Vitor Rodrigues

Autonomous systems to support social activity of elderly people a prospective approach to a system design

The reduction in physical and social activity in elderly people degrades the aging process, causing or increasing suffering to the individual and to his family and friends. Most times, the individual well-being is related to the strength of the social bonds with the family and friends group, so it is important to keep this bonds in the various stages of life, especially in the later life, when the individual has health limitations and is living in a community centre. This paper proposes an exploratory approach, regarding the use of information technologies systems, as autonomous systems, to assist in supporting and encouraging elderly people to preserve and develop their social activities and the relationships with their family and friends social group. During the course of the aging process, some aging people have their social activity degraded due to health limitations and institutionalization in elderly care centers, in which they are admitted as residents. We propose the design of a software system, capable of running in autonomous devices, such as, robots and other consumer appliances, enabling them to recognize and interact with the users, according to their state of mind and the specific current moment context. The interactions should be simple and focused on keeping the users informed about the current life events of their family and friends, and create the opportunities for the users to interact with the participants of those events by creating interaction proposals. The systems would monitor the users family and friends group, regarding their information and actions on the social media. The systems interactions with the user would be based on that knowledge and on the knowledge of the users current context. An adaptive user interface would present and manage the user interactions, acting as a mediator between the user and his family and friends group.

The association of equity, accessibility, and price with primary healthcare user's satisfaction.

The assessment of user satisfaction, and the knowledge of what factors influence satisfaction are very important for the improvement of services’ quality provided. This study aims to evaluate user satisfaction with primary healthcare services. A sample of 6,113 healthcare services users was interviewed to evaluate satisfaction and determine a global satisfaction index using a Partial Least Squares Path Model. The global user satisfaction index with healthcare centers is 58.4 points on a 100-point scale, showing that users are only moderately satisfied with the service provided. The results show that the medical care and the price of services are the main predictors of user satisfaction. Other factors such as the perception of health equity and nursing services also seem to be important contributors to satisfaction. A more disturbing result is the negative relationship between perceived accessibility and satisfaction, which requires further research.

Designing Autonomous Systems Interactions with Elderly People

Aging is a process inherent to the human condition and part of the human being’s life cycle, which can be degraded by the reduction in the individual’s physical and social activity. This problem can be augmented by the context in which the person is aging, e.g., family, health and social bonds. The elderly individuals’ well-being is related to the strength of their social bonds with their family and friends group, which can be difficult to maintain in some stages of the aging process. A, recently- proposed solution is the adoption of autonomous systems capable of autonomous interactions with the elderly. Such systems are designed to be able to interpret the individual’s state of mind and the current context in order to conduct an effective interaction with the elderly person. This study focuses on the interaction design between the autonomous system and the human person, by considering the elderly individual’s context and pursuing the type of interaction that will positively influence the reinforcement or maintenance of the person’s social bonds with the family and friends groups. The study was carried out by interviewing a group of elderly people, currently living in nursing homes and with limited access to their family and friends.

Percepção sobre o apoio social do homem colostomizado na região Norte de Portugal

Objective: To evaluate the perceptions of colostomized men concerning the social support received and to verify the relationship between perceived social support and socio-demographic variables, the information provided, the support they actually received, and educational sessions at the hospital. Methods: This is a descriptive-correlational, cross-sectional study, a quantitative approach with a sample of 112 men who had a colostomy for over a year, in three health units of northern Portugal. Results: The average age of participants was 59.9 years, 67.9% were inactive in terms of work, 49.5% perceive support as sufficient, insufficient support 36.2% and 14.3% neutral support. The perception of support is lower in older subjects (r = -0.166; p = 0.018). Conclusion: This study showed that the spouse is very important in the life of a colostomised man, particularly in times of difficulties inherent to the disease, representing his main support network.

Supporting Palliative Care Services - An IS System to Monitor the Patients and Manage the Mobile Support Team.

