ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To determine the correlation between alcohol consumption and mortality from liver cirrhosis in Mexico. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Analysis of the ecological correlation between the patterns of alcohol consumption determined by the National Addiction Survey in 1993 and mortality by liver cirrhosis, in the period between 1971-1993, in the eight regions in which the country was divided. To determine level of correlation, the Pearson and Spearman coefficients were calculated. RESULTS: Significant correlations were only found with the prevalence of spirits and pulque drinkers; with beer drinkers the correlation was negative. CONCLUSIONS: The correlation with pulque is interesting, since pulque consumption is considered to be low scale in some rural areas. The negative correlation with beer may indicate that beer drinking is nor a good indicator of alcoholism. Results, though limited to the possibilities of an ecological study, reveal the necessity of effective actions in the regions where spirits and pulque are consumed in excess.
Subject(s)
Alcohol Drinking , Liver Cirrhosis/mortality , Adolescent , Adult , Age Factors , Aged , Alcoholic Beverages , Beer , Child , Data Interpretation, Statistical , Ecology , Female , Humans , Liver Cirrhosis/etiology , Liver Cirrhosis, Alcoholic/etiology , Liver Cirrhosis, Alcoholic/mortality , Male , Mexico , Middle Aged , Sex FactorsABSTRACT
The paper discusses the close link between marginality, regional development and health. In order to do so, reference is made to some health indicators like nutrition, causes of death and health infrastructure within the low as well as the high marginality areas. The paper also presents the strategies that the Ministry of Health has established to assist the population living in the high marginality areas. It specifies the related activities that are being carried out through the national institutes of health and the sanitary regulation offices.
Subject(s)
Health , Regional Health Planning , Socioeconomic Factors , Adult , Cause of Death , Child, Preschool , Female , Food Inspection , Humans , Infant , Infant Mortality , Infant, Newborn , Life Expectancy , Male , Maternal Mortality , Mexico , Mortality , Nutritional Physiological Phenomena , Pregnancy , Regional Medical Programs , Transients and MigrantsABSTRACT
Dengue fever is a viral disease transmitted by Aedes aegypti. It has been recently incorporated to the agenda of priorities in many countries in the Americas. The emergence of dengue hemorrhagic fever cases is becoming a public health threat and requires the implementation of intensive surveillance and control strategies. The epidemiological panorama of dengue in Mexico provides the opportunity to analyze a regional health problem and the risk factors involved in the genesis of hemorrhagic cases under a situation that has not reached epidemic proportions yet.
Subject(s)
Dengue/epidemiology , Health Priorities , Adolescent , Adult , Age Distribution , Aged , Child , Child, Preschool , Dengue/prevention & control , Dengue/transmission , Disease Outbreaks/statistics & numerical data , Humans , Incidence , Infant , Mexico/epidemiology , Middle AgedABSTRACT
This work is a review of the philosophical analysis surrounding the concept of "humanism" and what it means to be a human being, in relationship to daily life, education and medicine. The authors establish a direct relationship between humanism and bioethics as they relate to the new trends acquired through the development of institutional medicine and the increasing application of technological innovations in the health field. Both of these conditions tend to depersonalize the practice of medicine, and transform an ill person into a clinical file. Reflections are made about current topics, such as the knowledge and manipulation of human genome, assisted reproduction, abortion, survival of premature infants, organ transplants, technological innovation, euthanasia and disthanasia. Concepts and ideas are reviewed in relation to medical institutions and the sick, the physician and the community, and the physician and the government.
