ISPUP Press

This ebook presents the results of a study developed by the Instituto de Saúde Pública da Universidade do Porto (ISPUP), intending to be a critical evaluation of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cancer screening, diagnosis, and treatment.

The work includes a literature review, descriptive quantitative analyses of information from the assistance routine in the National Health Service, and a qualitative study, with professionals and patient representatives, which resulted in recommendations to recover from the potential delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and innovative adaptations to be retained.

Click here to download the book, available in Portuguese.

This e-book presents an overview on the establishment of appetite traits during childhood, their determinants, and effects on health.

It was developed based on scientific evidence from the birth cohort GENERATION XXI, by researchers and health professionals involved in the management of eating behaviours of young children.

The e-book aims to offer guidance to parents and main caregivers towards recognising, respecting and responding to their child’s signals of hunger and satiety. Several strategies are presented to help them better understand these signals and alternative ways to respond to the child’s individual characteristics. Other target audiences, such as healthcare professionals, may find evidence in this e-book to support some recommendations on children’s eating behaviours.

 Click here to download the book, available in english. 

Since the turn of the century, a broad consensus on the importance of using organised collections of human biological samples and associated data, also known as biobanks, in epidemiological and health research has gained strength, at least in high-income countries. This consensus has been accompanied by an important investment in order to promote these structures, considered as fundamental for the production of innovative knowledge about disease and health processes.

In Portugal, despite the existence of several biobanks and biobank networks in different stages of implementation, the phenomenon is still relatively incipient. The public visibility of these structures is reduced, as well as the discussion about their ethical and social implications, which are complex and not yet fully understood.

With that in mind, ISPUP gathered, in February 2018, a set of personalities with diverse backgrounds and knowledge to discuss about the reality of biobanks in Portugal, the benefits they announce and the multiple challenges they bring with them. Their reflections are presented in this publication, which results from one of the first, if not the first, multidisciplinary public discussion on biobanks and what society in our country can expect from them.

Click here to download the book, available in portuguese.

The Instituto de Saúde Pública da Universidade do Porto (ISPUP) organised, for the first time, the “Public Health in Photography” contest. 2019 was the chosen year to launch this first challenge to the community.

In order to foster interest in the different areas of Public Health, ISPUP invited the population to participate in this challenge by sending one or more series(s) composed of 12 unpublished photographs.

The aim was to combine Science and Art, uniting them through Photography, in order to visually translate the broad concepts that define Public Health.

 Click here to download the book, available in portuguese. 

The Community Screening Network is a project promoted by the Treatment Activists Group (TAT) in partnership with the Instituto de Saúde Pública da Universidade do Porto (ISPUP) and the Immunohemotherapy Service of the São João Hospital Centre. It was developed in Portugal with the aim of implementing a national network of rapid screening, provided in community-based organisations working with key groups in the HIV epidemic, viral hepatitis and sexually transmitted infections – people who use drugs, sex workers, men who have sex with men (MSM) and migrants from high prevalence countries. It also seeks to collect and report data that will enable the epidemiological surveillance of these infections, thus complementing the intervention of the formal health system and, at the same time, ensuring the appropriate referral and monitoring of people with reactive results to the National Health Service.

This report contextualises the emergence of the Screening Network in the current situation of the epidemic of each infection and community-based screening in Portugal, and summarises the work developed up to April 2016.

More information about the project can be found at www.redederastreio.pt.

The report, written in portuguese, is available in digital format here. It can be sent by mail or picked up at ISPUP or at the GAT headquarters. For more information, please contact secretaria@ispup.up.pt or info@redederastreio.pt.

This document, authored by ISPUP researchers and jointly coordinated by ISPUP and the Occupational Health Research Centre of Pompeu Fabra University (Barcelona), describes the Portuguese socio-labour context in its relation to health, with special attention to working conditions and the main health problems resulting from the work context. The main purpose of bringing together this wide range of information from different sources is to contribute quantitatively to the definition and evaluation of occupational health and safety policies in Portugal.

The book, written in portuguese, can be consulted in electronic format HERE, and can also be sent by mail or acquired at ISPUP’s Secretary. 

Written by journalist Cláudia Pinto and coordinated by ISPUP, in addition to providing information on the current statistics on prematurity, comparing Portugal with other countries and revealing current trends, this book includes the collaboration of mothers, fathers and health professionals who come into daily contact with this reality in the neonatal units of hospitals in the Greater Porto region.

What are the challenges faced by neonatologists, nurses, psychologists and other professionals who deal with prematurity on a daily basis? How does the family integrate this group that lives prematurity day by day? How are the services organised? The answer to these and other questions can be found in this book.

Part of the book’s proceeds will revert to the Premature Parents Association and XXS – Premature Baby Support Association, in order to support projects aimed at parents of premature children.

The book, available in portuguese, can be sent by mail or acquired at ISPUP’S Secretary. 

