The present study aimed to evaluate the influence of cardiac coherence through Biofeedback Therapy (BT) with paced breathing on blood pressure, stress and anxiety levels in individuals with essential arterial hypertension. The participants underwent 8 sessions of paced breathing guided by biofeedback visual therapy   for 20 minutes, in which they were evaluated through clinical assessment, Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale, Perceived Stress Scale and cardiovascular variables. Comparisons of means were performed using the paired and unpaired Student's t-test. Statistically significant correlations were considered when p ≤ 0.05 with a 95% confidence interval. The effect size (Cohen's d) and common language effect size were calculated to assess the effect of such therapy. Sixteen patients with mean age of 57.3 ± 14 years old participated in this study. Comparisons between mean initial and final systolic blood pressure levels (SBP) in women (p = 0.007; Cohen's d = 0.50), pre- and post-training heart rate (p = 0.02; Cohen's d = 0.60) and anxiety levels (p = 0.01; Cohen's d = 1.04) were significant. Comparisons between pre- and post-training SBP (p = 0.006; Cohen's d = 0.81) and pre- and post-training anxiety levels (p = 0.04; Cohen's d = 0.32) were significant among males. In conclusion, paced breathing training with biofeedback therapy can be promising to reduce anxiety levels in individuals with essential arterial hypertension.

BACKGROUND: Countries have focused research on developing strategies to fight COVID-19, prevent hospitalizations, and maintain economic activities. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to establish a survival analysis and identify risk factors for patients with COVID-19 in a upper middle-income city in Brazil. METHODS: We performed a retrospective cohort study with 280 hospitalized patients with COVID-19. The eCOVID platform provided data used to monitor COVID-19 cases and help communication between professionals. RESULTS: Survival analysis showed that age ≥ 65 years was associated with decreased survival (54.8%). Females had lower survival rate than males (p=0.01). Regarding risk factors, urea concentration (p<0.001), hospital LOS (p=0.002), oxygen concentration (p=0.005), and age (p=0.02) were associated with death. CONCLUSION: Age, hospital LOS, high blood urea concentration, and low oxygen concentration were associated with death by COVID-19 in the studied population. These findings corroborate with studies conducted in research centers worldwide.

Background Knowledge about the epidemiology and risk factors surrounding COVID-19 contributes to developing better health strategies to combat the disease. Objective This study aimed to establish a survival analysis and identify the risk factors for patients with COVID-19 in an upper middle-income city in Brazil. Methods A retrospective cohort study was conducted with 280 hospitalized patients with COVID-19. The eCOVID platform provided data to monitor COVID-19 cases and help the communication between professionals. Results Age ≥ 65 years was associated with decreased survival (54.8%), and females had a lower survival rate than males (p = 0.01). Regarding risk factors, urea concentration (p<0.001), hospital length of stay (p = 0.002), oxygen concentration (p = 0.005), and age (p = 0.02) were associated with death. Conclusion Age, hospital length of stay, high blood urea concentration, and low oxygen concentration were associated with death by COVID-19 in the studied population. These findings corroborate with studies conducted in research centers worldwide.

IntroductionSarcopenia is a highly prevalent muscle dysfunction among older adults and is associated with adverse events. The periodic monitoring enables an early screening of patients at risk and control of the progression of muscle impairment. Wearable devices have been used as clinical support for sarcopenia detection. Therefore, this review aims to identify how wearable devices have been used to screen sarcopenia.Methods and analysesSearches will be conducted from August 2023 on PubMed, CINHAL, Embase, Web of Science and SciELO databases. We will include cross-sectional and/or baseline data from prospective studies reporting the use of wearable devices to investigate sarcopenia. Studies that discuss only the development of algorithms or applications for the assessment of sarcopenia or unavailable full texts will be excluded. The main reviewer will conduct the initial search and exclusion of duplicates, while two independent reviewers will select studies, extract data and assess the methodological quality using the Appraisal tool for Cross-sectional Studies.Ethics and disseminationNo previous ethical approval is required for this review. The findings of this review will be submitted to a scientific journal and disclosed at international scientific conferences.PROSPERO registration numberCRD42022356040.

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