[Neurological focality in elderly patient].
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Aged, 80 and over↗
Biomedical subjects
A M García García
Publications and source records attributed to A M García García.
[Gamma glutamyltransferase in myocardial infarction].
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Aged↗
[Sleep changes produced by environmental noise].
This article reports the results of a survey trying to evaluate different aspects related with ambient noise and its effects on selected urban communities. A total of 263 residents in 5 different neighbourhoods of the city of Valencia were interviewed. For each one of the neighbourhoods, level of ambient noise were independently registered during 24 hours during some days of a week. 40% of the interviewees reported having some difficulty for getting to sleep and 59% of these with difficulties identified the traffic noise as the causation. Also, 49% reported to awake sometime during the night (24% of them pointed to the traffic noise as the major cause). All these problems were reported more frequently in the neighbourhoods with a greater level of ambient noise. The probably high number of people affected by sleep disturbances related with ambient noise during the night makes necessary to adopt adequate correcting actions.
Adolescent↗
[Causality in occupational health: the Ardystil case].
Establishing causal relationships has been and is today a matter of debate in epidemiology. The observational nature of epidemiological research rends difficult the proving of these relationships. Related to this, different models and causal criteria have been proposed in order to explain health and disease determinants, from pure determinism in Koch postulates, accepting unicausal explanation for diseases, to more realistic multicausal models. In occupational health it is necessary to formulate causal models and criteria to assess causality, and frequently causal assessment in this field has important social, economic and juridical relevance. This paper deal with evaluation of causal relationships in epidemiology and this evaluation is illustrated with a recent example of an occupational health problem in our milieu: the Ardystil case.
Adult↗
[Validation of a questionnaire for retrospectively measuring occupational pesticide exposure].
OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to validate a questionnaire intended to assess retrospective occupational exposure to pesticides in a case control study of workers exposed to pesticides and congenital malformations. METHODS: Occupational data were gathered through personal interviews to 56 agricultural workers and this information was compared to: 1) personal interviews with the workers' foremen, 2) direct observation of working places and 3) another questionnaire self-administered previously by the workers as a part of the "Training Program for Pesticide Applicators". RESULTS: Accuracy and reliability indices are high for variables such as the crops where the interviewees have been working, the time period of the treatments with pesticides and the use of personal protection during treatments (sensitivity ranges between 0.81 and 1 and Kappa index ranges between 0.65 and 0.80). However, for variables such as the duration of the treatments and the pesticides used, sensitivity values range between 0.32 and 0.50. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that the questionnaire is a valid tool for measuring some items but in order to improve the quality of the exposure assessment the questionnaire was modified, including a question about size of treated areas (as a proxy variable for duration of treatments) and prompt lists were developed to make easier recall by the workers of specific pesticides used in treatments.
Abnormalities, Drug-Induced↗
[Minimum basic set of data of hospital discharges as a source of information for a study of congenital abnormalities].
BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study is that of assessing the validity of the computerized diagnoses of hospital discharges of congenital defects by comparing them with the information included in the medical history. METHODS: Based on the discharge records generated over a one-year period at 7 hospitals in the Autonomous Region of Valencia, 100 children were selected at random from each hospital. As a standard, the diagnoses stated in the medical histories were indexed and coded. Solely those discharges having taken place during the first year of life were considered. A study was also made of the type, seriousness and individual or combinations of congenital defects. A calculation was made of the sensitivity, specificity, predictive values and the 95% confidence intervals thereof by the exact binomial method for the case studies (children) and the positive predictive value and sensitivity for the study of diagnoses. RESULTS: 126 children were detected as having congenital defects, and 201 diagnoses in medical records, and 83 children with congenital defects and 108 diagnoses on record. For the detection of cases, the records showed a 64% sensitivity, a 99.1% specificity and some positive and negative predictive values of over 90%. With regard to the detection of diagnoses, the sensitivity was 46% and the positive predictive value 83%. The sensitivity varied a great deal depending upon the diagnoses. CONCLUSIONS: The hospital discharge records revealed a high degree of specificity and high predictive values, but a low degree of sensitivity. These facts must be considered when these records are used as a source of cases for the epidemiological studies of congenital defects.
Age Factors↗
[The evaluation of the effects of ambient noise on the residents of the historic center of Valencia].
BACKGROUND: The acoustic contamination in residential areas is a generalized problem to solve it, it is necessary to have an available precise information about its magnitude and effects upon the population. METHODS: We show the first results of a study on the acoustic contamination in the historical center of Valencia and about its effects upon that district residents. A noise map has been made measuring the daily sound level in 135 points regularly distributed. At the same time, 418 telephone polls among the residents in that district has been carried out. RESULTS: The noise levels, existing in the studied zone, are very high, it has been obtained an average equivalent sound level (Leq) of 71.6 decibels A (dBA). About a 60% of the surveyed persons declare to be "troubled", because of the noise and one out of four surveyed persons find it difficult to get to sleep for the same reason. Road traffic is the main source of trouble. There has been observed a relation between certain personal characteristics in the surveyed persons and the answers obtained, although it does not reach an statistical significance. CONCLUSIONS: In the historical center of Valencia, there exists an important problem of environmental noise and the daily levels exceed clearly the recommended limits. It seems that traffic is the main source of noise probably combined with a deficient urban structure which does not allow a fluid vehicular traffic. The residents in this zone are aware of the problem and a great proportion of them declare to be damaged in a greater or smaller magnitude. Although the sensitivity to noise could be in relation with certain personal factors in the surveyed persons.
Adult↗