Malnutrition among children is one of the most pressing health concerns middle- and low-income countries face today, particularly those in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Early-life malnutrition ...has been shown to affect long-term health and income. One hypothesized channel linking early-life malnutrition and long-term outcomes is cognitive development. However, there is limited empirical evidence on the relationship between nutritional status and cognitive achievement in middle childhood.
As part of the South India Community Health Study (SICHS), we collected educational attainment and anthropometric data from 1,194 children in rural Vellore district of Tamil Nadu, India, and assessed their math and reading skills. We analyzed the relationship between continuous and binary anthropometric measures of nutritional status and three measures of cognitive achievement (reading, math, and grade level), adjusting for potential confounders, using a regression framework.
Lower height-for-age and weight-for-age and their corresponding binary measures (stunting, underweight) were associated with lower reading scores, lower math scores, and lower grade level, with the exception of the association between weight-for-age and reading, which was marginally significant. A stunted child had one-third of a grade disadvantage compared to a non-stunted counterpart, whereas an underweight child had one-fourth of a grade disadvantage compared to a non-underweight counterpart. Lower BMI-for-age was associated with grade level and marginally associated with lower math scores, and its binary measure (thinness) was marginally associated with lower math scores.
Acute and chronic malnutrition in middle childhood were negatively associated with math scores, reading scores, and educational attainment. Our study provides new evidence that cognitive achievement during middle childhood could be an important mechanism underlying the association between early-life malnutrition and long-term wellbeing.
Limited literature explores the relationship between economic impacts and pet ownership. Do people have more pets as a result of economic crises? In the current study, we answer this question by ...looking at the time series of pet ownership and children present in U.S. households from 2003 to 2018. We utilize a causal inference technique to compare the estimated real trend of pet ownership in American households against the scenario in which the 2007–2008 financial crisis would not have occurred. Our findings suggest that the financial crisis triggered households to own more pets, specifically dogs and cats.
Schizophrenia, a complex neuropsychiatric disorder, is believed to be influenced by various factors including environmental exposures. A potential environmental factor is the infection by the ...obligate intracellular parasitic protozoan, Toxoplasma gondii which affects neurotransmitter levels, which could potentially exacerbate, trigger symptoms of schizophrenia or make them worst.
To investigate the association between Toxoplasma gondii seropositivity and psychopathological presentation in persons with schizophrenia in Ecuador.
This study was conducted at the Neuroscience Institute of Guayaquil, Ecuador. Among 368 inpatients, 104 were selected based on specific inclusion and exclusion criteria. Descriptive statistics captured patient characteristics and mental health outcomes. Logistic regression models estimated the effect of toxoplasmosis on various mental health outcomes, controlling for demographic and health-related variables.
86.5% of participants were seropositive for toxoplasmosis. Toxoplasma-seropositive schizophrenic patients had a lower risk of depression but a significantly higher risk of disorientation. The most prevalent mental health outcomes were Language Impairments (70.2%) and Bizarre Behavior (76.0%).
Our findings suggest that Toxoplasma gondii seropositivity may have specific effects on mental functions in schizophrenic patients, particularly reducing the risk of depression but increasing the risk of disorientation. Further studies are required to clarify these associations and the potential underlying mechanisms.
Background: Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is a pandemic that has spread worldwide. Since its discovery, health measures have been put in place to help stop it from spreading. Proper education about ...COVID-19 is important because it helps people to follow health control measures and learn more about the disease. Objective: This study aimed to compare people´s knowledge of COVID-19 before and after a brief video-based educational intervention. Methods: 87 participants in Ecuador were recruited from a dataset of COVID-positive patients in Ecuador between December 2021 and February 2022. This was a cross-sectional, pre- and post-intervention study. First, COVID-19 knowledge was evaluated and then an educational intervention was provided as a video. After the intervention, the same knowledge questions were used to test the participants, and marginal homogeneity-based chi-square tests were employed for comparison. Results: After watching the educational video, participants knew more about the age group most likely to get the disease and their knowledge of how long it takes for Covid to spread. Their knowledge of other aspects of COVID-19 has also increased. Conclusion: This study shows that educational intervention positively affects the knowledge of people who watch it. At the end of the study, after the intervention, the study participants knew more than they had before. This could be a useful tool for identifying possible pandemics.
