Evaluación de un programa piloto de promoción de salud y prevención del estrés dirigido a estudiantes y profesionales de las carreras de Farmacia y Bioquímica / Evaluation of a pilot health promotion and stress management program for Pharmacy and Biochemistry students and professionals

Objetivos: Verificar la efectividad de un programa teórico-práctico de entrenamiento para el manejo del estrés, destinado a profesionales y estudiantes de las carreras de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Discutir la importancia del mismo como complemento de la educación académica clásica, así como su potencial aplicación en la atención farmacéutica. Materiales y métodos: Los participantes fueron 27 estudiantes y 26 profesionales. Se implementó un programa de 10 encuentros destinado a mejorar el afrontamiento del estrés. Como grupo control se asignaron al azar 10 estudiantes y 10 profesionales. Se utilizaron como indicadores de eficacia las mediciones pre-post de cortisol salival y el nivel de ansiedad. Resultados: Después del programa disminuyó significativamente el nivel de cortisol salival en los estudiantes y profesionales, mientras que en el grupo control de estudiantes aumentó significativamente. Por otro lado los niveles de ansiedad disminuyeron significativamente en estudiantes y profesionales. Conclusiones: Este tipo de programa piloto evidenció ser efectivo en estudiantes. En el caso de los profesionales se necesitaría aumentar el tamaño de la muestra para alcanzar una potencia estadística aceptable. Teniendo en cuenta la transformación del ejercicio profesional del farmacéutico hacia la atención farmacéutica, creemos valiosa la formación en competencias y actitudes como las descritas en este trabajo (AU)

Objectives: The beneficial results of a theory-practice pilot stress management program for Pharmacy and Biochemistry professionals and students. Its importance as a complement of traditional academic education, as well as its potential for Pharmaceutical Care is also discussed. Materials and methods: A total of 27 students and 26 professionals took part in a program of 10 sessions, aimed at improving stress management. Ten of the students and 10 professionals were randomly assigned to control groups. Salivary cortisol levels and anxiety level tests before and after the program were used to assess efficacy. Results: Both the cortisol and the anxiety levels significantly decreased among students and professionals after the program, whereas it significantly increased in the student control group. Anxiety levels significantly decreased in both students and professionals. Conclusions: This type of pilot program proved effective for students. In the case of health professionals, the sample size needs to be increased in order to achieve an acceptable level of statistical power. Considering the shift of the pharmaceutical profession towards Pharmaceutical Care, the training of competences and attitudes like those described in this work could be of value

Chronic renal failure in pediatrics 1996. Chilean survey.

The Nephrology Branch of the Chilean Pediatric Society has greatly influenced the development of government health plans regarding the management and care of patients under 18 years with chronic renal failure (CRF). In order to assess the status of children with CRF in Chile up to 1996, a questionnaire was sent to all pediatric nephrologists in charge of those children. The total sample was of 227 patients under 18 years, giving a national prevalence of 42.5 and an incidence of 5.7 per million inhabitants; of these patients, 50.7% were male, 58.6% over 10 years and 15% younger than 5 years. The most frequent etiologies of CRF were: obstructive uropathy, 18.1%; hypo/dysplasia, 16.7%; reflux nephropathy, 16.7%; and glomerulopathies, 16.3%. Although 48% of patients were on conservative medical treatment, 42.2% of these were in end-stage renal disease, 22.9% were on dialysis, and 29.1% had undergone renal transplantation. Of the dialysis group, 75% were on peritoneal dialysis. Of the transplanted children, 78.8% had normal renal function, but 16.7% returned to dialysis. Three-year graft survival and patient survival were 68% and 94%, respectively.