Alcohol consumption, alcohol expectancies, and drinking contexts in young Argentinean college students before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: a one-year follow-up study.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns are known to affect alcohol consumption. This study examines drinking expectancies and contexts upon alcohol consumption of Argentinean students.Objectives: To assess within-person changes in alcohol consumption in Argentinean college students (aged 18-24), from August 2019 with a one-year follow-up during the COVID-19 lockdown, considering alcohol expectancies, drinking contexts, and main socio-demographic variables. To validate the stability of these predictors, we discuss the effects on the alcohol consumption across dependent and independent measures.Methods: We assessed one longitudinal (N = 300, 70% female) and one cross-sectional (N = 165, 78% female) sample via online surveys and applied multilevel analysis and regressions, respectively.Results: Alcohol consumption significantly increased during lockdown compared to one-year before (mean: 6.91 and 8.26 alcohol units, correspondingly). In the longitudinal sample, social facilitation (medium effect sizes [ES]: 0.21, 0.22) and parental presence (medium ES: 0.12, 0.21) significantly and stable (through time) predicted increasing effects on consumption. In the cross-sectional sample, stress control (high ES: 0.78) and parental presence (high ES: 0.42) were associated with higher consumption during lockdown.Conclusion: College students increased their alcohol consumption during lockdown, suggesting that restrictive sanitary measures may negatively affect consumption. Literature is not conclusive as both decreases and increases in alcohol consumption in students from developed countries were reported. Before and during COVID-19 lockdown, parental presence is a stable predictor of increased alcohol consumption, though unusual according to the literature. Health policies aimed at modifying the behavior of parents who promote/share alcohol consumption with their offspring may help reduce drinking in college students.

A longitudinal study on depression and anxiety in college students during the first 106-days of the lengthy Argentinean quarantine for the COVID-19 pandemic.

BACKGROUND: The Argentinean quarantine is among the strictest and longest quarantines in the world. To determine if a worsening pattern on mental health would emerge with a prolonged quarantine duration, a longitudinal analysis pertaining to the lengthy mandatory Argentinean quarantine was conducted. AIM: To examine depression and anxiety changes in college students, as a function of quarantine duration, demographic and health-related factors, during successive time cuts of the lengthy mandatory quarantine in Argentina. METHODS: We used a longitudinal design, N = 1492 college students. For the first measurement, successive samplings were carried out across quarantine sub-periods of up to 106-days duration. The follow-up was one month later. RESULTS: Particularly women, young, and having a history of mental disorder and suicidal behavior, were more depressed and anxious under mandatory restrictive quarantine conditions. Repeated measures of both depression and anxiety scores remained constantly high during the more restrictive quarantine sub-periods of up to 13 and 53-days duration, and decreased during the less restrictive quarantine sub-period of up to 106-days duration, but with small effect sizes (0.10-0.08). CONCLUSIONS: Restrictive quarantine has negative effects on mental health outcomes. Partial spontaneous remissions of depression and anxiety symptoms may be expected with further quarantine relaxations.

Levels and predictors of depression, anxiety, and suicidal risk during COVID-19 pandemic in Argentina: the impacts of quarantine extensions on mental health state.

This research is aimed to: analyze differences in mental health state (MHS) indicators (depression, state-anxiety, trait-anxiety, and suicidal risk), during three quarantine sub-periods (starting since the first quarantine extension); assess multiple relationships between each MHS indicator and potentially affecting factors. We used a cross-sectional design with a convenience sample including 1100 participants. Data were collected online. Depression revealed a worsening pattern as quarantine sub-periods went by. Anxiety (both state and trait), just like suicidal risk, partially follow such a pattern, with mean scores increasing from the first to the second/third quarantine extensions, but then maintaining to the fourth extension. Predictors having protective effects on almost all the MHS indicators were: availability of current economic income (except for state-anxiety, without significant effect) and absence of suicide attempt history. Conversely, sex (woman), younger age, and mental disorder history had an increasing risk effect on all the MHS indicators. Overall, our findings indicate that quarantine have negative mental health impacts and that quarantine duration is a relevant aspect to be taken into account when measuring such an impact. More attention needs to be paid to vulnerable groups such as the young, women, and people with history of mental disorder.

Suicidal risk and impulsivity-related traits among young Argentinean college students during a quarantine of up to 103-day duration: Longitudinal evidence from the COVID-19 pandemic.