The health centers group (ACES) “Douro Sul II” is creating a Community Support Team for Palliative Care (ECSCP) in order to provide palliative care services for the ACES’s population of 73,713 registered users. The team comes as a follow-up from a strategic plan, recently issued by the health ministry, in order to serve the patients in their own homes, providing the necessary support to them, to their families, and their caregivers. This approach has several benefits for the patients and their families, as well as for the healthcare system itself. To further promote the effectiveness of the ECSCP team, it was planned to develop an information system (IS), comprising several application modules, with the main objective to monitor the patients in their homes and deliver information to support the planning and execution of the ECSCP team activities. The system is based on an electronic services platform and several mobile and web applications, to be used by the patients, team’s staff and coordination. This way, we expect to overcome the geographic issues of the ACES territory, as well as the team’s human resources constraints, while remotely monitoring the patients and providing the necessary support, if and when needed, contributing to maintaining the conditions for the patients to live with dignity and quality in the comfort of their own homes.

Capacitação de trabalhadores em suporte básico de vida

Introducao: A capacitacao dos cidadaos no auxilio a vitimas em risco de vida e fundamental em qualquer sociedade. Objetivo: avaliar os conhecimentos sobre Suporte Basico de Vida dos trabalhadores de uma Câmara Municipal do norte de Portugal, antes e apos a implementacao do programa de intervencao “Capacitar para Salvar” e avaliar as competencias demonstradas, apos a participacao no programa de intervencao. Materiais e Metodos: Trata-se de um estudo do tipo quase-experimental e longitudinal, onde foi utilizado um questionario, constituido por 2 partes (caraterizacao sociodemografica e avaliacao de conhecimentos) e uma grelha de avaliacao de competencias. No 1o momento foram avaliados os conhecimentos sobre Suporte Basico de Vida e implementado um programa de intervencao, sendo que no 2o momento, foram avaliados os conhecimentos e competencias sobre Suporte Basico de Vida. Resultados: Participaram no estudo 97 trabalhadores. Os resultados mostraram que os trabalhadores possuem conhecimentos e competencias insuficientes em Suporte Basico de Vida. Discussao e Conclusoes: Verificaram-se diferencas estatisticamente significativas nos conhecimentos e competencias em Suporte Basico de Vida. Implicacoes para a pratica: implementacao de estrategias que promovam a formacao em Suporte Basico de Vida a todos cidadaos, quer ao nivel da transmissao de conhecimentos, quer da formacao pratica. Como citar este artigo: Monteiro MJFSP, Pereira MCARS, Carvalho RMBC, Carril ESB, Carril MFB, Rodrigues VMCP. Capacitacao de trabalhadores em suporte basico de vida. Rev Cuid. 2018; 9(2): 2117-26. http://dx.doi.org/10.15649/cuidarte.v9i2.505

Qualidade de vida dos utentes dos cuidados de saúde primários do distrito de Vila Real

Theoretical framework: The Quality of Life (QoL) is determined by functional status and health condition, depending largely on individual, socio-economic a...

Cultura organizacional da família como preditor das atitudes e comportamentos sexuais em adolescentes

Theoretical framework: Parental behaviour can have a significanteffect on the sexual attitudes and behaviours of adolescents.Objectives: This study objective...

Perceptions of the social support for colostomized men in northern Portugal

Objective: To evaluate the perceptions of colostomized men concerning the social support received and to verify the relationship between perceived social support and socio-demographic variables, the information provided, the support they actually received, and educational sessions at the hospital. Methods: This is a descriptive-correlational, cross-sectional study, a quantitative approach with a sample of 112 men who had a colostomy for over a year, in three health units of northern Portugal. Results: The average age of participants was 59.9 years, 67.9% were inactive in terms of work, 49.5% perceive support as sufficient, insufficient support 36.2% and 14.3% neutral support. The perception of support is lower in older subjects (r = -0.166; p = 0.018). Conclusion: This study showed that the spouse is very important in the life of a colostomised man, particularly in times of difficulties inherent to the disease, representing his main support network.

La percepción del apoyo social del hombre con colostomía en la región Norte de Portugal

Objective: To evaluate the perceptions of colostomized men concerning the social support received and to verify the relationship between perceived social support and socio-demographic variables, the information provided, the support they actually received, and educational sessions at the hospital. Methods: This is a descriptive-correlational, cross-sectional study, a quantitative approach with a sample of 112 men who had a colostomy for over a year, in three health units of northern Portugal. Results: The average age of participants was 59.9 years, 67.9% were inactive in terms of work, 49.5% perceive support as sufficient, insufficient support 36.2% and 14.3% neutral support. The perception of support is lower in older subjects (r = -0.166; p = 0.018). Conclusion: This study showed that the spouse is very important in the life of a colostomised man, particularly in times of difficulties inherent to the disease, representing his main support network.