Alberto Ruano-Ravina

University of Santiago de Compostela | USC · Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health

Introduction: Radon gas has been a declared human carcinogen for more than 30 years and has been causally associated with lung cancer. Studies have shown a linear relationship between residential radon exposure and lung cancer risk. Areas covered: Initially, this risk was subjected to cohorts of underground miners and then in case-control studie...

Objective: This study aims to employ machine learning (ML) tools to cluster patients hospitalized for acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) based on their diverse social and clinical characteristics. This clustering is intended to facilitate the subsequent analysis of differences in clinical outcomes. Methods: We an...

Introducción y objetivo La pandemia de COVID-19 ha transformado drásticamente la visión sobre la integración de la tecnología en la medicina, poniendo a prueba la capacidad de los sistemas de salud para tomar decisiones rápidas y efectivas, especialmente en servicios de urgencias desbordados. Presentamos un Sistema Inteligente de Soporte a la Decis...

Background: The health plan is a guiding tool for territorial health planning where the proposed objectives and measures should prioritize vulnerable groups. The aim of this study was to identify if the Regional Government health plans in Spain included measures related to frailty, dependence and unwanted loneliness aimed at elderly. Methods: Inst...

Background The tobacco-free generation aims to prevent the sale of tobacco to people born after a specific year. We aimed to estimate the impact of eliminating tobacco smoking on lung-cancer mortality in people born during 2006–10 in 185 countries. Methods For this population-based birth-cohort simulation study, we proposed a scenario in which tob...

Introduction: Estimating the prevalence of second-hand tobacco smoke exposure is a public health priority while evaluating the population-attributable disease burden and impact of smoking bans. We conducted a systematic review to analyze how secondhand tobacco smoke exposure has been assessed, and how its prevalence has been estimated among the Por...

Objective We aimed to compare the results of phase III and IV clinical trials examining drugs to treat multiple sclerosis (MS) registered at ClinicalTrials.gov to those published in peer-reviewed journals. Methods After identifying trials registered at ClinicalTrials.gov, consecutive searches were conducted in PubMed, EMBASE and Google Scholar for...

Objective: To describe the questions used to assess exposure to secondhand smoke (SHS) in Spanish health surveys. Method: Extraction and analysis of the literals of the questions on SHS in the health surveys in Spain identified on the website of the Ministry of Health, the National Plan on Drugs and Health Departments of the autonomous communiti...

Background Occupation is an important risk factor for lung cancer. This knowledge is mainly based on studies conducted on men, with the results being generalized to women. Aims We aimed to identify the relationship between different occupations and lung cancer in women. Methods Pooling study in which data were pooled from six case–control studies...

The COVID-19 pandemic drastically transformed the integration of technology into medicine, testing the ability of health systems to make quick and effective decisions. This has been especially noticeable in emergency departments, which were overwhelmed by the massive influx of patients. In this context, this article presents the design, development...

Background: Early detection is crucial to improve lung cancer survival rates. Delays in diagnosis might negatively impact the prognosis of the disease. This study aims to analyze the diagnostic delay in lung cancer patients and describe if there is an association between delay and survival. Methods: The data source used was the Thoracic Tumor Re...

The objective of this work was to assess changes during pregnancy and after childbirth in diet, consumption of tobacco, electronic cigarettes, cannabis, alcohol use and exposure to environmental tobacco smoke depending on the mother's educational level.A cross-sectional study was carried out whose target population was 18,822 Galician women aged 18...

The objective of this study is to assess the impact of applying prevalences derived from a small-area model at a regional level on smoking-attributable mortality (SAM). A prevalence-dependent method was used to estimate SAM. Prevalences of tobacco use were derived from a small-area model. SAM and population attributable fraction (PAF) estimates wer...

The aim was to describe biomedical retractions and analyse those retracted in 2000–2021 due to research misconduct among authors affiliated with European institutions. A cross-sectional study was conducted, using Retraction Watch database, Journal Citation Reports and PubMed as data sources. Biomedical original papers, reviews, case reports and let...

Introduction: Exposure to gases and particulate matter released during volcanic eruptions can prove harmful to population health. This paper reports the preliminary results of the ASHES study, aimed at ascertaining the respiratory health effects of the 2021 volcanic eruption in La Palma Island (Spain) on the adult population without previous respi...

Background Despite multiple recommendations and strategies implemented at a national and international level, cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, and cannabis use during pregnancy remains high in most countries. The objective of this study was to examine key stakeholders’ perception of the treatment interventions adopted in Spain, to identify p...

Introduction and objectives: Exposure to secondhand smoke (SHS) causes cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, and cancer. The aim of this study was to estimate the mortality attributed to SHS in people aged ≥ 35 years in Spain and its autonomous communities (AC) by sex from 2016 to 2021. Methods: Estimates of SHS-attributable mortality wer...

