[Reliability of 3 sources of information about medication excipients]. / Fiabilidad de tres fuentes de información sobre excipientes de medicamentos.

OBJECTIVE: To find how reliably three sources of therapeutic information record the composition of excipients: the Vademecum, the pharmaceutical catalogue and the instructions sheets of pharmaceutical products. DESIGN: Descriptive study. SETTING: Primary care. PATIENTS AND OTHER PARTICIPANTS: Initially, 658 orally-taken products were selected. Whether four excipients (saccharine, saccharose, lactose and ethanol) appeared in these products' composition formulas was compared. RESULTS: In 70.6% +/- 5.11 there was discordance on the excipients in the composition formulas in one of the three sources of therapeutic information. The instructions sheets contained information on the number of excipients in 98.7% +/- 1.3 of the products, the pharmaceutical catalogue in 87.2% +/- 3.7 and the Vademecum in 65.7% +/- 5.3. So the Vademecum was the source of therapeutic information containing the highest percentage of products with no kind of information about excipients, followed by the catalogue and the instructions sheets. The instructions sheets were the best source of therapeutic information for 289 products. 10.3% of laboratories did not quantify their excipients in any of the three sources under study. CONCLUSIONS: The Vademecum and pharmaceutical catalogue do not include very reliable information about these four excipients in the composition formulas of pharmaceutical products. It is important to make available to doctors straightforward texts which provide more reliable and up-to-date information.

[Presence of excipients in pharmaceutical products in 3 sources of therapeutic information]. / Presencia de excipientes en especialidades farmacéuticas en tres fuentes de información terapéutica.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the level of agreement between information compiled from the Vademecum, the Pharmaceutical Catalogue and instruction leaflets on the four excipients most commonly used to prepare pharmaceutical products (saccharin, saccharose, lactose and ethanol). DESIGN: Descriptive study. SETTING: Primary care. PATIENTS AND OTHER PARTICIPANTS: 658 orally administered preparations of pharmaceutical products were chosen. Their composition formulas in the Vademecum, Pharmaceutical Catalogue and instruction leaflets were compared with a theoretical model constructed as the most reliable source of information on excipients. RESULTS: Saccharin and saccharose were the most frequently described and quantified excipients, and lactose the least. Saccharin was quantified in 97.3% of cases in which it was used as an excipient, saccharose in 95%, ethanol in 91.4% and lactose in 17.5%. Saccharin is also the excipient which coincided most in the three sources examined, followed by saccharose, lactose and ethanol. The Vademecum did not state the presence of saccharose in 62% of preparations and of lactose in 39.7%. Instruction leaflets were the source with the lowest rate of failing to state the excipients. CONCLUSIONS: Saccharose and lactose are excipients frequently omitted from the composition of orally taken pharmaceutical products in the Vademecum. Instruction leaflets provide the most reliable source out of the three analysed. The need to make available for doctors simple texts, contributing more reliable and up-to-date information, is underlined.

[Trust of primary care physicians in the reliability of the vade mecum]. / Fiabilidad otorgada al vademécum entre médicos de atención primaria.

OBJECTIVES: To assess the reliability which doctors grant to the International Vademecum as a source of information, up-dating and on-going training in pharmacotherapy; also to find their knowledge of the presence of Saccharose as an excipient in the composition of several pharmaceutical products commonly used in primary care. DESIGN: A descriptive, crossover study using a self-filled postal questionnaire. SETTING: Badajoz health sector. PATIENTS AND OTHER PARTICIPANTS: Primary care doctors (general and paediatricians) from three health areas in the province of Badajoz. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: A total of 178 doctors filled in the questionnaire (57.6% of the 309 doctors from the health centres). All the information in the Vademecum is considered useful and trustworthy by 68.2% of the doctors. Nor were there any significant differences in the assessment of the Vademecum between doctors with MIR (intern) training (63.6%) and without (71.1%). The Vademecum is used as a source of updating and on-going training in pharmacotherapy by 33.7% of doctors. Its use increases in line with the doctor's age and the time worked in primary care. Knowledge among doctors of the presence of saccharose as one of the excipients in the five pharmaceutical products analysed varied between 21.2% and 46.4%. CONCLUSIONS: Widespread acceptance and use of the Vademecum by primary care doctors and scant knowledge of the presence of Saccharose as an excipient in the pharmaceutical products analysed.

[Quality control and results of prevention and health promotion activities in infirmary consultations]. / Control de calidad y resultados en actividades de prevención y promoción de salud en consultas de enfermería.

BACKGROUND: To evaluate nursing practice in periodic health examination. METHODS: We make a retrospective evaluation of process data through 10 explicit criteria. We selected a random sample (in evaluation process) and a institutional based sample and population universe (re-evaluation process) of both male and female patients who underwent health examination in nursing consults of a urban health center. RESULTS: We found a substantial improvement in fulfilling degree in 8 out of criteria, although best standard only was reached in 3 criteria (blood pressure determination, somatometrics and tobacco smoking investigation). We also remark the high proportion of risk factors, tobacco smoking (51.6%), obesity (37.6%) and dyslipemia (25.5%). CONCLUSIONS: We remark the importance of entering and developing evaluation and quality assurance methodology among common tasks of primary care teams and correct ubication of periodic health examination in nursing process.

[Results of periodic health examinations in an adult population aged 15-60 years]. / Resultados de exámenes periódicos de salud en población adulta de 15-60 años.

We report the results of 510 periodical health examinations in adults aged 16-60 years (43% males and 57% females), carried out by the nursing staff in our center (belonging to the PAPPS of the SEMFyC). In the results there was a remarkably high rate of risk factors: 46.6% of obesity, 46% of smokers, 40% of sedentarism, 20% of hyperlipidemia, and 5.1% of hypertension. There was a higher prevalence of smokers among the female population between 15-44 years of age; 6.3% of the surveyed population consumed more than 50 g of alcohol/day, 3.7% had abnormal urine reactive strips and 1.6% had abnormal carbohydrate metabolism. In our experience, the periodical health examination perfectly fits the role of nurses and is well accepted by the population.