Comparison of Triflusal with Aspirin in the Secondary Prevention of Atherothrombotic Events; Α Randomised Clinical Trial.

BACKGROUND: Triflusal has demonstrated an efficacy similar to aspirin in the prevention of vascular events in patients with acute myocardial infarction (ΜΙ) and ischaemic stroke but with less bleeding events. OBJECTIVE: We performed a randomised, multicentre, phase 4 clinical trial to compare the clinical efficacy and safety of triflusal versus aspirin, administered for 12 months in patients eligible to receive a cyclooxygenase-1 (COX-1) inhibitor. METHODS: Patients with stable coronary artery disease or with a history of non-cardioembolic ischaemic stroke were randomly assigned to receive either triflusal 300 mg twice or 600 mg once daily or aspirin 100 mg once daily for 12 months. The primary efficacy endpoint was the composite of: (a) ΜΙ, (b) stroke (ischaemic or haemorrhagic), or, (c) death from vascular causes for the entire follow-up period. The primary safety endpoints were the rate of bleeding events as defined by Bleeding Academic Research Consortium (BARC) criteria. RESULTS: At 12-month follow-up, an equivalent result was revealed between the triflusal (n=559) and aspirin (n=560) in primary efficacy endpoint. Specifically, the combined efficacy outcome rate (i.e. MI, stroke or death from vascular causes) difference was equal to -1.3% (95% confidence interval -1.1 to 3.5) and lied within the a-priori defined equivalence interval (p<0.001). Regarding the primary safety endpoints, patients on triflusal treatment were 50% less likely to develop bleeding events according to the BARC criteria, and especially any clinically overt sign of haemorrhage that requires diagnostic studies, hospitalisation or special treatment (BARC type 2). CONCLUSION: The efficacy of triflusal in the secondary prevention of vascular events is similar to aspirin when administered for 12 months. Importantly, triflusal significantly reduced the incidence of ΜΙ and showed a better safety profile compared with aspirin. (ASpirin versus Triflusal for Event Reduction In Atherothrombosis Secondary prevention, ASTERIAS trial; Clinical Trials.gov Identifier: NCT02616497).

Informal Caregivers in Greek Hospitals: a Unique Phenomenon of a Health System in Financial Crisis.

BACKGROUND: In Greece it is quite common for family members to provide informal unpaid care for another family member during hospitalization, alongside healthcare professionals. Understaffing and lack of nursing personnel, due to austerity measures implemented in Greece during the last eight years, force families to provide informal care during hospitalization. The aim of the research was to study the role of informal caregivers (IC) during a family's member hospitalization, factors affecting their presence and patient's needs that were met by them. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted in five medical wards of a tertiary general hospital in big city of Northern Greece, during 14 weeks using a questionnaire with demographics, clinical data, and type and frequency of interventions performed by ICs. Patient/nurse ratio was also recorded. RESULTS: On the total, 210 ICs participated (63.42% response rate). The vast majority of ICs were females, married, close relatives and in their late forties. More than half of them (58.1%, n=122) stayed by their patient bedside for more than 17 hours per day, as it was found that 13.8 patients were allocated to each nurse. Less than one quarter of ICs reported that their patient's status was not serious at all and according to them, one third of the patients were totally dependent and one fifth were totally self-sufficient and able to take care of themselves. Nineteen out of the twenty three interventions performed by caregivers were interventions of basic nursing care. CONCLUSION: The GHS administration officials are called to consider nursing understaffing in order to provide adequate and safe care. As new personnel is very difficult to be hired, family members could be trained, through structured programs, in basic nursing skills and interventions, so that they could participate in their family member's care and provide continuity of care at home.

Satisfaction from the 'Help at Home' programme in a prefecture of central Greece.

Greece is facing the issue of increasing elderly population and therefore local municipalities started the 'Help at Home' programme. The aim of this study is to investigate the elderly's satisfaction from the 'Help at Home' programme in a prefecture of central Greece. The sample consisted of 300 elderly people who receive services from the 'Help at Home' programme. Data were collected using a questionnaire. The majority of the participants were satisfied with the programme's services and reported high satisfaction from the interpersonal relations with the personnel, from the personnel's professional abilities and from the system's sufficiency in covering the elderly's perceived needs for care, but the satisfaction from the range of services is relatively low. The participants were overall satisfied; however, further research is needed at a national level in order to draw safer conclusion regarding the application of the programme in Greece.

Fathers' Feelings and Experience Related to their Wife/Partner's Delivery in Northern Greece.

OBJECTIVES: The study aims at exploring the feelings and the experience of fathers about their wife/partner's delivery. BACKGROUND: During the last decades birth attendance by fathers is a common phenomenon across many countries. Fathers' birth attendance may evoke both positive and negative feelings. METHODOLOGY: The study was conducted in a city of Northern Greece. The sample consisted of 417 fathers whose wife/partner had given birth during the previous one week to one year. Data were collected using the Kuopio Instrument for Fathers (KIF). RESULTS: Father's feelings about their wife or partner were very positive as nearly all (82.1%) of the participants were proud to become fathers and agree that they felt love and were grateful to their wife/partner. However, half of the fathers felt anxious and nervous. 40.7% quite agree that the staff was very professional, that they trusted the staff (45%) and that they were grateful to the staff (38.8%). There is correlation between the "feelings related to the wife/partner" and education (r=0.156, p=0.0047), "being afraid during the preparatory visit at the obstetric hospital" (r=-0.238, p=0.009), and "anxiety during the preparatory visit" (r=0.295 p=0.005). The subscale "feelings related to the environment and staff" correlates with "usefulness of preparatory visit" (r=-0.223, p=0.004) and the subscale of "experiences related to delivery" correlates with "usefulness of preparatory visit" (r=-0.357, p=0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Our results support the findings of previous studies, which indicated that birth attendance by fathers has evoked positive feelings about their wife/partner, the delivery, the staff and the hospital environment.

Validation and test-retest reliability of the Royal Free Interview for Spiritual and Religious Beliefs when adapted to a Greek population.

BACKGROUND: The self-report version of the Royal Free Interview for Religious and Spiritual Beliefs has been confirmed as a valid and reliable scale, assessing the manner and nature in which spiritual beliefs are expressed. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the test-retest reliability and psychometric properties of the Greek version of the Royal Free Interview for Religious and Spiritual Beliefs. METHODS: A total of 209 persons (77 men and 132 women) with a mean age of 28.33 +/- 9.44 years participated in the study (test group). We subsequently approached 139 participants of the test group with a mean age of 28.93 +/- 9.60 years, who were asked to complete the Royal Free Questionnaire a second time two weeks later (retest group). RESULTS: The vast majority of participants (58.9%) reported both a religious and a spiritual belief, compared to 52 (25.1%) who told of a religious belief only. The internal consistency of the spiritual scale for the test group proved to be good, as standardized inter-item reliability / Cronbach's alpha was 0.83. Item-total correlations ranged from 0.51 to 0.73. They indicated very good levels of differentiation, thus showing that the questions were appropriate. Internal consistency of the spiritual scale for the retest group proved as good as for the test group. Standardized inter-item reliability / Cronbach's alpha was 0.84. Item-total correlations ranged from 0.52 to 0.75. The Pearson correlation coefficient for the total test-retest score of the spiritual scale was 0.754 (p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: The Greek version of the Royal Free Interview for Religious and Spiritual Beliefs is reliable and thus suitable for use in Greece.