Child labor has significant physical, psychological, and social consequences, which can persist into adulthood. This study investigates the association between the age at which an individual begins ...working and tooth loss in older adults in Ecuador. We analyzed data from the SABE 2009 survey (Survey of Health, Well-being, and Aging), using binary logistic regression to examine potential relationships. Our analytical sample comprised of 3,899 older adults from mainland Ecuador, with 42.50% having started working between the ages of 5 and 12. Unadjusted logistic regression results indicated that older adults who began working at ages 5-12 had a 42% higher risk of missing more than 4 teeth compared to those who started working at ages 18-25. After adjusting for potential confounders, the resulting risk was 28% higher than for the reference group OR 1.28 95% CI 1.25-1.30. Our findings demonstrate that early engagement in labor is a risk factor for tooth loss among older adults, displaying the long-term impacts of child labor on oral health. Health education and benefits should be provided to this vulnerable population for tooth loss prevention.
A vast literature has demonstrated that several mother-related variables are positively associated with their daughters’ sexual and reproductive outcomes. One underexplored variable is sexual ...empowerment––a subdimension of empowerment. In this study, we explore if maternal sexual empowerment is predictive of adolescent daughters’ outcomes like early sexual initiation, teenage pregnancy, and contraception use.
This study uses data from the 2018 National Health and Nutrition Survey of Ecuador (Ensanut), a cross-sectional survey in Ecuador that measures health and nutrition. We examine whether mothers’ sexual empowerment––measured as a woman’s autonomy in sexual relationships and her ability to turn down sex and demand contraception use from her partner––is predictive of sexual and reproductive outcomes among female adolescent children. Logistic regression was performed to test this association.
Results showed that having a mother who lacked sexual empowerment increased the odds of early sexual initiation. Girls who had a mother who had a teenage birth were more likely to experience teenage pregnancy themselves.
Mothers may influence daughters’ attitudes towards sex through their own demonstration of sexual empowerment. This research demonstrates that a lack of maternal sexual empowerment can be a risk factor of early sexual initiation, teenage pregnancy, and lack of contraception use among female adolescents. More research is needed to confirm the robustness of these results and analyze other forms of sexual empowerment.
Other variables not present in the data, like domestic violence, can be used to understand the sexual activity of young females and maternal sexual empowerment. Social desirability and recall bias are also common forms of bias in surveys regarding sexual activity among adolescents.
•A lack of mothers’ sexual empowerment increased the odds of early sexual initiation of 16-year old women.•Having mothers who had had a teenage birth increased the odds of adolescents’ early sexual initiation and teenage pregnancy.•Mothers' sexual empowerment is not associated with their adolescent daughters’ use of contraception.
•Estrategia Médico de Barrio (EMB) rolled out primary health teams in rural and peri-urban zones in Ecuador during 2017–19.•Using difference-in-differences models, we find positive effects of EMB on ...diagnostic and preventive care; and mixed evidence on curative care.•EMB led to a 4.69-percentage-point decrease in the likelihood of reporting health issues (from a baseline of 35.84 %).•Triple differences analysis shows a 2.62-percentage-point increase in the likelihood of receiving preventive care (from a baseline of 9.52 %).•EMB had some success delivering healthcare to communities lacking basic services in rural cantons with high indigenous populations.
Starting in 2017, Ecuador gradually expanded its primary healthcare access program nationwide using mobile traveling healthcare teams through the Estrategia Médico del Barrio (EMB) or Neighborhood Doctor Strategy. EMB teams, composed of a primary care physician, a nurse, and a community health worker, made home visits in marginalized areas. We estimate the impact of the EMB on health and utilization outcomes using nationally representative household surveys for 2006 (N = 55,666), 2012–13 (N = 92,500) and 2018–19 (N = 168,747). The treatment variable at the extensive margin is any exposure to EMB at the canton level. At the intensive margin, we use exposure in terms of weeks covered by EMB and the number and composition of EMB personnel per 1000 population. We identify outcomes of treated vs. non- or partially-treated cantons based on the random combination of the timing of the start of the program’s implementation and the timing of the survey interview, which varied across cantons. We use difference-in-difference (DD) and difference-in-difference-in-difference (DDD) frameworks, the latter for cantons with high indigenous concentration. We find significant effects on the reported health problem and preventive care, but mixed results in terms of curative healthcare. The DDD specification shows that EMB improved health problem diagnoses and preventive healthcare utilization, including in highly indigenous cantons, yet it seemed to have mixed results in terms of curative care use in Ecuador. Various alternative specifications and robustness tests do not qualitatively alter the main findings.
