[The long-term treatment card from the user's viewpoint]. / La tarjeta de largo tratamiento desde el punto de vista del usuario.

OBJECTIVE: To find the user's opinion of the long-term treatment card (LTC) as against repeat prescriptions from a medical clinic, the time employed on administration and information received on the use of the LTC. Criticisms and suggestions were gathered. DESIGN: Crossover, by means of questionnaires filled in by the subjects. SETTING: Almozara Health Centre, Zaragoza. PATIENTS AND OTHER PARTICIPANTS: 397 valid questionnaires given out to LTC users. The Primary Care team. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: The LTC was preferred to a clinical prescription by 88% of those surveyed. 79% considered that they needed less time to obtain their prescriptions by using the LTC. 10% had difficulties in obtaining their treatment; 36% of them due to problems involving the collection/delivery timetable. 38% demanded the right to have medication included in the LTC: either at their own wish (18%), in the view of other INSALUD doctors (11%) or of any other medical officer (9%). 25% did not feel they were sufficiently informed. CONCLUSIONS: The LTC is very widely accepted. Information on its use and functioning should be improved, with special emphasis on the inclusion of medication solely by the General Practitioner concerned. The criticisms collected, such as insufficient control of lengthy treatments or adverse side-effects, support the view that quality controls of the LTC are needed.

[The evaluation of a semiautomatic arterial pressure monitor]. / Validación de un monitor semiautomático de presión arterial.

OBJECTIVE: To study the reliability and precision of the arterial pressure digital monitor, Palm Monitor-2 FS-40, model 1083 (DM). The mercury sphygmomanometer (MSM) was used as the reference. DESIGN: Comparative crossover study. SETTING: Primary Care Centre. PATIENTS: 81 patients of both sexes between 26 and 65 found at random in a consultation during November and December, 1991. 24 of them had systolic arterial pressure (SAP) above 140 mmHg and/or diastolic arterial pressure (DAP) above 90 mmHg. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Four measurements of AP for each patient were carried out at one minute intervals: the first and the fourth with the MSM and the second and third with the DM. The SAP averages with the DM were 130.27 mmHg in the first take and 129.36 in the second. The DAP averages were 82.53 and 81.88, respectively. The Pearson correlation r between the averages for both devices and the difference of averages, both absolute and in so much per cent, were obtained. The values obtained were 0.887 for SAP and 0.810 for DAP. The difference between averages was -3.83 mmHg (-2.86%) for SAP and -2.55 mmHg (-3.04%) for DAP. CONCLUSIONS: The measurements obtained with this DM are quite reliable, although a tendency to underestimate the AP values in relation to the MSM was noted. Overall it can provide useful information on certain aspects of the diagnosis and follow-up of AHT.

[The conduct stemming from the application of a program of preventive activities]. / Actuación derivada de la aplicación de un programa de actividades preventivas.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the results of putting into practice the Programme of Preventive Measures and Health Promotion of the SEMFYC and the level of intervention into each risk factor. DESIGN: Descriptive study of a sample of clinical records of patients included in the program. SITE. The population seen at a Health Centre. PATIENTS: A sample of 772 clinical records, 51.1% being women. Average age was 31.8. MAIN MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS: 389 smokers, 35 people with hypertension, 175 with hypercholesterolemia, 96 heavy drinkers and 268 suffering from overweight were found. The level of intervention recorded in the clinical histories is low by the criteria of the Programme: it swings between 27.68% for overweight and 47.6% for tobacco dependency. CONCLUSIONS: The Programme of Preventive Measures and Health Promotion (PAPPS in Spanish) is seen to be useful as a method of detecting health problems in the asymptomatic population. But it needs to be followed up with some minimal intervention and control of the problem, if the desired aims are to be met.