[A front-of-pack labelling system for food and beverages for Mexico: a strategy of healthy decision-making.] / Sistema de etiquetado frontal de alimentos y bebidas para México: una estrategia para la toma de decisiones saludables.

The Mexican Ministry of Health requested the National Institute of Public Health to constitute a group of independent, free of conflict-of-interest academic experts on front-of-pack labelling (FOP). This group was instructed to created a positioning paper to contribute to the development of a FOP system for industrialized products that offers useful information for purchase decision making. This position paper uses the best available scientific evidence, and recommendations from experts of international organizations. The FOP proposal focuses on the contents of energy, nutrients, ingredients and components that if consumed in excess on the diet, can be harmful to people's health, such as added sugars, sodium, total fat, saturated fat and energy. The academic expert group recommends the implementation of a FOP that provides an easy way to quickly assess the quality of a product. It is essential that this FOP provides direct, simple, visible and easily understandable information.

La Secretaría de Salud solicitó al Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública la conformación de un grupo de expertos académicos en etiquetado de alimentos y bebidas, independientes y libres de conflictos de interés, que tuvieran la encomienda de emitir una postura para contribuir al desarrollo de un sistema de etiquetado frontal para productos industrializados que proporcione información útil para facilitar la decisión de compra. La postura utiliza la mejor evidencia científica disponible y recomendaciones de expertos convocados por organismos internacionales. Así, la propuesta de etiquetado frontal se centra en el contenido de energía, nutrimentos, ingredientes y componentes cuyo exceso en la dieta puede ser perjudicial para la salud, como azúcares añadidos, sodio, grasas totales, grasas saturadas y energía. El grupo recomienda implementar un etiquetado frontal que, de forma sencilla, permita evaluar de manera rápida la calidad de un producto al momento de realizar una compra; por ello, es indispensable que éste proporcione información directa, sencilla, visible y fácil de entender.

Socio-Urban Spatial Patterns Associated with Dyslipidemia among Schoolchildren in the City of San Luis Potosi, Mexico.

The places where a child lives and attends to school are both major environmental and social determinants of its present and future health status. Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and some of their risk factors among child and adolescent populations are obesity and dyslipidemia, so finding the patterns of distribution of these risk factors by gender, type of school, area, and margination level is important to do health intervention focusing in their necessities to prevent diseases at younger ages. Because of that, a cross-sectional study was performed among elementary and junior high school students from public and private schools in six of the seven areas of the metropolitan zone of San Luis Potosi, Mexico. Biochemical dyslipidemia indicators (triglycerides, total cholesterol, and high-density lipoprotein) and anthropometric data (weight and height) were obtained. Seventeen public schools and five private schools with a total of 383 students were included. More than half of the studied population (53.0%) had elevated triglyceride levels. A total of 330 students (86.2%) had normal levels of total cholesterol with a mean value of 141.7 mg/dl, and 202 schoolchildren (52.8%) had lower than acceptable levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) with a mean value of 43.9 mg/dl. There were differences in the levels of high-density protein between the areas and the type of school where they had been studied. Finally, a total of 150 students (39.4%) had at least one altered lipid value and 103 participants (26.9%) had two altered values. Several students, despite their young age, showed a high prevalence of risk factors, so it is important to design programs according to their necessities.

Association between migration and physical activity of school-age children left behind in rural Mexico.

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to explore in rural communities of Mexico, the association between physical activity (PA) in school-age children and exposure to migration. METHODS: We measured PA through a questionnaire validated in school-age children and used in Mexican National Surveys. Migration status was measured as the number of years a family member had been in the US, and the amount of remittances that family member had sent to their household in Mexico. We used multivariable linear regression to measure the association between physical activity and migration. RESULTS: School-age children who had a migrant family member spent less time on PA per day, especially recreation activities, compared to school-age children without the migrating influence. Also, children who belonged to a family that received remittances and their migrant relative lived ≥ 5 years in US were less likely to engage in PA. CONCLUSIONS: Exposure to migration may predict reduction in PA in school-age children left behind in Mexican rural communities from the State of Morelos. These findings call for PA-tailored interventions that consider household migration characteristics.