Assessing screening practices among health care workers at a tertiary-care hospital in Sao Paulo, Brazil

Autor: José Eluf-Neto, Ana Claudia Gonçalves-Silva, Cristiane Murta-Nascimento
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2010
Předmět:
Zdroj: Clinics, Vol 65, Iss 2, Pp 151-155 (2010)
Clinics; v. 65 n. 2 (2010); 151-155
Clinics; Vol. 65 Núm. 2 (2010); 151-155
Clinics; Vol. 65 No. 2 (2010); 151-155
Clinics
Universidade de São Paulo (USP)
instacron:USP
Clinics, Volume: 65, Issue: 2, Pages: 151-155, Published: 2010
ISSN: 1980-5322
1807-5932
Popis: OBJECTIVE: To ascertain the extent to which screening procedures (with and without evidence of effectiveness) are practiced among health care workers at a tertiary-care hospital in Sao Paulo, Brazil. METHODS: From February 2001 to September 2003, a cross-sectional study involving physicians, nurses and nursing assistants (aged 40 to 69 years) was carried out at a tertiary-care hospital in the city of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Subjects were interviewed using a questionnaire that addresses 17 procedures with grades of recommendation of A, B, C, D or E, in accordance with the 1996 United States Preventive Services Task Force guidelines for routine screening. RESULTS: Of the 333 health care workers included, 228 (68.5%) were female. The mean age was 48.8 (SD 6.6 years). Most subjects had undergone screening for hypertension (blood pressure measurement) and lipid abnormalities (cholesterol testing). Screening for breast and cervical cancer was common among females. Resting electrocardiography, serum glucose testing, urine tests, chest X-rays and serum prostate-specific antigen testing were also quite common. However, only 6 (1.8%) of the subjects had undergone screening for colorectal cancer (fecal occult blood test or sigmoidoscopy). CONCLUSIONS: A sizeable proportion of health care workers underwent screening procedures that are not recommended or for which there was insufficient evidence of a benefit. Conversely, certain recommended procedures were performed on a small proportion of such workers. These results indicate that the Brazilian National Ministry of Health must develop nationwide evidence-based screening recommendations and disseminate such recommendations among health care professionals in Brazil.
Databáze: OpenAIRE