Risk of violence from a current or former partner: Associated factors and classification in a nationwide study in Colombia.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) includes assaults that risk a woman's bodily integrity. Intimate partners commit IPV, people with whom the victim shares (or shared) a close personal or sexual relationship. This phenomenon has a great global and national impact. Thus, it is necessary to establish trends of the risk of physical violence to women by their current or former partner in each department of Colombia and its relationship with sociodemographic and health characteristics. This study uses an ecological approach at the departmental level, with victims of intimate partner violence treated at the National Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences (INMLyCF). Potential factors were identified through Bayesian factor analysis and were included in the model to estimate risk. The findings show that the Casanare department had the highest risk of producing victims (SMR: 2.545). In departments where the educational level of women is at or below primary school, there is a high-risk ß = 0.343 (0.285, 0.397) of them being assaulted. For the departments in which the employment of women is in sales and services or office workers, the associated factor presents a higher risk ß = 0.361 (0.201, 0.485), as in the risk related to affiliation with the social security system ß = 0.338 (0.246, 0.498), as well as sexual and reproductive life ß = 0.143 (0.003, 0.322). The following categories were associated with physical gender violence: no education and low participation in making purchases at home ß = 0.106 (0.049, 0.199), low participation in decisions about their health, and visits to family and friends ß = 0.240 (0.170, 0.299). Therefore, public health programs should strengthen women's empowerment in household decisions and increase their educational level to reduce this incidence.

Salud y Medio Ambiente: estrategias metodológicas para valorar el impacto de los daños ambientales sobre la salud / Health and Environment: Methodological Strategies to Assess the Impact of Environmental Damage on Health

Este artículo presenta distintas metodologías utilizadas para valorar los impactos que la contaminación ambiental tiene sobre la salud de la población y algunos resultados de los estudios más destacados en el tema. Estos impactos, denominados desde la economía como externalidades, cobran importancia, dado que cuando se toman las decisiones de inversión −como el tipo de tecnología utilizada en un proceso de producción o la ubicación de una planta eléctrica- es evidente que a la sociedad le interesará saber los impactos que se generarán sobre el ambiente y la salud, por tanto, al final se deberán incluir esos efectos externos en el proceso de toma de decisiones. No obstante, la estimación de los efectos de la contaminación sobre la salud trae consigo un alto grado de incertidumbre. Una parte importante de esa incertidumbre no es de carácter científico sino de los resultados de elecciones éticas y por el desconocimiento del futuro. Todo esto implica un análisis de sistemas multidisciplinarios, con aportes de los ingenieros, salubristas, epidemiólogos, ecólogos y economistas.

This paper aims to present different methodologies used to assess the impact of environmental pollution on the health of the population, and some results that have been addressed by the most important studies on the subject. These impacts, known as externalities in economics, become important because when investment decisions are taken, such as the type of technology used in a production process or the location of an electrically plant, it is clear that the society will be interested to know the impacts generated on the environment and health, thus eventually these external effects must be included on the decision-making process. However, the estimation of the effects of pollution on health has a high degree of uncertainty. An important part of that uncertainty is not scientific, but derives from the results of ethical choices and lack of awareness of the future. All this implies a multidisciplinary systems analysis, with input from engineers, public health professionals, epidemiologists, ecologists and economists.