Development and validation of an instrument (CSII - Brazil) to assess users' conceptual and procedural knowledge of continuous subcutaneous infusion systems.

OBJECTIVE: To develop, adapt and validate an instrument named "CSII - Brazil" to assess users' conceptual and procedural knowledge of continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion systems. METHODS: Methodological and exploratory study developed in three stages: a) instrument development; b) content validation and cultural adaptation (evaluation by a committee of experts and pre-test with CSII users); c) psychometric validation through instrument application in a sample of 60 patients by means of the web tool e-Surv. Internal consistency and reproducibility analyses were performed within IBM SPSS Statistics 20 programming environment. RESULTS: The 16 multiple-choice question instrument successfully attained a content validity index of 0.97, showing satisfactory internal consistency, with 0.61 Cronbach's alpha [95% CI 0.462-0.746] and an intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.869 [95% CI: 0.789-0.919] between the test and retest scores. CONCLUSION: The CSII - Brazil instrument is considered adequate and validated to assess continuous subcutaneous infusion system users' conceptual and procedural knowledge.

Association of APOE, GCPII and MMP9 polymorphisms with common diseases and lipid levels in an older adult/elderly cohort.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The characterization of candidate gene polymorphisms in elderly populations is an important tool for the identification of risk factors for age-related diseases and conditions. We aimed to genotype the APOE polymorphisms (rs429358 and rs7412), rs61886492 (1561C>T) and rs202720 of GCPII gene and rs3918242 (-1562C>T) of MMP9 gene in an older-adult/elderly cohort from Cuiabá city, Mato Grosso Brazil as well as to characterize risk factors for morbidities and conditions affecting this cohort. METHODS: The studied population consisted of 570 subjects from Cuiabá city, Brazil, who were subjected to clinical interviews and blood collection for laboratory examinations and DNA extraction. Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism Polymerase Chain Reaction (RFLP-PCR), sequence-specific primer PCR (SSP-PCR) and TaqMan® allelic discrimination assay were used for genotyping. RESULTS: The frequencies of APOE ε2 and ε4 were 6.6% and 14.8%, respectively, and the frequencies of GCPII rs61886492 T allele, GCPII rs202720 C allele and MMP9 rs3918242 T allele were, respectively, 3.0%, 26.6% and 10.1%. Significant associations between APOE ε2 allele with lower total cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol were found. In addition, MMP9 rs3918242 T allele was associated with higher LDL-cholesterol levels, suggesting a link between lipid metabolism alteration and cardiovascular disease. CONCLUSIONS: The present findings contributed to characterize risk factors specific for the studied population and to better understand the molecular physiopathology of common morbidities and conditions affecting older-adult/elderly people.