EDITORIAL
José da Rocha Carvalheiro
This issue completes volume 9 of Revista Brasileira de Epidemiologia. In these nine years, we have been through difficult times, which once overcome, have made possible our inclusion in the SciELO Platform. The next volume will show the new changes necessary for us to adapt to the requirements of the referred database. In order to keep our quarterly frequency, we must modify our format in order to include more original papers per printed issue. This will affect more than the spine of printed RBE. The also traditional presentation of the titles of all articles and their authors, in Portuguese (or Spanish) on the first cover, and in English on the fourth cover, will change.
In this manner, 2007 will bear witness to the extensive restructuring of RBE, yet keeping the basic commitment announced since its start: to promote the quality of the scientific production of Brazilian Epidemiology through peer assessment.
In the present issue, we are publishing eleven original articles. All of them are Brazilian with diverse geographical and institutional origins. As usual, the Southeast prevails with four articles from Rio de Janeiro, two from São Paulo and one from Minas Gerais. Two articles are from the Northeast (Ceará and Pernambuco) and another two from the South (Santa Catarina and Paraná). Our regular features remain: average of 3.5 authors per article, only one of individual authorship; predominance of women (61.5%).
A Special Article, written by an author from ENSP (FIOCRUZ) and a collaborator from UNICAMP, analyzes the Brazilian competence to conduct clinical trials related to the development of medicines.
The object of three articles is the analysis of transmissible diseases. One, written by authors from Ceará's State and Federal Universities, analyzes the epidemic of cutaneous leishmaniasis and associates human and canine domestic transmission. Another, from the Federal University of Pernambuco, relates previous hospitalizations to staphylococcus aureus resistance to methicillin in intensive care units. An article by an author from Centro Universitário Serra do Órgãos, analyzes the specific aspects of the AIDS epidemic in a medium size city, Teresópolis (RJ).
Two articles analyze iron deficiency anemia. In one, authors from Santa Catarina, from UFSC and Vale do Itajaí University (UNIVALI) studied adolescents, according to sexual maturation in Balneário Camboriu. In the other, authors from USP's Faculdade de Saúde Pública studied children in public day-care centers in the city of São Paulo.
Two studies refer to the elderly. One of them, a cross sectional study with household interviews, analyzes oral health in that group in Londrina (PR), by authors from the State University of the same city (UEL). The other study, by authors from Rio de Janeiro State University (UERJ), carried out a ten-year systematic review in MEDLINE and SciELO databases and sustains the beneficial effects of exercise on depression in the elderly.
Two articles deal with women in distinct scenarios. One, by authors from two units of the Universidade de São Paulo (FSP and FM), analyzes the beneficial effect of resistance training on osteoporosis after menopause in an international meta-analysis study. The other study, by authors from UFMG and UFRJ uses factorial analysis in order to define adiposity patterns (peripheral, global and central) in women attending a Municipal Health Center in Belo Horizonte (MG).
Finally, a study by authors from Escola Nacional de Saúde Pública (ENSP/ FIOCRUZ) and Instituto de Medicina Social (IMS/ UERJ), uses phase I sectional data of a cohort study ("Pró-Saúde") to analyze factors associated with the use of non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs, identifying groups "vulnerable" to the irrational utilization of these drugs.
In the Debates section, we are publishing an interview in which Eneida Almeida, author of an article on biological warfare published in number 9(3) of RBE, debates her ideas with Luiz Hildebrando Pereira da Silva. We hope for new contributions to this instigating controversy on the role of "Big Science" in military development in the 20th century.
In the same Debates section, we are publishing the World Health Organization's (WHO) table, updated until December 27 2006, presenting 261 laboratory confirmed cases of avian flu (including 157 deaths), distributed by country of occurrence. We expect new comments to continue this debate.
The debate on the role of general practitioners as gatekeepers of the healthcare system continues open, without anything new in the present issue of RBE. We expect comments, especially related to the new contribution from authors Gérvas & Pérez Fernández, published in the 9(3) issue of RBE.
The debate on the concept of what is a problem in health also remains open, and without any new contributions.
Enjoy your reading
The Editor.
Publication Dates
-
Publication in this collection
19 Mar 2007 -
Date of issue
Dec 2006
