Bilingualism and Voice Production. Differences Between Bilingual Latin-American Spanish- English Female Speakers and Monolingual Spanish Female Speakers During Spanish Productions.

BACKGROUND: Speaking a second language influences jitter and shimmer when comparing monolingual English speakers with bilingual English-Spanish speakers. However, there is little information about differences on voice acoustic parameters when comparing monolingual Spanish speakers with bilingual Spanish-English speakers during their productions in Spanish. AIM: Determine differences in five voice acoustic parameters commonly used in voice assessments (fundamental frequency, jitter, shimmer, Harmonics-to-Noise Ratio and Cepstral Peak Prominence Smoothed) which may be influenced by bilingualism. METHODS: Exploratory cross-sectional study with two groups of female participants: monolingual Spanish speakers (n = 17), and bilingual Spanish-English speakers (n = 11). Participants filled out a questionnaire and recorded two voice samples (sustained vowel /a/ and reading). For this study, all the participants reported that their native language was Spanish. RESULTS: Being a female bilingual speaker had a significant effect on Shimmer (%) with a Beta = -0.7. Similar tendency was found on harmonics-to-noise ratio (B = 0.2) and cepstral peak prominence smoothed (B = 0.2). CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that being a native Spanish female speaker, speaking English as a second language, has significant small effects on voice acoustic parameters, such as shimmer, harmonics-to-noise ratio and cepstral peak prominence smoothed, during their productions in Spanish. This information is of interest for assessment and intervention plans of bilingual speakers at clinical and work-related settings.

Use of Mobile Applications to Increase Therapeutic Adherence in Adults: A Systematic Review.

Failure to comply with therapeutic treatments implies negative repercussions for the patient's quality of life, their social environment, and health system. The use of information and communication technologies, especially mobile applications, has favored the increase in global therapeutic adherence figures. The objective of this study is to characterize the use of mobile applications as a strategy to increase therapeutic adherence in adults. A systematic literature review in Web of Science and Scopus was performed following the Preferred Information elements for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis. Information such as: the year of publication, the study population, the medical conditions of the participants, the main characteristics or functionalities of the mobile applications, and the methods or tools used to measure treatment adherence were extracted from each included article. The risk of bias was assessed. Twelve randomized controlled trials (RCTs), published in English from 1996 to May 2021, were included. Chronic diseases have been mostly addressed through interventions with mobile applications. The most reported functions of mobile applications were reminders, educational modules, two-way communication, and games. Tools such as: "Morisky Medication Adherence Scale of eight items"; "Medication adherence questionnaire"; "Self-reported adherence"; among others, were used to evaluate and report the treatment adherence. In conclusion, including treatment interventions using mobile applications in clinical practice has proven to be beneficial to improve therapeutic adherence. However, it is necessary to develop high-quality clinical trials (size and duration) to generalize results and justify their use in conventional health services.

Conocimientos, actitudes y prácticas en pacientes con tuberculosis: una revisión sistemática de literatura / Knowledge, attitudes and practices in patients with tuberculosis: a systematic literature review

Introducción: La tuberculosis es una enfermedad infectocontagiosa de fácil tras-misión. Para su control, los conocimientos, actitudes y prácticas adecuadas son indis-pensables, así como los factores relevantes para la adherencia al tratamiento. Objetivo: Caracterizar las definiciones o los conceptos de las dimensiones de cono-cimientos, actitudes y prácticas en tuberculosis reportados en la literatura durante los últimos diez años. Materiales y métodos: Se realizó una revisión sistemática de la literatura bajo la metodología "Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analy-ses". Inicialmente, se encontraron 1.720 posibles publicaciones, de las cuales, luego de la aplicación de los criterios de exclusión, quedaron 34 para ser incluidas en el análisis de esta revisión. Resultados: La mayoría de los estudios fueron publicados en el año 2018 y pre-dominaron las publicaciones en el continente africano. La caracterización de las di-mensiones se relaciona así: los conocimientos se definen como características de la enfermedad, las actitudes se relacionan con el estigma social hacia el paciente y las prácticas corresponden con la búsqueda de atención médica por parte del paciente. Conclusión: Se identificó la escasez de producción científica en donde se especifi-quen los conceptos de las dimensiones de conocimientos, actitudes y prácticas, que a su vez permitan el desarrollo de investigaciones de alto rigor y alcance metodológico, ya que las publicaciones realizadas e incluidas para este estudio tuvieron una evalua-ción de baja calidad.

Introduction: Tuberculosis is an infectious disease of easy transmission. For tuber-culosis's control, appropriate knowledge, attitudes, and practices are essential, as well as relevant factors for treatment adherence. Objective: To characterize the concepts of three dimensions ­knowledge, atti-tudes, and practices­ in tuberculosis reported in the literature during the last ten years. Materials and methods: A systematic review of the literature was carried out under the methodology "Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Me-ta-Analyzes". Initially, 1.720 possible publications were found, of which, after apply-ing the exclusion criteria, 34 remained to be included in this review. Results: Most studies were published in 2018, and publications on the African con-tinent predominated. The characterization of the dimensions is related as follows: knowledge was defined as the characteristics of the disease, attitudes were related with the social stigma towards the patient with TB, and practices were associated with seeking medical care by the patients with TB. Conclusion: There is a lack of publications on the definition of knowledge, atti-tudes and practices on tuberculosis, which hampers developing high impact research.