Background: Several studies have estimated the impact of second-hand smoke (SHS) exposure on mortality in the population of different countries. This study aimed to identify and describe studies that have estimated the attributable mortality (AM) associated with SHS exposure in the adult population. Methods: A literature search was conducted in...

Introduction and objectives: Obesity is a public health concern with a strong impact on the health of the population. The aim of this study was to analyze the trend in the prevalence of obesity and to identify changes in this trend in Spain and its 17 autonomous communities (AC) among the population aged ≥ 15 years from 1987 to 2020. Methods: A...

Objectives: The aim of this study was to estimate smoking-attributable mortality (SAM) in the population aged 35 years and over in Brazil's 27 federal units by sex, in 2019. Study design: This is an attributable mortality analysis. Methods: We applied a method dependent on the prevalence of smoking, based on the population attributable fractions. D...

The relationship of occupational exposure to endotoxins with different histologic subtypes of lung cancer has not been established. Our objective was to conduct a systematic review with meta-analysis to assess the effect of exposure to endotoxins on the development of small cell lung cancer (SCLC). A bibliographic search was conducted using MEDLINE...

Smoking and exposure to secondhand smoke pose a significant risk to the health of populations. Although this evidence is not new, the commitment of countries to implement laws aimed at controlling consumption and eliminating exposure to secondhand smoke is uneven. Thus, in North America or in Europe, locations like California or Ireland, are pionee...

Background It is well known that occupational activity can affect health. The association between type of work and Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD) has been studied previously, but the studies on the topic are scarce and they do not have studied the relationship with clinical activity of the disease. The aim of this study is to elucidate if the ty...

Background Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD) are a group of pathologies of unknown etiology associated with some environmental factors, only partially identified. The role of indoor radon, a radioactive gas, has not been formally studied and it might play a role on the evolution of the disease. The aim of this study is to analyze if residential rad...

Background Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD) are a group of pathologies of unknown etiology associated with some environmental factors, only partially identified. The role of indoor radon, a radioactive gas, has not been formally studied and it might play a role on the onset of the disease. The aim of this study is to analyze the role of individual...

Background and objectives: Continuous monitoring of smoking prevalence is essential to understand the evolution of the tobacco epidemic in a population. The objective of this study was to analyze the evolution of smoking prevalence in Spain and its 17 Autonomous Regions (ARs) in population ≥15 years during the period 1987-2020. Methods: Tobacco...

Introduction Health technology assessment (HTA) agencies in Spain have an important role in informing decisions about the introduction and use of health technologies in the Spanish National Health System. However, although different approaches have been taken to measure and improve their impact, no study to date has explored the perceived impact of...

Objective: To characterize the prevalence of physical activity in the population aged ≥16 years integrating sedentarism and physical inactivity. Method: A cross-sectional study using data from the Galician Risk Behavior Data System (n=12,928) was conducted. The population was classified into four categories: physically active (active and non-sed...

Background Respirable crystalline silica (RCS) is associated with the development of lung cancer. However, there is uncertainty around the exposure threshold at which exposure to RCS may pose a clear risk for the development of lung cancer. The objective of this study was to review the cut-off points at which the risk of mortality or incidence of l...

Objectives To ascertain the percentage of Spanish lung cancer cases which would fulfill the lung cancer screening inclusion criteria recommended by the United States Preventive Service Task Force (USPSTF) in 2013 and 2021. Methods Cross-sectional study. All lung cancer cases registered in the Thoracic Tumor Registry with data on date of birth, dat...

This study sought to identify the perceptions, attitudes and experiences of Spanish researchers regarding different aspects relating to scientific misconduct, both overall and by gender, years of research experience, and type of research institution. This is a cross-sectional study based on an anonymous online survey, targeting researchers in the f...

Background and aims The role of occupation is uncertain in the onset of inflammatory bowel diseases. The aim of this study is to identify if there is a role of occupation in these diseases. Materials and methods A case–control study with incident cases with inflammatory bowel diseases was designed. Cases and controls were recruited simultaneously...

Introduction Although a reduction in admissions for pathologies other than SARS-CoV-2 has been reported during the pandemic, there are hardly any specific studies in relation to COPD. The objective of this study was to analyse differences in the profile of those admitted for AEPOC and their prognosis during this period. Methods Prospective study (...

Research misconduct refers to a set of unethical practices in research and publication and is the main reason for retraction of articles published in the academic literature. Research misconduct has negative consequences and has generated public scepticism about research, which has led to increasing distrust in science. In this context, a joint eff...

Introduction: Small-area estimation methods are an alternative to direct survey-based estimates in cases where a survey's sample size does not suffice to ensure representativeness. Nevertheless, the information yielded by small-area estimation methods must be validated. The objective of this study was thus to validate a small-area model. Methods:...

