Oswaldo Cruz Foundation

About: Oswaldo Cruz Foundation is a facility organization based out in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Trypanosoma cruzi. The organization has 18673 authors who have published 36752 publications receiving 802378 citations. The organization is also known as: Fundação Oswaldo Cruz & FIOCRUZ.

What are the best methodologies for rapid reviews of the research evidence for evidence-informed decision making in health policy and practice: a rapid review.

Abstract: Rapid reviews have the potential to overcome a key barrier to the use of research evidence in decision making, namely that of the lack of timely and relevant research. This rapid review of systematic reviews and primary studies sought to answer the question: What are the best methodologies to enable a rapid review of research evidence for evidence-informed decision making in health policy and practice? This rapid review utilised systematic review methods and was conducted according to a pre-defined protocol including clear inclusion criteria (PROSPERO registration: CRD42015015998). A comprehensive search strategy was used, including published and grey literature, written in English, French, Portuguese or Spanish, from 2004 onwards. Eleven databases and two websites were searched. Two review authors independently applied the eligibility criteria. Data extraction was done by one reviewer and checked by a second. The methodological quality of included studies was assessed independently by two reviewers. A narrative summary of the results is presented. Five systematic reviews and one randomised controlled trial (RCT) that investigated methodologies for rapid reviews met the inclusion criteria. None of the systematic reviews were of sufficient quality to allow firm conclusions to be made. Thus, the findings need to be treated with caution. There is no agreed definition of rapid reviews in the literature and no agreed methodology for conducting rapid reviews. While a wide range of ‘shortcuts’ are used to make rapid reviews faster than a full systematic review, the included studies found little empirical evidence of their impact on the conclusions of either rapid or systematic reviews. There is some evidence from the included RCT (that had a low risk of bias) that rapid reviews may improve clarity and accessibility of research evidence for decision makers. Greater care needs to be taken in improving the transparency of the methods used in rapid review products. There is no evidence available to suggest that rapid reviews should not be done or that they are misleading in any way. We offer an improved definition of rapid reviews to guide future research as well as clearer guidance for policy and practice.

Biological and socio-cultural determinants of physical activity in adolescents

Abstract: A atividade fisica e um comportamento importante na promocao de saude e na prevencao de doencas. Para que se desenvolvam programas eficazes no incentivo a pratica de atividade fisica em adolescentes, torna-se necessario que se identifiquem os fatores que a determinam. Este estudo pretende rever alguns dos aspectos do estado atual do conhecimento acerca da influencia de determinantes demografico-biologicos (idade, sexo, estatuto socio-economico) e socio-culturais (familia, pares e professor de educacao fisica) na atividade fisica de adolescentes. Nesta revisao apenas foram incluidos estudos efetuados com amostras superiores a 100 adolescentes com idades entre os 10 e os 18 anos, que tenham adotado delineamentos de pesquisa transversal e que tenham utilizado questionarios. Os principais resultados e conclusoes foram que: a idade parece estar negativamente associada a atividade fisica; o sexo masculino tende a estar mais envolvido nessas atividades; o estatuto socio-economico elevado parece ser um fator protetor do risco de inatividade fisica; a participacao da familia e dos pares em atividades fisicas parece estar positivamente associada as atividades por parte dos adolescentes; o professor de educacao fisica parece nao representar um fator propiciador da atividade fisica.

International Society of Human and Animal Mycology (ISHAM)-ITS reference DNA barcoding database--the quality controlled standard tool for routine identification of human and animal pathogenic fungi.

Abstract: This study was supported by an National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (NHM CNPq [350338/2000-0] and FAPERJ [E-26/103.157/2011] grants to RM Zancope-Oliveira; CNPq [308011/2010-4] and FAPESP [2007/08575-1] Fundacao de Amparo Pesquisa do Estado de So Paulo (FAPESP) grants to AL Colombo; PEst-OE/BIA/UI4050/2014 from Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia (FCT) to C Pais; the Belgian Science Policy Office (Belspo) to BCCM/IHEM; the MEXBOL program of CONACyT-Mexico, [ref. number: 1228961 to ML Taylor and [122481] to C Toriello; the Institut Pasteur and Institut de Veil le Sanitaire to F Dromer and D Garcia-Hermoso; and the grants from the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientifico e Tecnologico (CNPq) and the Fundacao de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de Goias (FAPEG) to CM de Almeida Soares and JA Parente Rocha. I Arthur would like to thank G Cherian, A Higgins and the staff of the Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory, Division of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Path West, QEII Medial Centre. Dromer would like to thank for the technical help of the sequencing facility and specifically that of I, Diancourt, A-S Delannoy-Vieillard, J-M Thiberge (Genotyping of Pathogens and Public Health, Institut Pasteur). RM Zancope-Oliveira would like to thank the Genomic/DNA Sequencing Platform at Fundacao Oswaldo Cruz-PDTIS/FIOCRUZ [RPT01A], Brazil for the sequencing. B Robbertse and CL Schoch acknowledge support from the Intramural Research Program of the NIH, National Library of Medicine. T Sorrell's work is funded by the NHM she is a Sydney Medical School Foundation Fellow.

Cessation of alcohol drinking, tobacco smoking and the reversal of head and neck cancer risk

Abstract: Background Quitting tobacco or alcohol use has been reported to reduce the head and neck cancer risk in previous studies. However, it is unclear how many years must pass following cessation of these habits before the risk is reduced, and whether the risk ultimately declines to the level of never smokers or never drinkers. Methods We pooled individual-level data from case–control studies in the International Head and Neck Cancer Epidemiology Consortium. Data were available from 13 studies on drinking cessation (9167 cases and 12 593 controls), and from 17 studies on smoking cessation (12 040 cases and 16 884 controls). We estimated the effect of quitting smoking and drinking on the risk of head and neck cancer and its subsites, by calculating odds ratios (ORs) using logistic regression models. Results Quitting tobacco smoking for 1–4 years resulted in a head and neck cancer risk reduction [OR 0.70, confidence interval (CI) 0.61–0.81 compared with current smoking], with the risk reduction due to smoking cessation after ≥20 years (OR 0.23, CI 0.18–0.31), reaching the level of never smokers. For alcohol use, a beneficial effect on the risk of head and neck cancer was only observed after ≥20 years of quitting (OR 0.60, CI 0.40–0.89 compared with current drinking), reaching the level of never drinkers. Conclusions Our results support that cessation of tobacco smoking and cessation of alcohol drinking protect against the development of head and neck cancer.

Cross-cultural adaptation, reliability and validity of the resilience scale

Abstract: This study describes the cross-cultural adaptation to Portuguese and the psychometric evaluation of the resilience scale developed by Wagnild & Young. The scale was adapted for a sample of students from public schools in Sao Goncalo, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Data from the pilot study (203 students interviewed at two points in time) and from the entire study (977) are presented. The cross-cultural adaptation showed good results in the semantic equivalence for: general meaning (above 90.0%) and referential meaning (above 85.0%). Chronbach alpha was 0.85 in the pilot study and 0.80 in the total sample. Kappa between the two points in time was regular and moderate, and the intraclass correlation coefficient was 0.746 (p = 0.000). Factorial analysis indicated three non-homogeneous factors. Construct validity demonstrated direct and significant correlation with self-esteem, family supervision, life satisfaction, and social support. There was an inverse correlation with the scale that evaluates psychological violence.