Saliva

: identificação de variáveis fundamentais para a recolha de amostras de um biobanco

Abstract

Introduction: Biobanks are essential to preserve collections of samples and data in an organized manner. Saliva contains an abundant amount of proteins and nucleic acid molecules that reflect the physiological state of an individual. Salivary diagnosis is an easy, cheap, secure and non-intrusive approach to identify a disease. Aims: The present survey is divided into two sections: 1) the preparation of a questionnaire involving the main relevant variables that must be taken into account when conducting an oral epidemiological study involving saliva data collection and also an informed consent; 2) the preparation and application of an evaluation questionnaire for the researchers who have published research using saliva as a biological sample. Methodology: A questionnaire to be applied at saliva collection was created. In a second stage, an epidemiological observational croos-sectional study was performed by applying an evaluation questionnaire to researchers with published studies using saliva samples. Data collection resulted in a final sample of 29 elements that fulfilled the inclusion criteria by answering the questionnaire. Results: The questionnaire related to saliva collection was divided into 5 groups, in a total of 51 questions. The questionnaire applied to saliva researchers was constituted by 4 questions that assessing the previous questionnaire. Questions 1, 2, 3 and 4, were responded by 58.6%, 93.1%, 96.6% and 72.4% of participants. The highest percentage of dissent was identified in question 1, presenting 41.4%. The questionnaire also contained 3 open-answer questions and all the suggestions were registered and analysed. Discussion/Conclusion: The existence of biological samples, combined with the clinical information of the donor, constitutes a fundamental resource for research. According to some researchers, a biobank with saliva samples complemented by the information present in the questionnaire would be extremely useful.

Date of Award	24 Oct 2014
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Nélio Jorge Veiga (Supervisor) & Maria José Correia (Co-Supervisor)