Background Even though data suggest that palliative care (PC) improves patient quality of life, caregiver burden, cost, and intensive care unit (ICU) length of stay, integration of PC in the ICU is far from being universally accepted. Poor understanding of what PC provides is one of the barriers to the widespread implementation of their services in ICU. Evidence suggests that the availability of specialist PC is lacking in most European countries and provided differently depending on geographical location. The aim of this systematic review is to compare the numbers and types of PC interventions and gauge their impact on stakeholder outcomes and ICU resource utilisation. Methods We will undertake a systematic review of the published peer-reviewed journal articles; our search will be carried out MEDLINE, Embase, Cochrane, CINAHL, and PsycINFO. The search strategy will include variations in the term ‘palliative care’ and ‘intensive care’. All studies with patient populations undergoing palliative care interventions will be selected. Only full-text articles will be considered, and conference abstracts excluded. There will be no date restrictions on the year of publications or on language. The primary aim of the present study is to compare the numbers and types of PC interventions in ICU and their impact on stakeholder (patient, family, clinician, other) outcomes. Reporting of findings will follow the Preferred Reporting Items of Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Discussion This review will provide insight into the implementation of palliative care in ICU, elucidate differences between countries and health systems, reveal most effective models, and contribute to identifying research priorities to improve outcomes. Systematic review registration International Prospective Register of Systematic reviews PROSPERO ( CRD42018094315 )

Background: Timely detection of cervical cells infected with high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) improves cervical cancer prevention. In Bolivia, actual screening coverage only reaches 33.3% of the target population aged between 25 and 64 years despite free cytology screening. Furthermore, 50% to 80% screened women are lost during follow-up. This study aimed at identifying factors explaining this lack of follow-up care. Method: During the first phase, face-to-face semi-structured interviews were conducted with HPV-positive women. Secondly, we explored the reasons for the non-adherence to the follow-up care: knowledge, perceptions and beliefs about HPV, as well as barriers to healthcare access, using a structured survey on Cochabamba women and healthcare professionals. Results: Barriers to effective follow-up of the targeted populations were associated with health system shortcomings, including poor service delivery at the front- and second-line, health providers shortage, inadequate training, waiting time, high direct and indirect costs of care seeking and care, complex procedures to obtain HPV screening results and poor patient–provider communication. The follow-up was perceived as extremely stressful by the participants. Conclusion: Improved communication on HPV and HPV-related cancers in terms of representation in the general population and among the health professional’s population is vital to improve access for HPV infection follow-up care.

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Background Reported Sexually transmitted infections (STI) cases are continuously increasing in Europe. In Belgium, 94,1% of citizens have a regular general practitioner (GP) or are affiliated to a general practice. By using GPs for surveillance, STIs can be monitored in the general population. Between January 2015 and December 2020, the Sentinel General Practitioners (SGP) network retrospectively reported 5 STIs: chlamydia, gonorrhea, genital warts, herpes, syphilis. The current study describes STI surveillance data collected from 2015 to 2020 as well as investigate patients’ characteristics and risk factors in the sample population. Methods In the SGP network database on STIs, participating GPs report on case-by-case basis through paper or online registration forms. We performed descriptive statistics, X² test and logistic regression using SAS®9.4. Multivariate multiple logistic regression was performed to investigate the relationship between STIs and patients’ characteristics . Results During the study period, 1009 cases were reported, corresponding to an episode-based incidence estimated at 121 per 100 000 inhabitants. The majority of patients (59.8%) were men, and 83.6% were under age 30. Among female patients 92.7% had heterosexual contacts whereas 64.4% of male patients did. Women were more likely to be diagnosed with chlamydia (OR 1.56; 95% CI 1.12–2.17) and herpes (OR 1.72, 95% CI 1.04–2.86) than men. Conclusions In this study, STI surveillance data were in agreement with literature. Continuous surveillance through the SGP network remains an important tool to obtain information about populations at risk and STI incidence in the general population.