Aim: This paper describes the design and rationale of multicenter practice-based research that aims to develop and evaluate an innovative mobile health (mHealth) intervention programme directed to promote healthy behaviours and prevent adolescent obesity.Design: This study is designed as a non-randomized controlled trial with a threearm structure.Methods: Twelve to 16 years old participants will be recruited from schools, with access to the Internet and smartphone/tablet devices. The intervention group will be invited to engage in the TeenPower mHealth programme and divided into two subgroups: Group A (additionally engaged in a structured school-based intervention programme) and Group B (only engaged in the mHealth programme). The mHealth app includes educational resources, self-monitoring, social support, interactive training modules and motivational tools. The control group will only follow the structured school-based intervention programme. The intervention length will be 3 months, including the direct support of an interdisciplinary team (nursing, nutrition, sports, psychology, among others). This research was approved and funded in August 2017.
Discussion:The positive evaluation of the intervention programme will stimulate the inclusion of technologies in the promotion of salutogenic behaviours and obesity prevention.Impact: Adolescent obesity reached epidemic proportions. It is urgent to find effective prevention strategies to induce change at the individual, family and community level. If effective, this protocol can be used by health and exercise professionals in improving community interventions tailored to teenagers.
Introduction: Calcium has several physiological functions and when it registers abnormal serum levels those functions may be impacted with potentially severe consequences. There is much research on hypercalcemia in cancer patients, but there are no recent studies on the prevalence of hypocalcemia in those patients. However, there has been an evolution in oncology, namely, new drugs that may directly or indirectly result in hypocalcemia. The primary aim was to explore the association of hypocalcemia with the diverse types of cancer. The secondary aim was to study the influence that hypocalcemia might have on survival. Methods: Review of the records of patients ≥18 years old, with total calcium <2.0 mmol/L measured in 2013 in a cancer center. Results: Eight hundred twenty-nine patients were included. Four hundred thirty-nine (53%) were male. The median age was 63 years. The most frequent cancer diagnoses were hematological 196 (24%) and colorectal 111 (13%). Six hundred thirty-eight patients had measured serum albumin, with a median of 25.5 g/L (14-47). When corrected for albumin level, calcium was in the normal range in 210 (33%) cases. The median survival of patients with corrected calcium lower than normal was 479 days (95% confidence interval [CI]: 309-649) and that of patients with normal corrected calcium was 62 days (95% CI: 33-91), P < .001. In a multivariate analysis, age, primary cancer, and albumin were significantly associated with survival. Conclusion: Hypocalcemia is associated with several types of cancer. A low calcium level is not by itself a factor of a poor prognosis since other factors seem to be more important.
Prolonged treatment with high doses of allopurinol may be associated with a reduction in morbidity and mortality in high CV risk populations (class of recommendation IIa). More studies evaluating the effect of therapy with allopurinol in reducing CV events in patients with and without risk are needed.
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