This short communication investigates the usefulness of time-use measures to validate subjective health measures such as self-reported health (SRH). It does this by examining time-use patterns and ...SRH among middle-age adults in the United States distinguished by race/ethnicity and with additional attention to differences in responses based on language of interview for Hispanics.
Data for this study come from the 2013–2016 American Time Use Survey. We calculated average time-use for personal care; housework; paid work; leisure; volunteering/travel; caregiving; and education for every racial/ethnic group differentiating by SRH for 27,063 adults aged 25–64 years. A series of ANOVAs were computed to assess differences in time-use by SRH.
Non-Hispanic whites and non-Hispanic Blacks who reported poor/fair SRH spent more time in personal care and leisure, and less time in paid work, volunteering/travel, caregiving and education, in comparison to those who reported Excellent/Very Good/Good SRH. Among Hispanics, differences by SRH were found for personal care, paid work, leisure and volunteering/travel. Hispanics who answered in English displayed partially similar patterns in SRH found for non-Hispanic whites and Blacks. Hispanics who answered in Spanish demonstrated differences in SRH in the areas of paid work, leisure and education, diverging from the other groups.
Time-use differences by health status are consistent between non-Hispanic whites, non-Hispanic blacks, but not so for Hispanics. To some extent, Hispanics who answered in English have more comparable patterns to non-Hispanic whites and non-Hispanic Blacks than Spanish respondents. Caution should be exercised when self-reported health measures are used to compare diverse samples collected with surveys that are administered in different languages.
Background: The COVID-19 pandemic greatly impacted traditional health structures, posing new challenges in an unprecedented health crisis. Telemedicine services were implemented in countries with ...robust digital platforms to reduce hospital attendance while continuing to provide medical care. This study aims to determine how telemedicine services have been used as a tool to ensure the right to health in Latin America during the pandemic. Materials and methods: We conducted a narrative review in which words such as telemedicine, COVID-19, Latin America, access, and right to health, were searched on scientific medical datasets such as PubMed and SciELO. Additionally, we reviewed legislation in the Latin American health domain regarding the administration and transmission of digital data. Results and conclusions: Several countries have used telemedicine to reduce the saturation of healthcare systems and increase patient access. Issues such as broadband access for low-income populations and adequate legal regulations for transmitting and storing confidential data must be addressed to improve telemedicine use in Latin America.
The beliefs and attitudes of physicians toward depression may predict whether they are supportive or avoidant of patients diagnosed with this condition. Describing the attitudes toward depression of ...Argentinian, Chilean, and Venezuelan healthcare professionals could be a valuable tool for understanding the Latin American perspective on depression recognition, management, and prevention.
A cross-sectional study was conducted among healthcare professionals in Argentina, Chile, and Venezuela using the Spanish validated version of the revised depression attitude questionnaire (R-DAQ). The questionnaire was collected online from August to November 2021, in a quota-based sample of 1759 health professionals (the final analytical sample is 1234). Descriptive data analyses were performed using STATA version 16 statistical software.
Depression was considered a disease that anyone could suffer by 90% of the respondents. However, 70% of professionals answered that they feel more comfortable dealing with physical illness than mental illness. Furthermore, the findings show that a quarter of the participants in the study believed that either medical treatment (28.6%) or psychosocial approach (<20%) were ineffective tools for people suffering from depression. Findings also show that depression is seen as a more natural part of life by Argentinian professionals and men. Finally, psychologists and psychiatrists are most likely to treat depression as any other physical disease. Medical providers who routinely perform surgeries are not as likely to know how to treat depression or consider it an actual disease.
Healthcare professionals in Argentina, Chile, and Venezuela have varying attitudes toward depression. While they recognize depression as a disease on the same level as other physical diseases, most do not know how to treat it. The findings point to the need for these countries to promote the training of healthcare workers in areas such as depression diagnosis, treatment, and social interventions.
•Physicians' attitudes toward patients who exhibit signs and symptoms of depression can impact the disease's outcomes.•This study offers a basis for understanding Latin American physicians' expertise and confidence in depression care.•Our data revealed that less than half of respondents in all three countries received depression management training.•Our findings show that less than half of respondents believe they are prepared to assess depression in patients.•This study emphasizes the need of training and preparing healthcare personnel to have improved attitudes toward depression.
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