Objective: To carry out a systematic review of systematic reviews with an update of the existing evidence relating to a broad range of smoking cessation interventions, including psycho-social, digital and pharmacologic interventions, for pregnant women. Data-sources: Search was conducted in March 2022 in PubMed, EMBASE, and Cochrane in two stage...

Background: The association between duration of smoking abstinence before non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) diagnosis and subsequent survival can influence public health messaging delivered in lung-cancer screening. We aimed to assess whether the duration of smoking abstinence before diagnosis of NSCLC is associated with improved survival. Metho...

We aim to provide an overview of the research available on indoor radon and lung cancer, with a special focus on Spanish investigations. Early studies on underground miners established the link between radon and lung cancer, which was later confirmed for the general population by residential case-control studies. Spain contributed with extensive ev...

Background Great advances have been made in the field of multiple sclerosis (MS) therapy due to the publication of numerous randomised clinical trials (RCTs). In this study, we carried out a critical appraisal of phase III RCTs of disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) for MS published after 2010, intending to identify critical areas of improvement. M...

Background: There is increasing interest in unplanned care utilization among lung cancer patients and its evaluation should allow the identification of areas for quality improvement. Being a major priority for transformation in oncology, we aim to measure the risk and burden of unplanned care in a medical oncology department and identify factors t...

The incidence and mortality of lung cancer in women are rising, with both increasing by 124% between 2003 and 2019. The main risk factor for lung cancer is tobacco use, but indoor radon gas exposure is one of the leading causes in nonsmokers. The most recent evidence demonstrates that multiple factors can make women more susceptible to harm from th...

Asbestos is a mineral that is carcinogenic to humans. Its use has been banned in many occidental countries, yet it is still produced in the U.S. and materials that contain asbestos remain in many occupational settings and indoor environments. Despite the fact that asbestos carcinogenicity is well known, there is scant literature on its specific eff...

Objective: The violence produced in the context of dating is known as dating violence. Currently, it is a widespread problem in adolescence and there is a great lack of knowledge about the beliefs/attitudes that help perpetuate this phenomenon. This study aimed to assess how adolescents perceive dating violence. Additionally, to estimate the obser...

The aim of this study was to propose a short version of the Minnesota Leisure Time Physical Activity Questionnaire (MLTPAQ) to estimate the prevalence of physical inactivity. MLTPAQ was included in the Galician Risk Behavior Information System survey. Each activity was associated with an intensity code, in multiples of 1 MET, and a weekly energy ex...

The editorial process of scientific journals is complex but essential for the dissemination of scientific knowledge. The quality of the process depends on the authors, editors and reviewers, who must have the necessary experience and knowledge to ensure the quality of the published articles. One of the most significant challenges scientific journal...

Introduction: Complete and accurate data on smoking prevalence at a local level would enable health authorities to plan context-dependent smoking interventions. However, national health surveys do not generally provide direct estimates of smoking prevalence by sex and age groups at the subnational level. This study uses a small-area model-based me...

Objective: To identify if the regional government health plans in Spain include specific objectives and measures related to physical activity. Method: Institutional websites were scanned to identify the most recent health plan of each regional government. The information included in the health plans on objectives and measures and the population...

Introduction: Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is the third cause of death worldwide. While tobacco smoking is a key risk factor, COPD also occurs in never-smokers (NS). However, available evidence on risk factors, clinical characteristics, and natural history of the disease in NS is scarce. Here, we perform a systematic review of the...

Introduction: Occupational exposure role on small cell lung cancer (SCLC) onset has been little studied. Wood dust has been recognized as a human carcinogen, and many occupations have high wood-dust exposure. The aim of this study was therefore to perform a systematic review and meta-analysis of the scientific literature to summarize and analyse t...

Purpose: To estimate and to discuss smoking-attributable mortality (SAM) for the 17 regions in Spain among population aged ≥35 years in 2017, using two methods. Methods: A descriptive analysis of SAM was conducted using two methods, the prevalence-independent method (PIM) and the prevalence-dependent method (PDM). Observed mortality was obtained...

Radon is a carcinogenic compound, and is particularly concerning in the education sector, where children and teachers may be exposed even longer than at home. Thus, this study intended to characterise radon in the indoor air of scholar environments in different provinces/districts of the Euroregion Galicia-Norte de Portugal. With a pioneering appro...

Objective: To analyze the burden of tobacco consumption on mortality and years of life expectancy lost in population ≥35 years in Brazil in the period 1996-2019 and to identify trend changes in smoking-attributable mortality. Method: An independent prevalence method using the lung cancer mortality rate as a proxy for cumulative smoking risk was...