Changing perspectives in physical activity in the 21st century

Costa Rica is located in Central America country, which is world renowned for its health system. The national census in 2011, reported that Costa Rica has a population of 4,301,712 inhabitants.According to Ministry of Health, Health Situation Analysis of Costa Rica (2014), the latest estimate of life expectancy at  birth  is  the  year  2012,  which  it reached 79.0 years overall, in the women was 81.45 years  and for men 76.5 years

¿Is a global surveillance still valid and feasible?

More and more health problem are becoming global. Also with regard to NCDs, the words “global epidemic” (e.g. for obesity, luck of physical activity, etc.) are often used. Recent years have seen also emerging global solutions (interventions, programs, approaches) for these problems. But, quite often, the global approach lacks global information. Certainly to find ways of comparison is not an easy task, and the perfect comparable data constitutes in most cases a myth; still, a lot can be done. Investments are needed more on the analysis and data linkage front, more than on that of data collection: new and old sources of data are more available when, instead, quite often we lack resources and capacity to analyze them and to make this information useful for public health action and health promotion.

Edwardsiellosis, common and novel manifestations of the disease: A review

Edwardsiella tarda is a Gram-negative bacterium commonly found in aquatic environments and in water-borne animals where it causes a disease named edwardsiellosis or Edwardsiella septicemia. The bacterium is distributed worldwide and has ahigh potential to infect humans, causing infections ranging from selflimited gastrointestinal disease particularly in newborns and aged, and a variety of extraintestinal infections similar to those observed in affected fish, including pyogranulomatous inflammation, abscesses and necrosis in different tissues such as the brain, liver, skin and muscles. Systemic dissemination of the micro-organism usually ends in septicemia. Many of the pathological changes induced by E. tarda in humans are consistently observed in diseased fish, and these animals seem to be an appropriatemodel to study the pathogenesis of edwardsiellosis. In this review we describe common and novel clinical, gross and histopathological manifestations of the entity in twocommercial fish species, Japanese flounder (Paralichthys olivaceus) and tilapia hybrids (Oreochromis spp.), as well as the diversity of infections documented in humans

Characterising risk clusters in the context of curbing obesity

Background: In the last few years, Canada has been ac vely working on the implementa on of popula on health programs aimed to improving healthy lifestyle behaviors that have poten al to reduce the obesity epidemic. Obesity increases the risk of a number of main chronic diseases and is also associated with an increased risk of premature mortality. Our understanding of the underlying risk factors that contribute to obesity is increasing but there is s ll much more to be done. Increasingly research is showing that the prevalence of risk behaviors is not independent; most individuals have more than one risk behavior. A be er understanding of risk “clusters” or the co-occurrence of unhealthy behaviors will contribute greatly to targeted preven on, health promo on, and policy ac vi es. Purpose: The objec ve of this work is to understand and characterize the clustering of XX risk behaviors contribu ng to the obesity epidemic in Canada. Our hypothesis is that mul ple risk behavior s may occur in single individuals rather with randomly in different individuals and that the groups of people with different combina ons of risk can be differen  ated using cluster analysis

The impact of socioeconomic status on arthritis and osteoporosis

Background: Low socioeconomic status has been shown to be associated with both osteoarthri s and rheumatoid arthri s, impac ng on outcomes and even the development of arthri s. However the associa on with osteoporosis has been less clear. The reasons for the associa on may be linked to socioeconomic status through educa onal aspects, income, employment type and even area of residence. Purpose: The purpose of this study was use a monthly surveillance and monitoring system to examine the prevalence of self-reported osteoarthri s, rheumatoid arthri  s and osteoporosis over  me and the associa  on with measures of socioeconomic status

Los estudios feministas y de género

When considering gender studies, there is a tendency to reduce them to research exclusively related to women, particularly cisgender women, or topics related to socially and culturally constructed notions of “the feminine.” Similarly, when discussing feminist studies, it may seem unusual because feminism is often perceived solely as a social movement rather than an epistemological perspective. Another relevant aspect of these studies is that we place them in contemporary times, which hinders understanding why we are only now becoming familiar with them despite their long trajectory. In this issue of Calarma Journal, we aim to challenge these misconceptions and demonstrate how gender studies and feminist studies address diverse themes and issues across multiple areas of knowledge. What matters most is the viewpoint and epistemological stance these studies propose and allow us to adoptCuando se piensa en los los estudios de género hay una tendencia a reducirlos a investigaciones que tienen que ver exclusivamente con las mujeres, en particular las mujeres cisgénero, o a temas que se relacionan con lo social y culturalmente construido como “lo femenino”. Igualmente, cuando se habla de los estudios feministas, puede parecer extraño porque se considera al feminismo exclusivamente con un movimiento social, no como una perspectiva epistemológica. Otro aspecto relevante sobre estos estudios es que los ubicamos en la contemporaneidad, lo que impide comprender por qué hasta ahora los estamos conociendo a pesar de su larga trayectoria. Con este número de la Revista Calarma nos hemos propuesto enfrentar estos imaginarios para mostrar cómo, tanto los estudios de género como los feministas, abordan diversos temas/problemas y tienen lugar en múltiples áreas de los conocimientos, porque lo importante es el punto de vista y la postura epistemológica que dichos estudios proponen y permiten asumir

Diabetes and atypical presentations of patients hospitalized for an acute myocardial infarction in Puerto Rico

