Una escala psicométrica breve para evaluar el estado cognitivo de hispanoparlantes de edad mayor / A short psychometric scale to evaluate the cognitive status of aged Spanish speakers

During the last ten years there has been an interest for determining the prevalence and incidence of dementia among older adults and for cognitive tests that do to discriminate by level of education. This article revolves around the validation of a minimental exam, the Cabán minimental, to measure the cognitive capacity of Spanish-speaking adults 60 years of age and older; a test that is not affected by level of education. The factors measured in the Cabán minimental are: orientation, visual and motor coordination, learning, recent memory and abstraction. The validation process underwent two phases. During the first one, the Cabán test was subjected to construct validation and internal and predictive consistency tests. The second stage comprised a comparison between the Cabán and Folstein minimentals. The Cabán showed a statistically significant difference to discriminate for subjects with dementia. Results also suggest that the Cabán is not as much affected as the Folstein by differences in education.

Factores relacionados con el uso del mamograma de cernimiento en mujeres de edad mediana en Puerto Rico / Factors related with the use of screening mammogram in middle age women in Puerto Rico

Mammography for low-income women is an important intervention issue as it is still under utilized in these sectors. Despite evidence in favor of breast cancer screening with mammograms, research indicates that mammogram compliance among low-income females and women over 50 years of age has been slow. This article revolves around the factors that affect compliance with screening mammograms among low-income women ages 40 to 64 in Puerto Rico once they receive a referral from a physician. Although the multivariate analysis demonstrated that only age, work outside of the home and performing breast self-exams significantly increased the probability for middle-aged, low-income women in Puerto Rico to comply with referrals and have mammograms, this research illustrated that certain factors such as knowledge about the disease and screening practices, a satisfactory perception of the patient-physician relationship, and the performance of a clinical breast exam by a physician influence mammogram compliance.

Poverty, prenatal care, and infant health in Puerto Rico.

Using data from a survey administered to a representative sample of mothers who gave birth in Puerto Rico in 1994-95, we investigate whether prenatal care and infant health outcomes are associated with family poverty and neighborhood poverty. The results show that infant health outcomes are unrelated to both family poverty and neighborhood poverty, despite the association of family poverty with the adequacy of prenatal care and the content of prenatal care. However, the poverty paradigm does receive some support using measures of participation in government programs that serve the low-income population. Women who rely on the government to fund their medical care are more likely than women who rely on private health insurance to have an infant death. They are also less likely to receive the highest levels of prenatal care. Nonetheless, targeted government programs can have an ameliorative impact. The analysis shows that participants in the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program are more likely than non-participants to receive superior levels of prenatal care and are less likely to have negative infant health outcomes.

[Intents to delegitimatize the right to abortion in Puerto Rico]. / Los intentos de deslegitimación del derecho al aborto en Puerto Rico.

Analysis of the access to abortion in Puerto Rico is important because, together with Cuba, they are the only countries where abortion is legal in Latin America. This article analyzes the socio-political trends of the debate and discourses through which the discussion of the pro-option and antiabortion sectors have developed in the current situation of Puertorican law and their links with the arguments of those sectors in the United States. Even in this framework of legality, the right to abortion in Puerto Rico has been the object of a process of attacks by the antiabortion sectors that has limited its exercise, and it continues to be a taboo and polemical matter; maybe tolerated, but questioned and undermined as a right, and as a result, delegitimized. The Island situation makes it possible to consider that eradicating the legal prohibition of the practice is not a sufficient element for abortion to become a social need and a right of women in their own conscience, in public opinion and in state interventions.