Verònica Torras, a nurse currently undertaking her doctoral thesis at the USR Tarragona-Reus, was awarded on May 4 during the Research Conference for Residents in Family and Community Medicine organized by CAMFiC. She won first prize in the call with the study “Indirect effect of the introduction of PCV13 in the childhood vaccination schedule on the incidence of pneumonia from any cause in adults aged ≥ 50 years in Catalonia”.

The study, which forms part of her doctoral thesis, aimed to assess the incidence of pneumonia in people over 50 years of age, who represent three quarters of the population affected by this disease. The evaluation period was from 2015 to 2017, as the PCV13 vaccine (against pneumococcus) was included in the childhood vaccination schedule in 2016. Considering that children may be carriers of the bacterium and therefore could easily transmit it to older people, a decrease in pneumonia cases among those over fifty years of age was expected after the introduction of the vaccine.

The study therefore compared two periods: one in which the vaccine had not yet been administered to all children and another in which it had. The results partially supported Verònica Torras’s hypothesis. It was found that the incidence of pneumonia from any cause in the overall population studied was very similar in both periods, with no statistically significant differences. However, when analyzing subgroups, a lower incidence was observed in people over 65 years of age during the period in which children were already vaccinated. There was also a statistically significant decrease among people with chronic respiratory disease and among smokers.

During the CAMFiC Research Conference, there were several presentations, including one by Mercè Marzo, who spoke about practical tips for interpreting scientific evidence, and another by Dr. Josep Basora, who explained to attendees how to give a good public presentation of a research project.