This page has only limited features, please log in for full access.

Mr. Ricardo Alves
National School of Public Health - Nova University Lisbon

Basic Info


Research Keywords & Expertise

0 Fiscal Policy
0 Health Economics
0 Public Health Policy
0 health inequalities
0 diet pattern

Honors and Awards

The user has no records in this section


Career Timeline

The user has no records in this section.


Short Biography

The user biography is not available.
Following
Followers
Co Authors
The list of users this user is following is empty.
Following: 0 users

Feed

Journal article
Published: 05 July 2021 in British Journal of Nutrition
Reads 0
Downloads 0

Background: Adherence to the Mediterranean diet has been decreasing in southern Europe, which could be linked to several cultural or educational factors. Our aim is to evaluate the extent to which economic aspects may also play a role, exploring the relationship between food prices in Portugal and adherence to the Mediterranean diet. Methods: We evaluated data from the Portuguese National Food, Nutrition, and Physical Activity Survey (IAN-AF 2015-2016) (n=3,591). Diet expenditures were estimated by attributing a retail price to each food group and the diet was transposed into the Mediterranean Diet Score used in the literature. Prices were gathered from five supermarket chains (65% of the Portuguese market share). Linear regression models were used to assess the association between different adherence levels to the MD levels and dietary costs. Results: Greater adherence to the MD was associated with a 21.2% (p< 0.05) rise in total dietary cost, which accounts for more 0.59€ in mean daily costs when compared with low adherence. High adherence individuals (vs. low adherence) had higher absolute mean daily costs with fish (0.62€/+285.8%; p< 0.05), fruits (0.26€/+115.8%; p< 0.05), and vegetables (0.10€/+100.9%; p< 0.05). The analysis stratified by education and income level showed significantly higher mean daily diet cost only amongst higher income groups. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that greater adherence to the MD was positively and significantly associated with higher total dietary cost. Policies to improve population’s diet should take into consideration the cost of healthy foods, especially for large low- and middle-income families.

ACS Style

Ricardo Alves; Carla Lopes; Sara Rodrigues; Julian Perelman. Adhering to a Mediterranean diet in a Mediterranean country: an excess cost for families? British Journal of Nutrition 2021, 1 -24.

AMA Style

Ricardo Alves, Carla Lopes, Sara Rodrigues, Julian Perelman. Adhering to a Mediterranean diet in a Mediterranean country: an excess cost for families? British Journal of Nutrition. 2021; ():1-24.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Ricardo Alves; Carla Lopes; Sara Rodrigues; Julian Perelman. 2021. "Adhering to a Mediterranean diet in a Mediterranean country: an excess cost for families?" British Journal of Nutrition , no. : 1-24.

Journal article
Published: 13 May 2021 in European Journal of Clinical Nutrition
Reads 0
Downloads 0

Food subsidies for healthier foods and higher taxes for less healthy alternatives have been increasingly used to promote a healthy diet. Yet, some have argued that the fiscal burden on unhealthy products would fall disproportionately on the worse-off, raising equity concerns. This study estimates the association between income and the consumption of key food groups linked to the Mediterranean diet in the adult Portuguese population. We used data from the Portuguese National Food, Nutrition and Physical Activity Survey (IAN-AF 2015–2016), which observed the daily diet of individuals aged above 18 and below 79 years old (n = 3242). Logistic regression models were used to estimate the magnitude of the association between self-reported household income categories and consumption of foods related to the Mediterranean diet (fish, vegetables, fruits and legumes), and not (sweets, sugar-sweetened beverages, cakes & pastries and processed meats). Stratified analyses were performed by education and age categories. We observed that the intake of fish (35.8 vs 38.8 g p = 0.02), vegetables (146.7 vs 166.2 g p < 0.01), and fruits (119.8 vs 150.1 g p < 0.01) was positively related to income, with a clear gradient for the two latter. Yet, the positive income-consumption link for fish was only observed among low-educated people, and the one for legumes among high educated and youths. Conversely, the consumption of most non-Mediterranean foods was not positively related to income categories, with the exception of sweets (34.8 vs 31.8 g p = 0.01) and cakes (26.4 vs 21.4 g p < 0.01) (more prevalent among the better-off). The consumption of healthy food is mostly consistently related to income, contrary to the intake of unhealthy ones. It may well be, therefore, that subsidies to healthy foods could allow access to the worse-off while taxing unhealthy food will not impose a disproportionate burden on them.

ACS Style

Ricardo Alves; Carla Lopes; Julian Perelman. Healthy eating: a privilege for the better-off? European Journal of Clinical Nutrition 2021, 1 -9.

