[Back pain and restricted daily physical activity in the Spanish adult population]. / Dolor de espalda y limitación de la actividad física cotidiana en la población adulta española.

BACKGROUND: Low back pain is a widespread health problem that affects a great part of the Spanish adult population; it also places a constraint on developing activities of daily living. The aim of this paper is to estimate the association between daily physical activity and chronic back pain in Spain. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This paper analyses data from the European Health Survey in Spain 2009; it presents a cross sectional epidemiological study designed to assess the health of the Spanish population, in which 22,188 people participated (10,876 men and 11,312 women over 16 years ), representative of the total Spanish population. The variables studied are: back pain indicators obtained from the European Health Status Module and the European Health Care Module included in this survey, and the daily physical activity pattern obtained from the European Module of Health Determinants. RESULTS: The total volume of daily physical activity is similar in healthy people and those who have back pain, but a pattern of low or moderate intensity in people with chronic back pain in the last twelve months (p <0.01) was observed with greater frequency. CONCLUSIONS: People with chronic back pain do not show a lower volume of physical activity, but their physical activity pattern is often low or moderate. Developing a vigorous pattern of physical activity should be considered not only as a strategy to prevent this disease, but also as a therapeutic target in these patients.

[The patient's right to information: influence of socio-professional factors in primary care]. / Derecho de información de los pacientes: influencia de las características socioprofesionales en atención primaria.

OBJECTIVES: To describe the information provided by primary care doctors to their patients in different phases of the care provision process and to analyse any relationships with socio-professional factors. DESIGN: Descriptive, cross-sectional study based on postal questionnaire. SETTING: Primary care centres in Murcia, Spain. PARTICIPANTS: 227 family physicians. INTERVENTIONS: Distribution of a questionnaire which includes: a) socio-professional variables (age, sex, marital status, years in practice, years in present post, work environment, previous training, number of patients on list, number of patients seen daily); b) an evaluation of job satisfaction (Likert scale) related to salary, career choice, immediate superiors and daily surgery; and c) the frequency with which information is provided to patients concerning diagnosis, prognosis, treatment, complementary examinations and personal, professional and family impact. MAIN MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS: The reply rate was 59%. The percentages of doctors who always provided information concerning diagnosis, prognosis, treatment, complementary examinations and person, professional and family impact was, 23.3%, 7%, 64.3%, 40.5%, and 9.7%, respectively. There was a direct and statistically significant relationship between job satisfaction and the information provided to patients, the doctors feeling most satisfaction providing the most information on the different phases of the care process. On the other hand, there was an inverse and statistically significant relationship between the number of patients on the doctors' lists and the information provided. CONCLUSIONS: The degree of fulfillment of the patient's right to information is low. Doctors should realise the practical importance of clinical information in their work. There is a general feeling of discontent amongst family doctors, which has a negative impact on their professional activity. A lighter workload would significantly improve the extent to which doctors provide patients with information and mechanisms should be put in place to improve working conditions to avoid the non-fulfillment of the patient's right to information.

[Study of short-term unfitness for work because of common illness among primary care management employees]. / Estudio de la incapacidad laboral transitoria por enfermedad común en trabajadores de una gerencia de atención primaria.

OBJECTIVES: To find the level of absenteeism among workers in the primary care management of Murcia, along with their distribution by professional category, health area, age and gender; and (2) find the causes of absenteeism and the relationship between these causes and the number of days lost. DESIGN: A descriptive, retrospective, population-based study. SETTING: Primary care management in Murcia. POPULATION: The management staff in Murcia consisted of 1,225 employees, who overall had 610 short-term periods of unfitness for work (SUW) due to common illness and accidents not at work, between October 1st, 1992 and October 1st, 1993. The variables studied were: age, gender, professional category, area where they worked, reason for and length of SUW and type of care. MAIN RESULTS: Index of absenteeism (IA) = 0.50, index of Seriousness (IS) = 40.75, Index of Incapacity (IL) = 18.12 and overall rate (OR) = 4.96. We found a large amount of SUW "without diagnosis": 104 cases (17.04%), which was the second most frequent cause behind respiratory complaints (23.77%). The IS were high in pathologies of the circulatory system, mental illness and neoplasias. CONCLUSIONS: The length of SUW (IS) is not influenced by any of the variables studied, excepting the specific cause of the SUW. II and IA are affected by the model of care (greater in the traditional type, p < 0.05), the health area where they work (p < 0.001) and professional category (p < 0.001). The filling out the sickness note must be improved in order to lessen the number of SUWs "without diagnosis".

[Waste water management in a health area: environmental hygiene in primary care]. / Estudio sobre la gestión de las aguas residuales en una zona de salud: higiene medioambiental en atención primaria.

BACKGROUND: Within the scope of the programmes to be developed by the primary health care parties, we consider it interesting to investigate the sewage management in our health area because of its impact on the population health and welfare and the main socioeconomic local activities: agriculture and tourism. METHOD: We carry out an epidemiological descriptive study: we review the most important structural and functional characteristics of the sewage depuration and collection in the municipality of S. Javier (Murcia). RESULTS: The evaluation of the collected data made it obvious that deficiencies exist in the collection system as well as in the sewage processing; both deficiencies were shown in some places of the locality and in particular periods of the year, with a consequent risk of environmental contamination and enteric diseases transmission among population and summer holidaymakers. CONCLUSIONS: A positive corrective action on the installations by the organisms responsible for the local sanitation as a response to these conclusions, which we informed due time, constitutes a good stimulant to go on investigating this question of such a great sanitary and general interest, which is almost unknown in medical literature.

[Epidemiologic study of acute favism cases (G6PD deficiency) in the Autonomous Community of Murcia during 1983-1987. Report of a case]. / Estudio epidemiológico de los casos de favismo agudo (déficit de G6PDHasa) en la Comunidad Autónoma de Murcia durante el período 1983-1987. A próposito de un caso.

This study reminds primary care teams of the fundamental importance of epidemiological histories for diagnosing broad bean disease in rural areas in which broad beans are regularly harvested and the patient's nationality lead one to suspect this illness. A retrospective study of the consumption of broad beans in the region of Murcia is made for the period 1983-1987, the variables of which are: Age, sex, geographical distribution, epidemiological history, diagnosis based on a clinical analysis, need for transfusion, treatment, progress and family case study. Among the conclusions, the greatest number of cases occur in males ranging from 0 to 10 years of age, residents basically of Murcia and the surrounding districts, with a prior history of having ingested broad beans, showing symptoms, revealed through a clinical analysis, which are compatible with are compatible with an hemolytic anemia, for which it was necessary to provide transfusions for a considerable number of cases, achieving good progress and a treatment based on the procedure of fundamentally eliminating broad beans from their diet and certain medicines, and lastly, a later study of the members of these patients' families.