The GERIA Project provides important information on the main characteristics of indoor air, its pollutants and buildings that have an influence on the quality of indoor environments and possible influence on the health and well-being of its occupants. Taking into consideration the relationship between indoor air quality (IAQ) and respiratory vulnerability found in the GERIA Project, the proposed recommendations constitute guidelines intended to lead to the improvement of health and quality of life of elderly residents in elderly care centers (ECC). These recommendations are published in this e-book aimed at elderly care institutions, particularly the ECCs.

The Chapter ‘Summary of Conclusions and Recommendations for Improvement in Respiratory Health in Elderly Care Centers’ suggests practical recommendations to be implemented by the residential care facilities to promote a better indoor environment in terms of IAQ, thermal comfort and indoor ventilation/air renewal.The research team of the GERIA project would like to thank all participants in this study, as well as the professionals and elderly residents in residential care facilities and all social, educational and research institutions that made this study possible.

Click here to download the book, available in english.

This practical food guide is based on the results of the Generation 21 cohort, as well as on existing scientific evidence and aims to, through ‘a journey from table to garden’, promote the contact of children and parents with fruit and vegetables, including children in the processes of production, purchase, preparation and cooking, in order to encourage their consumption. 

The goal was to create a practical guide, useful for parents, but also people and institutions that accompany children of these ages.

The book from the Instituto de Saúde Pública da Universidade do Porto (ISPUP) , written in portuguese and entitled “From the table to the garden: learning to like fruits and vegetables”, is available HERE for online reading and for download, in portuguese, HERE.

This report was carried out with information collected within the Generation 21 cohort (Scientific Coordinator: Henrique Barros), developed at the Instituto de Saúde Pública da Universidade do Porto (ISPUP), within the project ‘Food Habits in Preschool-age Children: A longitudinal approach to identify the determinants and effects on body composition’ (PTDC/SAU-ESA/108577/2008) (Principal Investigator: Carla Lopes).

The ‘Report on Food Consumption and Nutrition of Preschool Children’, which originated the results that led to the book “From the table to the garden: learning to like fruits and vegetables”, is available for consultation HERE and for download, in portuguese, HERE.

The EMIS (European Men who have Sex with Men Internet Survey) study was conducted in 38 countries of the European region of the World Health Organization (WHO), being the largest survey ever addressed to Men who have Sex with Men (MSM), both in number of participants (about 180 000) and in number of countries and languages involved (25). In Portugal, EMIS was coordinated by the Instituto de Saúde Pública da Universidade do Porto (ISPUP) and by the Portuguese Group of Activists on HIV/AIDS Treatments (GAT)

EMIS aimed to learn about access to HIV testing and prevention among gay men and other men who have sex with men and to describe their knowledge of HIV infection, sexually transmitted infections, sexual behaviors and use of HIV-specific services, among others. The use of the same data collection tool in the 38 countries allowed the production of comparable data, necessary for the planning of HIV prevention strategies directed at this population.

In Portugal, the recruitment carried out through online social networks, blogs and dissemination in LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) events and in places of homosexual socialization allowed to collect information from 5187 men who identified themselves as MSM. The districts of Lisbon, Porto and Setúbal had the highest participation. Although most participants were Portuguese, the sample included approximately 18% of individuals whose country of birth was not Portugal, with a predominance of participants born in Brazil and other European countries. The average age of the participants was 32.3 years old, with more than half of the sample reporting high levels of education. Almost 70% of individuals identified themselves as homosexual or gay.

This report presents the national results of the EMIS study and is available, in portuguese, here. The paper version can be mailed or picked up at ISPUP.

This book is the result of a challenge launched by the National Observatory of Rheumatic Diseases (ONDOR) to a group of experts to reflect on the state of the art and provide future perspectives on various topics in rheumatology. The goal was to provide continuous attention to the impact of musculoskeletal diseases in Portugal.

The result is clear to see and brings together the contributions of specialists from different areas such as rheumatology, general and family medicine, public health, health economics, sociology, occupational health, as well as representatives from civil society.

After the publication of The State of Rheumatology in Portugal, a report published in 2010 that consisted of an extensive wide spectrum review of quantitative information on the burden of rheumatic diseases in Portugal, the Observatory decided to move towards a multidimensional framework regarding musculoskeletal pathologies, which resulted in this book. 

ONDOR

The National Observatory for Rheumatic Diseases (ONDOR) is a project that results from a partnership between the Portuguese Society of Rheumatology and the Faculdade de Medicina do Porto. Its mission is to provide continuous attention to the problems and challenges of rheumatology in Portugal, namely its insertion in international rheumatology, in order to produce quality information, at different levels of specialisation, aimed at both clinicians and health decision makers, and even the general public.

The set of activities that constitute the role of the Observatory include the collection and processing of routine information using the wide but disorderly spectrum of health, demographic, and social statistics published in Portugal and by international organisations, but also the production of information through the collaboration with healthcare providers.

The book can be mailed or picked up at ISPUP’s Secretary.