No abstract

No abstract

In an observational and descriptive work all the numbers and articles published were reviewed by kind of article, total of bibliographic references, total of Portuguese bibliographic references and total of bibliographic references in the Journal, between January 2000 and December 2006. Three quantitative indexes were created. Results: In 357 articles we found an index of 0,05 for the total of bibliographic references, of 0,30 for the Portuguese bibliographic references and between 1,7 and 0,27 for the years 2001 and 2003 for an index measuring the number of articles in the Journal/number of articles published per year. Conclusions: In the light of these findings it seems necessary that Portuguese General Practitioners invest on reading the Journal and that a more easy and friendly way can be arranged for searching articles in the Journal.

No abstract

The marked increase in life expectancy seen in Portugal in the last five decades led to a change in the profile of patients being most commonly admitted in internal medicine wards. In deciding the best care for these patients, prognostication models are needed in order to reduce readmissions, mortality, and adequate care. We aimed to study short and long-term mortality and predictors of all-cause mortality, independently of cause admission, of patients admitted in an internal medicine ward. MethodsThis two-part, single-center study enrolled patients from October 2013 to October 2014 with a follow-up of 60 months. ResultsA total of 681 patients were included; the mean age was 75.86 years with 60.4% females. The most frequent comorbidities were anemia, hypertension, and renal impairment. More than half of the population died in the follow-up period (51.5%). Deaths were significantly higher in the first six months after discharge (53% of all deaths) and then decreased abruptly to 11.6% in the second half-year after discharge. Based on the multivariate logistic regression model, with age over 80 years, anemia and neoplasm were independent predictors of short-term (p<0.001, p=0.001, p<0.001, respectively) and long-term (p<0.001 for the three conditions) mortality. Heart failure (p=0.018) and diabetes (p=0.025) were also predictors of longterm mortality. ConclusionHigh mortality, mainly in the first six months after discharge, elicits strategies targeting transition of care and close follow-up in the first months, which can be the key to improving outcomes. Identification of patients at higher risk may help design realistic models aiming to improve care for this frail population and decrease morbimortality.