[Hospital admissions of children for conditions treatable by ambulatory care in the community of Valencia]. / Ingresos hospitalarios infantiles por procesos susceptibles de cuidados ambulatorios en la Comunidad Valenciana.

OBJECTIVE: To describe the importance which ambulatory care sensitive conditions (ACSC) have for the child population of the Valencia Community during the period 1980 to 1988, taken from the Hospital Morbidity Survey (HMS). DESIGN: Descriptive, retrospective study. SETTING: Hospital discharges collected in the HMS from the Valencia Community. PATIENTS: Children under 15 years old. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: The total percentage of hospital discharges from ACSC observed were 16, 13.2 and 10% for the provinces of Valencia, Castellón and Alicante respectively. The highest percentage was shown in the 1 to 4 year old age group (19%). The proportion of discharges for ACSC was higher in girls (15%) than in boys (13%). Children under one year old show the highest rates. Valencia has for the whole period the highest rate ratio than 1 of being hospitalised for ACSC. CONCLUSIONS: The magnitude of these conditions is important and suggest the possibility of their use as a monitoring instrument of certain health care activities.

[Projections of the impact of the smoking habit on the health of the Spanish population and on the potential benefits from its control]. / Proyección del impacto del hábito tabáquico sobre la salud de la población española y de los beneficios potenciales de su control.

BACKGROUND: Smoking continues to be an important public health problem in Spain. With the aim to know some of the health care consequences derived from the evolution of this habit in the Spanish population and to anticipate the health care benefits which would be a result of intervention on the same the estimations of mortality related with smoking and its control in the next few decades were predicted. METHODS: Mathematic models of simulation of the effects derived from changes in the prevalence of smoking based on the techniques of attributable risk, the multiplicity of the diseases involved and the time of reversal of the risk of death following health care intervention were used. RESULTS: In absence of intervention on smoking the number of total deaths by the causes under consideration will, in general, increase, from 1987 to 2020. The reduction of 40% in the prevalence of smoking in adult Spanish smokers over a period of 8 years (1992-2000) would potentially decrease the number of cardiovascular deaths by 6,035, deaths by COPD by 394 and the deaths by malignant tumors studied in the year 2020 by 5,237. By the year 2020 the effects of intervention would, in general, be completely manifest. A part of this reduction of mortality would translate in a gaining of 57,323 real years of life in the year 2020. These benefits are also appreciable, although lesser, in the previous years from the beginning of intervention. CONCLUSIONS: Smoking will continue to be an important public health problem in Spain in the future. The health care benefits which may be derived from correct application of effective control programs of the same would be appreciable.