AIM: This study aimed to examine longitudinal changes on suicidal risk levels, adjusting for impulsivity-related traits, quarantine duration, main demographic factors, mental disorder history, and loneliness, in young Argentinean college students with (ideation; attempt) and without suicidal behavior history, during a quarantine of up to 103-day duration of the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: A longitudinal design with two-repeated measures was used (N = 1202). Follow-up was a month later from the first measurement. Three groups were analyzed: with suicidal ideation history, with suicide attempt history, and without suicidal behavior history. RESULTS: Percentages of college students with high or moderate suicidal risk were alarming (accumulated: 62.23% first measurement, 57.65% second measurement). Multilevel analysis on the three groups showed that suicidal risk diminished from the first measurement to the follow-up, having mental disorder history predicted higher suicidal risk, and negative urgency had the largest increasing effects on suicidal risk which persisted over time. CONCLUSIONS: Suicidal risk widely affects college students during lengthy quarantines of the COVID-19 pandemic and it should be tracked in those having pre-existing vulnerabilities, but also in those without. Education on managing negative emotions may help decrease suicide risk in college students during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mental Health Impacts in Argentinean College Students During COVID-19 Quarantine.

Background: We aimed to: (1) analyze differences in both general (in terms of psychological well-being/discomfort, social functioning and coping, and psychological distress) and specific (depression, trait-anxiety, negative alcohol-related consequences, and suicidal risk) mental health state (MHS) in college students, residing in four different Argentinean regions (center, north, south, and the most populated) exposed to different spread-rates of the COVID-19; (2) analyze between-group differences in both general and specific MHS indicators at four quarantine sub-periods (twice prior, and twice following the first quarantine extension). Methods: We used a cross-sectional design with a convenience sample including 2,687 college students. Data was collected online during the Argentinean quarantine. We calculated one-way between-groups ANOVA with Tukey's post hoc test. Results: Regionally, the center and the most populated area differed in psychological well-being/discomfort and negative alcohol-related consequences, but not in the remaining MHS indicators. According to the quarantine sub-periods, there were differences in psychological well-being/discomfort, social functioning and coping, psychological distress, and negative alcohol-related consequences. Negative alcohol-related consequences were the only MHS indicator improving over time. For all of the remaining MHS indicators, we found a similar deterioration pattern in the course of time, with mean scores decreasing from the first to the 2nd week of the quarantine pre-extensions, then increasing toward the 1st week of the quarantine post-extension (with some MHS indicators reaching mean scores worse than the start), and then continued to increase. Conclusion: A worsened mean MHS during quarantine suggests that quarantine and its extensions contribute to negative mental health impacts.

Longitudinal evidence on mental health changes of college students with and without mental disorder background during the Argentina's lengthy mandatory quarantine.

This study examined the changes in the mental health state of college students with and without mental disorder background, during successive time cuts of the Argentina's lengthy mandatory quarantine, while adjusting for quarantine duration, sex, age, suicidal behavior history, loneliness, and region of residence. We used a longitudinal design (N = 1615, 26% with mental disorder history). Successive samplings were performed from three days before quarantine start and across quarantine phases of up to 103-days duration. Follow-up was one month later. Sex (woman) and age (younger) were significant predictors of worse mental health only in college students without mental disorder background. Having any suicidal behavior background significantly predicted worse mental health in college students both with and without mental disorder history. Loneliness and region of residence were not statistically significant. In the between-groups comparisons, college students having mental disorder background had worse mental health than those without such a background. However, in the within-subject comparisons, no statistically significant changes occurred across time in the mental health of college students having mental disorder history. Conversely, significant changes occurred in those without such a background, but only when the interaction between time and quarantine duration was considered. Worsening mental health occurred during the most heavily restrictive quarantine phases, while some of the remissions occurred during the longest, but less restrictive ones.

Altitude and latitude variations in trait-impulsivity, depression, anxiety, suicidal risk, and negative alcohol-related consequences in Argentinean adolescents.

The aims of this research were threefold: 1) to analyze mental health state both general (GMHS, i.e., self-perceived health and psychological distress) and specific (SMHS; i.e., depression, trait-anxiety, negative alcohol-related consequences, and suicidal risk), and impulsivity-related traits (i.e., negative urgency, positive urgency, [lack of] perseverance, [lack of] premeditation, and sensation seeking) in a sample of Argentinean adolescent college students, in function of sex (women, men) and three different altitude-latitude regions (high-north, middle-center, low-south), for identifying common and specific features; 2) to analyze relationships between impulsivity-related traits and indicators of GMHS and SMHS, in the entire sample and in each altitude-latitude region, for understanding the importance of impulsivity-related traits in these forms of mental disorders; and 3) to analyze bivariate relationships between depression, trait-anxiety, negative alcohol-related consequences, and suicidal risk, in the entire sample and considering the three altitude-latitude regions, for testing two-disorder comorbidities. Scores on impulsivity-related traits differed by sex and by altitude-latitude region. GMHS and SMHS differed by sex but not by altitude-latitude region. Several relationships were found between impulsivity-related traits, GMHS, and SMHS as well as between indicators of SMHS. Some of these relationships were dependent on altitude-latitude regions, and implications of these findings were discussed.