AMA Style

Ricardo Alves, Carla Lopes, Julian Perelman. Healthy eating: a privilege for the better-off? European Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 2021; ():1-9.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Ricardo Alves; Carla Lopes; Julian Perelman. 2021. "Healthy eating: a privilege for the better-off?" European Journal of Clinical Nutrition , no. : 1-9.

Journal article
Published: 25 November 2020 in Sustainability
Reads 0
Downloads 0

Home respiratory care (HRC) is the provision of healthcare services at the place of residence of patients or their families, with the aim of meeting needs mainly resulting from chronic respiratory conditions, permanent disability, or terminal illness. In 2016, an innovative electronic prescription system, PEM-CRD, was fully implemented for HRC services in Portugal. To date, no study has addressed the impact of the execution of this digital innovation. For this purpose, we carried out an analysis of the prevalence and number of prescriptions for people with chronic respiratory diseases receiving HRC in the Lisbon metropolitan area, during 2014–2018, using the information obtained from the PEM-CRD database. The data analysis shows that while the number of patients receiving HRC treatment with a prescription has remained stable over the last four years, the number of prescriptions has significantly dropped since 2016 (2016–2018), with consequent paper and processes efficiency. The implementation of the digital Medical Electronic Prescription for Home Respiratory Care tool (PEM-CRD) and consequent dematerialization of these processes has increased the efficiency of prescribing in HRC. Additionally, the possibility of obtaining data through the PEM-CRD allows the monitoring of the evolving prevalence of therapies, improving the health services optimization and allowing reporting on data other than medicines.

ACS Style

Ricardo Alves; Cátia Caneiras; Ana Santos; Patricia Barbosa; João Cardoso; Paulo Caseiro; Maria Vitorino; João Pereira; Ana Escoval. Medical Electronic Prescription for Home Respiratory Care Services (PEM-CRD) at a Portuguese University Tertiary Care Centre (2014–2018): A Case Study. Sustainability 2020, 12, 9859 .

AMA Style

Ricardo Alves, Cátia Caneiras, Ana Santos, Patricia Barbosa, João Cardoso, Paulo Caseiro, Maria Vitorino, João Pereira, Ana Escoval. Medical Electronic Prescription for Home Respiratory Care Services (PEM-CRD) at a Portuguese University Tertiary Care Centre (2014–2018): A Case Study. Sustainability. 2020; 12 (23):9859.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Ricardo Alves; Cátia Caneiras; Ana Santos; Patricia Barbosa; João Cardoso; Paulo Caseiro; Maria Vitorino; João Pereira; Ana Escoval. 2020. "Medical Electronic Prescription for Home Respiratory Care Services (PEM-CRD) at a Portuguese University Tertiary Care Centre (2014–2018): A Case Study." Sustainability 12, no. 23: 9859.

Journal article
Published: 22 March 2019 in Public Health Nutrition
Reads 0
Downloads 0

ObjectiveWe aimed at analysing changes in consumption of selected food groups in the Portuguese population before and after the Great Recession, which hit the country between 2008 and 2013.DesignWe used pooled cross-sectional data from the Portuguese National Health Interview Surveys of 2005/2006 and 2014. We modelled the probability of consumption of soup, fish, meat, potatoes/rice/pasta, bread, legumes, fruit, vegetables and sweets/desserts, as a function of the year, controlling for age, sex and education, using logistic regressions. Then, we stratified the analysis by age group and education level. Analyses were adjusted for survey weights.SettingPortugal (2005/2006 to 2014).ParticipantsAdults (n 43273) aged 25–79 years.ResultsFrom 2005/2006 to 2014, there was a significantly lower consumption of fish, soup, fruit and vegetables. Conversely, the consumption of legumes and sweets/desserts was significantly higher in 2014. The changes in the selected food groups were consistent across most education levels. Among people aged 65 years or above, there were no significant changes in most foods, except an increase in the consumption of legumes and sweets/desserts. In contrast, people aged 25–39 and 40–64 years significantly decreased their intakes of fish and soup and increased their consumption of sweets/desserts.ConclusionsThe consistent results across education levels suggest that changes in dietary habits are not linked to the economic downturn. By contrast, our findings suggest a shift away from foods commonly linked to the Mediterranean diet, particularly among younger people.

ACS Style

Ricardo Alves; Julian Perelman. Dietary changes during the Great Recession in Portugal: comparing the 2005/2006 and the 2014 health surveys. Public Health Nutrition 2019, 22, 1971 -1978.

AMA Style

Ricardo Alves, Julian Perelman. Dietary changes during the Great Recession in Portugal: comparing the 2005/2006 and the 2014 health surveys. Public Health Nutrition. 2019; 22 (11):1971-1978.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Ricardo Alves; Julian Perelman. 2019. "Dietary changes during the Great Recession in Portugal: comparing the 2005/2006 and the 2014 health surveys." Public Health Nutrition 22, no. 11: 1971-1978.