Medical Hydrology and Balneology: Environmental Aspects

The medical spa preferences of the IMSERSO
(Spanish Institute for Elderly People and Social
Services) patients of a medical spa in Madrid
Graña N (1) , Parraga E (1) , Arranz JL (1)
(1) Hydrologist. Madrid. Spain
(2) Hydrologist. Paediatrist. Jaen. Spain
(3) Hydrologist. Bilbao. Spain
nargradev@yahoo.es
Introduction and Objectives
In 2010 the Hotel Rural Aguas de Carabaña started business as a Medical Spa,
the only one currently operating in the Autonomous Region of Madrid. Its medicinal
mineral water is characterized as hypothermal, strongly mineralized, sulphurated,
sodic and sulphurized1. In the same year it also began to participate in the
thermal program for the IMSERSO, whose beneficiaries can stay at a spa of their
choice every year.
Materials and Methods
We retrieved the information from the analysis of the Carabaña spa’s medical
records belonging to the period August to December of 2010. The total number of
records was 171, but only 149 contained complete information. During the field
visit to the facility, the patients were asked if that was their first visit to a spa or if
they had previously stayed at another one and, if so, which spa they had chosen. All
the data was inputted into Excel tables. 17 spas could not be included in the spreadsheet
because the patients were unable to remember their complete names. Likewise,
5 spas identified only with the word Caldas (literally “hot water spring”) were
discarded because we could not identify them with certitude. Repeated visits to the
same spa by the same patient were counted as only 1 visit.
Results
We analysed 149 medical records, which were divided into 3 groups. Group A
for 60 patients visiting a spa for first time; group B for 37 patients who had visited
two ore more spas previously; and group C for 51 patients who had visited only one
spa previously.
Conclusions
The number of spas previously visited by the beneficiaries surveyed amounts to
47, characterized by various types of medicinal mineral waters2. The regions with
the greatest number of previously visited spas are Aragón and Galicia.The beneficiaries
generally elected the same type of medicinal mineral waters, sulphurated the
Balnea
2012, núm. 6, 428-429
428
ISBN: 978-84-669-1887-0
978-84-669-3482-4