Subject(s)
Humanism , Philosophy, Medical , Government , Hospital-Patient Relations , Humans , Patient Advocacy , Physician-Patient Relations , Social ResponsibilityABSTRACT
Previous studies have emphasized the impact of alcoholism on public health, especially on the incidence of liver cirrhosis, which ranks among one of the main causes of death in Mexico. Accordingly, the epidemiologic features of liver cirrhosis mortality (LCM) are examined, highlighting its historical trends, its geographical distribution and other risk factors like age and sex. The data show a consistently high LCM rate over time, male rates moving slightly up and female rates down. Proportional mortality has been increasing. The significant risk increment with age has determined LCM to be the leading cause of death for both sexes in the 30-64 years age group. A particularly interesting finding relates to the continuous excess of LCM seen in Mexico City and four surrounding states; on the contrary, in the northern states, LCM is considerably low. This difference is valid for women too. Comparing all states, a gradient of LCM rates from high to low mortality areas is observed. The social and health implications of LCM regional distribution demand the conduction of epidemiological studies to identify possible explanatory variables related to the pattern of alcohol consumption or other risk factors. Nonetheless, these data alone justify the implementation of an effective action plan in the high-risk areas to deal with this health problem, inherently associated with individual and social behaviors.
Subject(s)
Liver Cirrhosis/mortality , Adult , Age Factors , Aged , Female , Humans , Liver Cirrhosis/epidemiology , Male , Mexico/epidemiology , Middle Aged , Sex FactorsABSTRACT
Over the years high cirrhosis mortality rates have been reported in Mexico City and in the surrounding states (Hidalgo, Tlaxcala, Puebla and the State of Mexico); on the contrary, well defined areas, such as the northern states, have shown a considerably lower mortality rate. This situation may indicate that some factors such as the pattern of alcoholic intake and other environmental characteristics could explain this striking difference. To determine the role of alcohol, the availability and consumption of alcohol at regional and state level were compared with cirrhosis mortality rates. A high and statistically significant correlation was found with pulque availability and consumption (r = 72-92%, p less than 0.01) in all periods of time under examination. On the contrary, a statistically significant negative association was observed with beer consumption and a positive, but not significant correlation, with distilled alcoholic beverages. Infectious hepatitis incidence, prevalence of exclusive use of native languages (as an indirect index of ethnic background) and nutritional deficiencies were also studied as possible risk factors. Nutritional deficiencies and the prevalence of exclusive use of náhuatl and otomí languages were positively correlated. These results can be useful to conduct further epidemiological studies still needed to determine the etiologic role of pulque consumption as well as of the other risk factors. Nonetheless, the current data stress the need to implement public health programs to reduce alcohol consumption, especially pulque, and to minimize the impact of these risk factors in high mortality areas.
Subject(s)
Alcohol Drinking , Liver Cirrhosis/mortality , Humans , Liver Cirrhosis/epidemiology , Liver Cirrhosis, Alcoholic/epidemiology , Liver Cirrhosis, Alcoholic/mortality , Mexico/epidemiology , Risk FactorsABSTRACT
The overall assessment of the public health research (PHR) development in Mexico is a previous condition to promote PHR at a national scale. This assessment has been delayed because standard PHR identification criteria within the health research field have been missing. In this paper the guidelines to determine the PHR fields of application are presented, as well as the bibliometric indices to determine its current stage of development; a PHR methodological classification scheme is also proposed. To estimate the PHR production in Mexico, the above criteria were used to analyze the content of a data base created from two national data bases (Biblat and Periódica), and from one international data base on biomedical literature (Medline); a manual search was implemented to identify studies missing studies in the data bases but published in Salud Pública de México, the most prominent national journal in this field. The review period in Medline extended from 1979 to 1986. About 2,269,905 international scientific references were recorded, 5,189 of which belonged to national authors. Approximately 180,000 papers were related to the PHR; in 552 of these works, the main author was from Mexico. After adding up to this figure, the number of articles found in the manual search and after correcting for any misclassification error, the PHR data base contained 971 papers; approximately half of them were not investigation reports, but commentaries, reviews and position papers. Outbreak studies were 3 per cent and mortality 2.2 per cent; prevalence works were the most common (8.4%), but analytic studies were very infrequent (4%). Communicable diseases, noncommunicable diseases and mental health ranked among the main topics of interest; all other topics were infrequent or absent. These results highlight the need to carry out four main tasks to promote nationally the PHR in the short term.
