud Abdo

Assessing Network Scale-up Estimates for Groups Most at Risk of HIV/AIDS: Evidence From a Multiple-Method Study of Heavy Drug Users in Curitiba, Brazil

One of the many challenges hindering the global response to the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) epidemic is the difficulty of collecting reliable information about the populations most at risk for the disease. Thus, the authors empirically assessed a promising new method for estimating the sizes of most at-risk populations: the network scale-up method. Using 4 different data sources, 2 of which were from other researchers, the authors produced 5 estimates of the number of heavy drug users in Curitiba, Brazil. The authors found that the network scale-up and generalized network scale-up estimators produced estimates 5–10 times higher than estimates made using standard methods (the multiplier method and the direct estimation method using data from 2004 and 2010). Given that equally plausible methods produced such a wide range of results, the authors recommend that additional studies be undertaken to compare estimates based on the scale-up method with those made using other methods. If scale-up-based methods routinely produce higher estimates, this would suggest that scale-up-based methods are inappropriate for populations most at risk of HIV/AIDS or that standard methods may tend to underestimate the sizes of these populations.

The Game of Contacts: Estimating the Social Visibility of Groups

Estimating the sizes of hard-to-count populations is a challenging and important problem that occurs frequently in social science, public health, and public policy. This problem is particularly pressing in HIV/AIDS research because estimates of the sizes of the most at-risk populations-illicit drug users, men who have sex with men, and sex workers-are needed for designing, evaluating, and funding programs to curb the spread of the disease. A promising new approach in this area is the network scale-up method, which uses information about the personal networks of respondents to make population size estimates. However, if the target population has low social visibility, as is likely to be the case in HIV/AIDS research, scale-up estimates will be too low. In this paper we develop a game-like activity that we call the game of contacts in order to estimate the social visibility of groups, and report results from a study of heavy drug users in Curitiba, Brazil (n = 294). The game produced estimates of social visibility that were consistent with qualitative expectations but of surprising magnitude. Further, a number of checks suggest that the data are high-quality. While motivated by the specific problem of population size estimation, our method could be used by researchers more broadly and adds to long-standing efforts to combine the richness of social network analysis with the power and scale of sample surveys.

Healthcare integration strategy implementation based on distance education and communication for health professionals in São Paulo City, Brazil: study protocol

The Brazilian healthcare system aims for universal access for the whole population, equity to prioritize health actions, and integrality in all assistance levels. The purpose of this research project is to promote and to evaluate intervention based on capacitation in clinical management focused on diseases that are part of the Brazilian list of ambulatory care sensitive conditions (ACSC). It will be delivered throughout a distance education course to health professionals who are based in a public hospitals and to 85 Family Health Strategy teams spread out over 18 Primary care Units (PCU), covering around 300,000 people, in the southern zone of Sao Paulo City. It will evaluate the use of communication tools, as a free internet-based platform and telemedicine, that will be made available to the health providers that can afford continuity and integrality of care to the patients who are followed by both health services. Also, health professionals learning and application of knowledge in the clinical practice as well as patient outcomes, will be evaluated. Quasi-experimental cohort design with historical controls study of adult patients hospitalized by ACSC and will be followed up 1 year after the hospital discharge. Data collection will be performed on hospital and PCU patient’s health records and will be applied the Primary Care Attention Tool, the World Health Organization Quality of Life, and Sociodemographic questionnaires, to patients and health professionals, for social and environmental characterization, treatment plan adherence, disease monitoring and access to the health services. Data analysis will evaluate as outcomes the hospital readmissions of the followed patients, the use of the communication tools by the health providers, demographic, social and environmental variables, and hospitalization rates, patient’s time of hospitalization and mortality rates related to the patients. This project is funded by the Brazilian Ministry of Health and Sao Paulo State Research Agency.

Ciência aberta, questões abertas

Este livro reune contribuicoes de pesquisadores de diferentes areas e paises, incluindo o Brasil, com significativa atuacao e reflexao no campo da ciencia aberta e colaborativa. O tema da ciencia aberta ganha espaco nao apenas nos ambientes institucionais de ciencia, tecnologia e inovacao, como tambem em outros contextos ate entao a parte dessas atividades, mobilizando outros grupos sociais como interlocutores das praticas cientificas. As transformacoes nas relacoes entre ciencia, tecnologia e sociedade dai decorrentes integram, por sua vez, novas dinâmicas de producao e circulacao do conhecimento, da informacao e da cultura, bem como o novo papel que essas dinâmicas desempenham nos processos contemporâneos de participacao e mudanca social. Espera-se que esta publicacao contribua para apresentar um panorama de temas e questoes que hoje permeiam e delineiam a tematica da ciencia aberta, a partir de perspectivas e pontos de vista diversos; e, sobretudo, para instigar novas reflexoes e provocar novas aberturas nas formas de produzir e circular conhecimento. Ela se dirige, assim, nao apenas ao universo academico, mas tambem a um espectro mais amplo de atores sociais que se preocupam com a democratizacao do conhecimento e da informacao