BackgroundWe aimed to assess medical students' empathy and its associations with gender, stage of medical school, quality of life and burnout.MethodA cross-sectional, multi-centric (22 medical schools) study that employed online, validated, self-reported questionnaires on empathy (Interpersonal Reactivity Index), quality of life (The World Health Organization Quality of Life Assessment) and burnout (the Maslach Burnout Inventory) in a random sample of medical students.ResultsOut of a total of 1,650 randomly selected students, 1,350 (81.8%) completed all of the questionnaires. Female students exhibited higher dispositional empathic concern and experienced more personal distress than their male counterparts (p<0.05; d≥0.5). There were minor differences in the empathic dispositions of students in different stages of their medical training (p<0.05; f<0.25). Female students had slightly lower scores for physical and psychological quality of life than male students (p<0.05; d<0.5). Female students scored higher on emotional exhaustion and lower on depersonalization than male students (p<0.001; d<0.5). Students in their final stage of medical school had slightly higher scores for emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and personal accomplishment (p<0.05; f<0.25). Gender (β = 0.27; p<0.001) and perspective taking (β = 0.30; p<0.001) were significant predictors of empathic concern scores. Depersonalization was associated with lower empathic concern (β = −0.18) and perspective taking (β = −0.14) (p<0.001). Personal accomplishment was associated with higher perspective taking (β = 0.21; p<0.001) and lower personal distress (β = −0.26; p<0.001) scores.ConclusionsFemale students had higher empathic concern and personal distress dispositions. The differences in the empathy scores of students in different stages of medical school were small. Among all of the studied variables, personal accomplishment held the most important association with decreasing personal distress and was also a predicting variable for perspective taking.

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Introdução: A meningite é uma inflamação aguda das membranas que revestem a medula espinhal e cérebro causada por uma ampla variedade de fatores etiológicos. Atualmente, esta doença representa um agravo em saúde endêmico no Brasil. Objetivos: descrever os casos de meningite ocorridos na cidade de Uberaba, Minas Gerais, entre os anos de 2010 a 2017. Método: estudo epidemiológico, descritivo, em que foram analisados dados disponibilizados pelo Departamento de Informática do Sistema Único de Saúde, compreendendo os casos notificados de meningite entre o período de 2010 a 2017. Resultados: Observou-se um aumento no número de casos de meningite entre os anos de 2010 a 2017, com maior frequência no intervalo de 2016 a 2017, onde verificou-se um incremento de 121% na incidência da doença. Além disso, 20,7% dos pacientes atendidos não tiveram seu agente etiológico especificamente identificado. Crianças com idade inferior a um ano e com idade compreendida entre 1 e 10 anos foram os indivíduos mais acometidos pela doença. Conclusão: Houve um aumento dos casos de meningite na cidade de Uberaba e que tal frequência foi superior ao ocorrido no Estado de Minas Gerais. Além disso, parte dos casos da doença ainda permanece com seu agente etiológico não identificado. Introduction: Meningitis is an acute inflammation of the membranes lining the spinal cord and brain caused by a wide variety of etiological factors. Currently, this disease represents an endemic health problem in Brazil.Objectives: To describe the cases of meningitis that occurred in the city of Uberaba, Minas Gerais, between 2010 and 2017. Method: a descriptive epidemiological study, which analyzed data provided by the Department of Informatics of the Brazilian Health System on reported cases between 2010 and 2017. Results: There was an increase in the number of cases of meningitis between 2010 and 2017, with a more significant frequency in the period from 2016 to 2017, where there was an incidence rise of 121%. Besides, 20.7% of the treated patients did not have their etiological agent specifically identified. Children under one year-old and aged between one to 10 years were the most affected by the disease. Conclusion: There was an increase in cases of meningitis in the city of Uberaba and that such increase was higher than in Minas Gerais state. Also, some cases of the disease remain with their etiological agent unidentified.

Objective: To identify the nursing staff of a university hospital's work ability index and point out which factors interfere in the quality of the work of these workers. Method: This is a cross-sectional, descriptive and analytical survey, quantitative, composed of 54 nursing professionals from the medical clinic ward sector of a large hospital in Uberlândia (Minas Gerais, Brazil). Data collection is performed using two tools: sociodemographic questionnaire and Work Ability Index (WAI). The G-Test by Williams was applied to assess the significant association between sociodemographic and occupational variables and those related to the work ability index. It was used the BioEstat® version 5.3 program to perform all analyzes with a significance level of 0.05 (5%). Results: The research showed that nursing professionals had a predominance of good workability (40,7%), the prevalence of young adults, the highest percentage between 31-40 years, 81,5% are women, 50% are in a marital relationship, 63% are open to public tender, and they had no back injuries. It was also found that the only professionals who had a low work capacity were nursing technicians, corresponding to 5,6% of the total percentage. Conclusion: It is known that a hospital environment is a place that favors the illness process of nursing workers. The worker who owns and maintains adequate physical and mental health can perform his duties better and have a better capacity for work, therefore taking better care of the patient.

Esta revisão sistemática aborda o uso de Sistemas de Suporte à Decisão Clínica (SADC) nos atendimentos realizados na Atenção Primária à Saúde (APS), identificando relações existentes entre o uso dos sistemas e os desfechos clínicos. Foram selecionados trabalhos, estudos em português e inglês, sem restrição ao cenário brasileiro, encontrados em diferentes bases de dados. Os resultados demonstram que os SADC ainda se encontram em estágio de desenvolvimento e refinamento, com aplicação ainda incipiente nas mais diversas patologias e condições clínicas. São raros os ensaios clínicos que tracem os desfechos clínicos primários, levando ao acúmulo de dados apenas sobre desfechos secundários ou compostos, dificultando a avaliação dos sistemas. Há indicativos de relativa eficiência no uso dos SADC para situações de diagnóstico e prevenção, com eficiência limitada na fase de tratamento. Finalmente, não existem dados suficientes para afirmar se os SADC geram desfechos clínicos primários mais favoráveis ou desfavoráveis na APS.