Asthma mortality in Spain from 1980 to 2019. Trends and perspectives in new treatment era

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

Previous studies suggest that asthma mortality rates in Spain are decreasing but this trend was not observed for younger age groups. Objetive: To analyse mortality rates of asthma from the last 40 years, focusing on changes related with the development of new therapeutic approaches.

METHODS

Death records and mid-year population data were collected from the National Statistics Institute. By using the direct method, age-standardized mortality rates were calculated for overall population and for each sex and age group. Significant changes in mortality trends were identified by Joinpoint regressions. The independent effects of age, period and cohort (APC) and Potential Years of Life Lost (PYLL) due to asthma were also analysed.

RESULTS

Age-standardized asthma mortality rates decreased in Spain from 7.38 to 2.03 deaths per 100 000 from the first to the last quinquennium of the study (1980-1984 to 2015-2019) for the overall population. This decrease is more intense among men, where a decrease from 10.37/100.000 to 0.91/100.000 was observed versus 5.53 to 2.77/100.000 in women. All age groups have decreased mortality. While> 64 have stabilized their decline and 35-64 have even increased in the last 3 years, <35 maintain a rapid decline since the 1990s.

CONCLUSION

There is a decline in asthma mortality rates starting in 1980, including younger cohorts starting in the 1990s, confirming earlier trends. Improved diagnosis and development of new therapies for asthma may they have a role in this event. Close monitoring of asthma mortality rates is necessary to confirm these trends.

[Factors that determine the intention to use telemedicine in a healthcare organisation]

INTRODUCTION

There are numerous factors and barriers that hinder the use of telemedicine, among which some aspects of the organisation stand out. Thus, it would be interesting to determine its intention to use it in a health institution. The objective of this paper was to identify the factors that influence the intent to use telemedicine by the group of professionals of the Andalusian Health Service and the type of professionals based on the use and expectations of (information and communications technology (ICT).

METHODS

A specific questionnaire was designed based on an extended Model of Technological Acceptance that was distributed to a sample of 2,847 professionals of all the categories of this institution. A univariate analysis, exploratory factor analysis and logistic regression were carried out to determine those explanatory variables that are related to the use of telemedicine.

RESULTS

A total of 424 responses were obtained. The study determined that the institution's support, perceived usefulness and ease of use (P<.05) were factors that influence the use of telemedicine. The support of the workers and the technological profile of the professionals (P<.05) were significant.

CONCLUSIONS

Due to there being a high number of factors in health services, it is possible to find differences between the explanatory models in each specific organisation. For this reason, studies need to be carried out before the implantation and use of telemedicine systems in order to identify which of the possible variables influence favourable adoption as a prerequisite for the generalised use of telemedicine.