Waste into rivers: a residual issue? The case of the UNESCO's site of the Quebrada De Humahuaca, NW Argentina.

The Quebrada de Humahuaca in North West Argentina is a world heritage site listed by the UNESCO since 2003. As pollution is increasing dramatically, a pluridisciplinary, annual-long survey was conducted along the valley to determine dominant patterns in waste management and water quality. Along with the habit of discarding waste into the river, urbanizations have been identified as having a deep influence on the river water quality: iron together with maximum peaks of nitrite and nitrate are related with the anthropogenic activity at Humahuaca, whereas the concentrations of arsenic increase from north to south, with maximum peaks of up to 13.50 and 14.50 µg L-1 measured during the rainy season at Maimará and Volcán, respectively. In this underdeveloped region, economic struggles and waste management customs revealed as major factors causing the environmental degradation. The inclusion in the UNESCO's sites list was insufficient in preserving this world heritage site. The approach discussed in this article suggests a straightforward analytical measurement of the river hydrochemical properties during the rainy season in arid/semi-arid regions with monsoonal regime, to assess the effects of waste dumping along watercourses. In addition to scientific evaluations, both public acceptance and the establishment of proper waste management infrastructure are fundamental to ensuring the preservation of human and environmental health.

General Mental Health State Indicators in Argentinean Women During Quarantine of up to 80-Day Duration for COVID-19 Pandemic.

Introduction: Argentinean quarantine during the COVID-19 pandemic is one of the most long-lasting worldwide. We focused on the first 80-days of this quarantine on Argentinean women. Our aims were to analyze differences in general mental health state (MHS) indicators, by the (1) sites of residence with different prevalence of COVID-19 cases, and (2) quarantine duration; (3) to assess multiple relationships between each general MHS indicator and potentially affecting factors. Methods: We used a cross-sectional design with convenience successive sampling (N = 5,013). The online survey included a socio-demographic questionnaire (elaborated ad hoc) with standardized and validated self-reported questionnaires (General Health Questionnaire, Kessler Psychological Distress Scale) measuring the MHS indicators: self-perceived health, psychological discomfort, social functioning and coping, and psychological distress. Results: Worse self-perceived health and higher psychological discomfort affected significantly more women residing in sites with high prevalence of COVID-19 cases, compared to those residing in sites with intermediate prevalence, but effect sizes were small. Mean scores of all general MHS indicators were significantly worse for longer quarantine sub-periods (up to 53, 68, and 80-day duration) than for shorter sub-periods (up to seven, 13, and 25-day duration). Being a younger age, having mental disorder history, and longer quarantine durations were associated to worsening MHS, while the lack of previous suicide attempt has a protective effect. Discussion: Our findings show that a worse MHS during quarantine may not be attributed to the objective risk of contagion (measured greater or less), and under quarantine, women MHS-as indicated by group central tendency measures-got worse as time went by. This strongly suggests that special attention needs to be paid to younger women and to women with history of mental disorder. Along with physical health, mental health must be a priority for the Government during and after quarantine and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lithium and Boron in Calcified Tissues of Vicuna and Their Relation to Chronic Exposure by Water Ingestion in The Andean Lithium Triangle.

Vicuna is a wild, endangered species of Andean camelid living in the hyperarid Andean plateau. In the central part of the plateau, the Lithium Triangle defines a zone with lithium-rich salt pans. Brine pools naturally form within the salt pans, and the adaptation strategy of vicuna consists of drinking from brine pools. Together with reporting the first chemical data on vicuna bones and teeth, we analyzed lithium, boron, and arsenic in water and brines, with the aim of assessing their relation to chronic exposure by water ingestion. We collected and analyzed bones of vicuna specimens lying in an Andean salt pan, together with brine and water samples. Brine and water samples are highly saline and contain large amounts of lithium, boron, and arsenic. Lithium (13.50-40 mg kg-1 ) and boron (40-46.80 mg kg-1 ), but not arsenic, were found in the vicuna bones and teeth. Based on our results and on previously reported data on human tissues in the Andes, we conducted statistical assessments of the relationships between lithium and boron in body tissues and water samples, and discuss their environmental significance in the context of the Lithium Triangle. Environ Toxicol Chem 2019;39:200-209. © 2019 SETAC.