The use of unmanned aerial vehicles for health purposes: a systematic review of experimental studies.

BACKGROUND: Unmanned aircraft vehicles (UAVs) have had a rapid escalation in manageability and affordability, which can be exploited in healthcare. We conducted a systematic review examining the use of drones for health-related purposes. METHODS: A search was conducted in Medline, Embase, Global Health, Scopus, CINAHL and SciELO. Experimental studies were selected if the population included human subjects, the intervention was the use of UAVs and there was a health-related outcome. RESULTS: Of 500 results, five met inclusion criteria during an initial search. An updated search yielded four additional studies. Nine studies, all in high-income countries, were included for systematic syntheses: four studies addressed out-of-hospital cardiac arrest emergencies, three assessed drones for identification of people after accidents, one used drones to transport blood samples and one used drones to improve surgical procedures in war zones. CONCLUSIONS: Research on the use of drones in healthcare is limited to simulation scenarios, and this review did not retrieve any studies from low- and middle-income countries.

Factors associated with regular sunscreen use by medical students of a Peruvian university.

INTRODUCTION: Use of sunscreen is encouraged to reduce the risk of skin pathologies caused by radiation. It is important to acknowledge the associated factors that promote or hinder sunscreen use in young populations as to design better prevention policies. OBJECTIVE: To determine the factors associated with regular sunscreen use among first year medical students from a Peruvian university. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study was performed. Our population was first-year medical students from a Peruvian university. We administrated an electronic survey to evaluate socio-demographic data, as well as student knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding photo-protection. We used ordinal logistic regression to analyze the factors associated with sunscreen use. RESULTS: Of 420 first-year students, 299 completed our survey. We found that 53.5% of the participants were less than 18 years old, 63.2% were female, 9.3% (females more than males) responded that a sunburn was worth it to look tan, and 38.1% always or almost always used sunscreen during the summer. Factors associated with sunscreen use in the ordered logistic adjusted regression were male sex (OR = 0.50, IC95% = 0.34-0.86), participation in photo-protection workshops within the last year (OR = 2.40, IC95% = 1.28-4.37), and having somebody to remind them the use of sunscreen during the last three months (OR = 3.80, IC95% = 1.28-11.20). CONCLUSIONS: In our sample, a higher sunscreen use was more often observed among female participants, those who attended skin protection workshops, and those reminded to use sunscreen. This highlights the importance of educational and reminder activities in the adoption of protective habits, such as sunscreen use.