Introduction: Diabetes mellitus is one of the fastest growing health issues concerning the world today with an estimated 382 million individuals affected as of 2013 and a projected increase in number to 592 million by 2035. Diabetes mellitus is a condition affecting 12-15% of the population or around 400,000 people in Puerto Rico. The most common presenting complaint of diabetics who are hospitalized for an acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is chest pain. However, the pervasiveness of atypical symptoms in diabetic patients is yet unclear. The aim of this study is to determine if there is an association between diabetes and the presentation of atypical symptoms in the emergency room in those suffering from an AMI in Puerto Rico. Methods: We conducted a secondary data analysis of data from participants from the 2007, 2009 and 2011 Puerto Rico Cardiovascular Disease Surveillance system (PRCDS), an observational, non-concurrent, cross-sectional study. The main independent variable was presence of diabetes mellitus (Type I and Type II). The outcome was the presence of atypical symptoms at the time of presentation, defined as the absence of chest pain on admission. The prevalence of atypical symptoms in diabetic patients and non-diabetic patients was compared. Binary logistic regression was used to test for independent association. Statistical significance was considered for p-values ≤0.05 for a two-tailed test. Analysis was conducted using SPSS software. Results: We found no association between atypical presentation of an AMI and diabetes, before or after adjustment for age, gender, congestive heart failure, stroke history and BMI. (unadjusted OR= 1.0, 95%CI=0.7-1.4 and adjusted OR=1.0, 95% CI=0.6-1.5). Other independent associations identified were that patients older than 75 were 3.5 times more likely to present atypically than people younger than 55 (OR= 3.5, 95% CI=1.6-7.6), and those with CHF and stroke were more likely to present with atypical symptoms (OR=3.2, 95% CI=1.7-6.1 and OR=4.2 95% CI=2.1-8.4, respectively). Lastly, overweight patients were 3.3 times more likely to present atypically than healthy weight patients (OR=2.0, 95% CI=0.6-7.0). Conclusion: We found no evidence of an association between diabetes and the presentation of atypical symptoms in patients hospitalized for AMI in Puerto Rico

Awareness, treatment and control of hypertension: Trend from population-based surveys conducted in a low-middle income country

Aim: To estimate and determine temporal trends for awareness, treatment and control of hypertension in adults from the urban area in Colombia. Methods: We conducted two population-based surveys (years 2010 and 2015) in the Metropolitan Area of Bucaramanga-Santander, Colombia, using the WHO STEPwise approach. Participants were asked to provide demographic, socioeconomic and cardiovascular risk factors data. Blood pressure (BP) was measured twice using an automated device. Hypertension was defined as a systolic BP≥140 mmHg, a diastolic BP≥90 mmHg or self-reported antihypertensive treatment. We estimated age, sex, and socioeconomic status (SES) adjusted prevalence ratios (PR), with 2010 as the reference survey, using poisson regression and correcting standard errors by clustering. Results: We evaluated 1,136 (mean age: 35.7 years; 43% male) and 872 (mean age:37.7 years; 41% male) adults from the 2010 and 2015 surveys, respectively. There were a larger proportion of individuals sampled from low SES in the 2015 as compared to the 2010 survey (93.6% vs. 70.9%). Overall, prevalence of hypertension was 16.4% (95%CI: 14.8 – 17.9): It increased significantly with age (from 2.4% among individuals 15-19 years old to 41.1% among individuals 50 years and older; p-trend<0.001) but did not differed by sex (17.8% in men vs. 15.4% in women) or year (16.1% vs. 16.6% in 2010 and 2015, respectively). Overall, prevalence of awareness, treatment and control of hypertension were 65.0%, 84.1%, and 62.2%, respectively. Although awareness and control increased from 2010 to 2015 (PR=1.05 and PR=1.12, respectively), only the prevalence of treatment showed a statistically significant increment of 11% (PR=1.11; 95%IC: 1.01 – 1.24). Implication: The STEPwise is a suitable surveillance strategy to estimate the burden of cardiovascular risk factors in low-middle income countries. Our results are consistent with national data from urban areas and show for the first time a short-time improvement in antihypertensive coverage

Identification of some learning strategies through the composition of texts in English

This article shows the results of an investigation about the learning strategies used and reported by first semester students while writing different texts in the BA in English at Universidad del Tolima, semester B of 2009. The main aim is presenting the learning strategies that were caught by the evaluators through the assessment of the compositions.Two groups of students were the population under study. The aim of the research was to examine the strategies used and reported by the students while writing. Three experts were asked to conduct the students’ samples evaluations. This exercise contributed to the inquiry of the strategies and also yielded results that are useful for teachers to improve the process of writing in the English learners. The methodology of this study included the video-observation of three writing practice sessions, collection of writings produced by the students and their evaluation. The results presented hereshowed that students do not always use the strategies they reported. For instance: concept maps, peer corrections, look for information in different sources, etc

Assessment of tobacco smoking status and in luence of health care professionals on tobacco cessation among outpatients in different clinics of the Department of Medicine of Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idi Araba, Lagos, Nigeria

Background: As a risk factor for six out of the world's eight leading causes of death, tobacco smoking has been dubbed the single most preventable cause of death. Healthcare professionals have a prominent role to play in tobacco control. Studies have shown that even a brief interven on by a health professional significantly increases the cessa on rate. Purpose: The objec ves of the study were to assess the smoking status and iden fy the influence of health professionals on smoking cessa on of outpa ents in different clinics at the department of Medicine, Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Nigeria