Lineamientos técnicos para la presentación de informes de política breves (Policy Brief) / Technical guidelines for reporting policy brief

La articulación entre la investigación científica y el diseño de políticas públicas efectivas es una de las principales herramientas de legitimidad para los hacedores de política. La producción de nueva evidencia se ha incrementado en los últimos años, nuevas metodologías y herramientas tecnológicas han dado paso a una expansión de la frontera del conocimiento, ampliando las perspectivas y mejorando el conocimiento a cerca de diferentes problemáticas de la humanidad. En este sentido, la demanda por "Ciencia aplicable" se hace preponderante. Es por esto que los documentos breves de política (Policy Brief) se han convertido en una herramienta de difusión útil para los científicos y actores políticos. El presente documento describe las características de los Policy Brief y plantea los lineamientos básicos para la escritura y presentación de los mismos, con miras a convertirlos en una herramienta de difusión de las investigaciones que se lleven a cabo en el Ministerio de Salud y Protección Social.

Specificity and sensitivity of aquaporin 4 antibody detection tests in patients with neuromyelitis optica: A meta-analysis.

OBJECTIVE: Antibodies against water channel protein aquaporin 4 (AQP4) in astrocytes play a role in the etiology and physiopathology of neuromyelitis optica (NMO); detection of this immunoglobulin in serum is highly suggestive of this diagnosis. There are several immunoassays to detect the antibody with different sensitivities and specificities. We conducted a meta-analysis to determine the overall diagnostic accuracy from these tests. METHODS: We conducted a systematic review in five different electronic databases: Pubmed, Embase, The Cochrane Library, Scopus, Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effect (DARE) and Lilacs. We included both case control and consecutive enrollment studies that evaluated the performance of the immunoassays in patients with suspected NMO in comparison with the 2006 Wingerchuk diagnostic criteria. Articles were assessed by two different reviewers, who also extracted data. RESULTS: 30 studies for three different immunoassays were included in the meta-analysis. To obtain a summary estimate for the sensitivity and specificity with 95% confidence interval a bivariate random effect model was used. The approximated sensitivity for the cell based assay (CBA), the tissue-based assay (TBA) and the ELISA test were 0.76(95% CI 0.67-0.82), 0.59(95% CI 0.50-0.67), and 0.65(95% CI 0.53-0.75) respectively. The mean specificity of the CBA was 0.99 (95% CI 0.97-0.99), TBA 0.98 (95% CI 0.97-0.99) and ELISA 0.97(95% CI 0.96-0.99). CONCLUSIONS: AQP4 detection in serum with immunoassay is a great tool for the diagnosis of patients with NMO, due to the high specificity, allowing the clinician to differentiate this disease from other neurological conditions that resemble NMO.

Alcohol consumption as an incremental factor in health care costs for traffic accident victims: evidence in a medium sized Colombian city.

OBJECTIVES: Identify the possibility that alcohol consumption represents an incremental factor in healthcare costs of patients involved in traffic accidents. METHODS: Data of people admitted into three major health institutions from an intermediate city in Colombia was collected. Socio-demographic characteristics, health care costs and alcohol consumption levels by breath alcohol concentration (BrAC) methodology were identified. Generalized linear models were applied to investigate whether alcohol consumption acts as an incremental factor for healthcare costs. RESULTS: The average cost of healthcare was 878 USD. In general, there are differences between health care costs for patients with positive blood alcohol level compared with those who had negative levels. Univariate analysis shows that the average cost of care can be 2.26 times higher (95% CI: 1.20-4.23), and after controlling for patient characteristics, alcohol consumption represents an incremental factor of almost 1.66 times (95% CI: 1.05-2.62). CONCLUSIONS: Alcohol is identified as a possible factor associated with the increased use of direct health care resources. The estimates show the need to implement and enhance prevention programs against alcohol consumption among citizens, in order to mitigate the impact that traffic accidents have on their health status. The law enforcement to help reduce driving under the influence of alcoholic beverages could help to diminish the economic and social impacts of this problem.