Construction and validation of an questionnaire for evaluating self-medication practised by patients with temporomandibular disorders.

AIMS: Despite the fact that self-medication associated with temporomandibular disorders is clinically quite common and is considerably harmful, there is no instrument in the literature to assess this practice. The aim of this study was to construct and validate a questionnaire to study this important issue specifically. METHODS: After completing the literature review, semi-structured interviews, focus group and pretest, the first version of the instrument resulted in 62 questions. After face validity testing, pretest and the necessary corrections and changes, the instrument had 41 questions and was administered for validation to a sample of 110 patients diagnosed with TMD according to the RDC/TMD (1992) criteria. RESULTS: According to factor analysis, seven questions with loadings below 0.30 were removed, with the final version consisting of 34 questions. The analysis of internal consistency and temporal stability showed values of 0.844 for Cronbach's alpha coefficient and a Kappa coefficient of 0.810, respectively, indicating that the instrument presents sufficient reliability and reproducibility for its proposed objective. After validation, with the ultimate goal of classifying patients according to the degree/intensity of self-medication, a classification was proposed that allowed the discrimination of results into three distinct groups regarding self-medication exposure: mild, moderate or severe, based on the self-medication raw point score. CONCLUSION: The results of the instrument validation process showed that it has suitable properties for evaluating the practice of self-medication in patients with TMD.

Avaliação do polimorfismo de grupos sanguíneos e fenótipo de hemoglobinas em um grupo de universitários de São José do Rio Preto, SP / Evaluation of the blood groups and hemoglobin phenotypes in a group of university students of São José do Rio Preto, SP, Brazil

The studies of the phenotypes of the blood groups are important for blood transfusions, for obstetrics, neonatology and law medicine, apart from its application in anthropology where it can be used as genetic markers in population studies. Works with hemoglobin polymor-phisms as a genetic marker of populations has been increased over the last few years, particularly for different population groups of Brazil. In the investigation the hemoglobin polymorphisms of 200 university students from São José do Rio Preto, Brazil were studied to establish a possible relation between the different phenotypes. Statistical analysis of the phenotypes showed that the differences observed were not significant, without a relationship among the polymorphisms of blood groups and hemoglobins