Fear of COVID-19 among Peruvian People Living in Disadvantaged Communities: A Cross-Sectional Study.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 crisis is fuelling a state of fear among the human population at global level. Especially, those living in informal settlements and slums worldwide have been profoundly impacted by this pandemic. Individuals living in these places are already leading underprivileged lives. Thus, the economic and mental health problems caused by the COVID-19 crisis have further exacerbated their living standards, which has resulted, for instance, in tragedies such as suicides. OBJECTIVE: In this study, we have sought to identify those individuals most at risk of displaying high levels of fear of COVID-19 in an informal settlement located in the capital city of Peru. METHODS: A questionnaire was administered to 449 inhabitants living in the Carmen Alto informal settlement. The questionnaire was made up of two parts: the first one inquired about demographic data and the second part consisted of the Fear of COVID-19 Scale. RESULTS: The demographic variables of age, gender, marital status, educational level, occupation, whether a relative from the household was infected with COVID-19, and whether one of them died of this showed significant differences. It could be observed as well that the groups of females, stable workers, unemployed and those having completed a workforce education are at higher odds of displaying high levels of fear of COVID-19. As expected, the groups that had either a relative infected with COVID-19 or a relative death by this had the highest levels of fear towards the virus. CONCLUSION: The female participants are more likely to display higher levels of fear of COVID-19 due to the terrible effect that unfavorable events have on them. In the cases of the unemployed and stable workers, their proneness to show high levels of fear towards the virus is because they have lost their incomes, due to the loss of their jobs, and because of fear of infection, respectively. Hence, we hope that this work serves Peruvian (and other) health authorities to develop strategies that help individuals living in informal settlements and are in urgent need of mitigating mental health problems.

Awareness of predatory publishing for Peruvian university professors and lecturers doing research.

Predatory open access journals and predatory conferences' main purpose is to make profit rather than promoting good science. In Peru, the University Law 30220 asks that professors and lecturers undertake research duties at universities. Hence, nowadays part of this academic staff is required to write scientific articles. However, not all of them are experienced on how to write a scholarly paper. Thus, in the rush to comply with the publication requirements that their individual institutions demand from them, a great number of these professors and lecturers are likely to fall prey of predatory publishing, which already is happening in other developing nations. This publishing method is not only unethical because it produces low-quality articles but also is an egregious mismanagement of the resources that universities allocate to fund research. Moreover, the time and effort that the academic staff put to the production of low-quality papers also completely go to waste. Professors and lecturers who follow these bad practices should be penalized; this also avoids the emergence of fraudulent research authorities. Thus, vice-rectorates for research in Peruvian universities should take corrective or preventive measures to promote the production of high-quality papers by part of their academic staff.

Obesity Among Peruvian Children Under Five Years of Age in 2017: a Geographic Information System Analysis.

INTRODUCTION: The Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) number 2 aims to end malnutrition in all its forms. To reach this goal one of the several health problems to tackle is childhood obesity. AIM: In this study, spatial data for the prevalence of obesity among Peruvian children under five years of age in 2017 is presented and analyzed in order to observe in which regions this disease is a high risk. MATERIAL AND METHODS: By geo-referencing public data provided by the National Institute of Health from Peru and using a Geographic Information System (GIS) tool, it was possible to generate maps of prevalences and also of clusters and outliers at a regional and district level, respectively. RESULTS: Observing at the map of prevalences, it could be identified that in the natural region of the coast there are the highest prevalences of obesity among children under five. A second map showing the hot spots and the outliers is also presented. This second map is very revealing because it shows the districts which are classified as outliers and thus in danger of becoming hot spots for childhood obesity in the future if no action is taken. CONCLUSION: In view of the spatial distribution of hot spots and outliers of obesity among children under five years of age, it is recommended that health governmental and non-governmental entities from Peru allocate their resources where is urgently needed in order to attempt to reduce childhood obesity, and helping in reaching as well SDG 2.