Cassia Garcia Moraes

Utilização de medicamentos entre crianças de zero a seis anos: um estudo de base populacional no sul do Brasil

The scope of this article was to estimate the prevalence of medication use in children between zero and six years old, analyzing the associated socio-demographic characteristics, and evaluating the adequacy of the medication with respect to pediatric recommendations and restrictions per age group. A cross-sectional study was conducted by means of cluster sampling on a sample comprised of children aged six or under, residents of a city in the south of Brazil. A standardized questionnaire about medication use 15 days prior to the interview was applied. A descriptive analysis was carried out, and the association between medication use and socio-demographic factors was evaluated, as well as the analysis of the pediatric adequacy of the most prevalent medication. Of the 687 children evaluated, 52% used at least one drug in the period. Associations between medication use and socio-demographic characteristics were not found, with the exception of per capita monthly income. The most prevalent medication was paracetamol (17.1%), followed by amoxicillin (9.5%) and dipyrone (8.4%). Among the ten drugs most used in children, six had pediatric restrictions for the age group. The results indicate significant use of medication, including medication with age restrictions, particularly for children under two years of age.

Agreement between different recall periods in drug utilization studies

Objective: To assess the agreement between three recall periods for self-reported drug use using a 24-hour recall period as reference. Methods: Participants were allocated into three groups with different recall periods of 7, 14 and 30 days and were interviewed at two different times. A 24-hour recall questionnaire was answered during the first interview, and a questionnaire on drug use over the different recall periods tested was answered during the second interview. The agreement between the questionnaires was evaluated using percent agreement and kappa. Results: For continuous drugs, percent agreement varied between 92 and 99% and kappa varied between 0.71 and 0.97 for three periods tested. For drugs of occasional use, percent agreement varied between 63 and 81% and kappa varied between 0.27 and 0.52. The prevalence of drugs, particularly those of occasional use, increases with time. Conclusions: The high level of agreement between the three recall periods suggests that all of them are valid for the investigation of drugs of continuous use.

PRÁTICA VIRTUAL DE BIOQUÍMICA: CROMATOGRAFIA ASCENDENTE EM PAPEL DE AMINOÁCIDOS

Cromatografia consiste num metodo de analise de componentes de uma mistura complexa baseada em diferentes criterios: adsorbilidade, solubilidade, massa molecular, carga ionica e afinidade. E um importante conteudo da disciplina Bioquimica. Este trabalho relata o desenvolvimento e a validacao de um software de simulacao laboratorial denominado Cromatografia Ascendente em Papel de Aminoacidos usando a ferramenta o Adobe® Flash® CS3. A organizacao e a coleta do material multimidia ocorreram no semestre 2008/2. As imagens mais representativas foram inseridas no objeto de aprendizagem A primeira aplicacao deste objeto foi realizada em 2009/1, na Bioquimica I (Farmacia-UFRGS). Com base nesta experiencia, uma nova versao foi desenvolvida a qual foi utilizada pelos alunos da mesma disciplina em 2009/2. Apos uma aula expositiva de 50 minutos (teorico-pratica), os alunos dos dois semestres foram divididos em dois grupos. O grupo I respondeu a um questionario sobre conceitos basicos de cromatografia e depois utilizou o software. O grupo II foi submetido ao protocolo inverso. Os grupos tambem avaliaram os aspectos tecnicos da animacao/simulacao e a atividade realizada. Associando os resultados das duas aplicacoes (2009/1 e 2009/2), o objeto de aprendizagem em questao pode ser considerado valido como suporte para o ensino pratico de Bioquimica basica.

Effect of different formats for information on side effects regarding medicine users’ understanding: A randomized controlled trial

OBJECTIVE The objective of this randomized controlled trial was to evaluate the efficacy of presenting information on the risks of side effects from a medicine, presented in different formats. METHODS A randomized, parallel-group, single-center controlled trial was conducted among adult users of a training pharmacy. The information was categorized into the following groups: verbal descriptors+percentage range, percentage range and absolute percentage. The main outcomes were gist understanding and verbatim understanding, classified either as adequate or inadequate. The analyses were performed using ANOVA and Pearsons chi-square test. RESULTS A total of 393 participants were recruited from June to October 2015. Adequate levels of gist understanding and verbatim understanding were respectively 65.6% and 53.9% for the verbal descriptors+percentage range (n=128), 63.4% and 44.3% for percentage range (n=131), and 62.3% and 48.5% for absolute percentage (n=131), with no statistically significant difference between the groups (p=0.852 and p=0.299, respectively). CONCLUSION The understanding of the information was similar in all three formats, but the percentages of adequate understanding were low. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS The percentage of inadequate understanding demonstrated in this study indicates that alternative formats for reporting adverse reactions need to be evaluated.

A exploração de uma Arquitetura Pedagógica em sala de aula

Este artigo e resultado de uma pesquisa exploratoria realizada a partir da proposta de uma arquitetura pedagogica. Essa arquitetura configurou a pratica em sala de aula e foi realizada com 120 alunos do ensino basico em uma escola de Porto Alegre. Sua aplicacao junto aos alunos resultou em: (1) dedicacao intensiva que ultrapassou o tempo da sala de aula; (2) interesse ampliado por criar disponibilidade para a aprendizagem; (3) aprendizagem maximizada. A arquitetura pedagogica proposta encontrou os desejos de nativos digitais que tem prazer em trabalhar com a web e ousadia para aprender e recriar conhecimentos.