The Study of Cardiovascular Risk in Adolescents (Portuguese acronym, “ERICA”) is a multicenter, school-based country-wide cross-sectional study funded by the Brazilian Ministry of Health, which aims at estimating the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors, including those included in the definition of the metabolic syndrome, in a random sample of adolescents aged 12 to 17 years in Brazilian cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants. Approximately 85,000 students were assessed in public and private schools. Brazil is a continental country with a heterogeneous population of 190 million living in its five main geographic regions (North, Northeast, Midwest, South and Southeast). ERICA is a pioneering study that will assess the prevalence rates of cardiovascular risk factors in Brazilian adolescents using a sample with national and regional representativeness. This paper describes the rationale, design and procedures of ERICA. Participants answered a self-administered questionnaire using an electronic device, in order to obtain information on demographic and lifestyle characteristics, including physical activity, smoking, alcohol intake, sleeping hours, common mental disorders and reproductive and oral health. Dietary intake was assessed using a 24-hour dietary recall. Anthropometric measures (weight, height and waist circumference) and blood pressure were also be measured. Blood was collected from a subsample of approximately 44,000 adolescents for measurements of fasting glucose, total cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, triglycerides, glycated hemoglobin and fasting insulin. The study findings will be instrumental to the development of public policies aiming at the prevention of obesity, atherosclerotic diseases and diabetes in an adolescent population.

O estudo verificou a associação entre perda auditiva induzida por ruído (PAIR) e queixa de zumbido em trabalhadores expostos ao ruído ocupacional. Foram entrevistados e avaliados trabalhadores com histórico de exposição ao ruído ocupacional atendidos em dois ambulatórios de audiologia. Estudou-se a existência de associação entre PAIR e ocorrência de zumbido por intermédio do ajuste de modelo de regressão logística, tendo como variável dependente o zumbido e como variável independente a PAIR, classificada em seis graus, controlada pelas co-variáveis idade e tempo de exposição ao ruído. Os dados foram coletados entre abril e outubro de 2003, na Cidade de Bauru, Estado de São Paulo, Brasil, contemplando 284 trabalhadores. Estimou-se que a prevalência de zumbido aumenta de acordo com a evolução do dano auditivo, controlado para a idade e tempo de exposição ao ruído. Os achados justificam o investimento em programas de conservação auditiva particularmente voltados para o controle da emissão de ruídos na fonte e para a intervenção na evolução das perdas auditivas geradas pela exposição ao ruído visando à manutenção da saúde auditiva e à diminuição dos sintomas associados.

Methods by which the population should be informed when going through a pandemic such as COVID-19 have been questioned because of its influence on the adoption of preventive measures and its effects on mental health. Non-health workers are at risk of psychological distress from exposure to contaminated people or materials or by having to stay at home and adapt their activity to telework. The objective of the study is to analyze information the public receives about COVID-19 and its influence on their level of distress. For this, 1089 questionnaires from non-health workers were collected online between 26 March and 26 April 2020 in Spain, and analysed and distributed by snowball effect. 492 participants carried out essential activities away from home, and 597 did so from home. They were surveyed about information received about COVID-19 regarding its source, time, assessment, or the beliefs expressed in it. Mental health was also measured with Goldberg’s General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12). The classification and regression tree (CART) method was used to design a binary tree with sample cases. It has been found that the time spent learning about COVID-19 and the level of knowledge about symptoms, pathways, prevention, treatment, or prognosis are associated with the level of distress, where 25% of participants were found to have spent more than 3 h daily on this activity. Social media and television are the most widely used sources, but they are considered to be of lower quality and usefulness than official sources. There is greater confidence in healthcare professionals than in the health system, and the main concern of those working away from home is spreading the virus to family members. It has been concluded that there is a need to enhance quality and truthful information on the Internet for non-health workers due to its accessibility, which should be constantly updated, a fact which international and national public bodies, research centers, and journal publishers have begun to understand during the current pandemic. Such quality information is needed to combat distress.

This pandemic has been classified as a “psychological pandemic” that produces anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and sleep disorders. As the mental health effects of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by SARS-CoV-2, continue to unfold, there are still large knowledge gaps about the variables that predispose individuals to, or protect individuals against the disease. However, there are few publications on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of citizens in Latin American countries. In this study, the effects that COVID-19 had on citizens of Peru have been described. For this, 1699 questionnaires, collected between 2 April and 2 September 2020, were analyzed. Descriptive, bivariate analysis was performed with odds ratio (OR) calculations and a data mining methodology. Sociodemographic variables (from the General Health Questionnaire), health conditions and perception, symptoms, and variables related to contact and preventive measures regarding COVID-19 were analyzed. As compared to other countries, less affectation of mental health and increased use of preventive measures were observed. It has been suggested that the country’s precarious health system and poverty rates prior to the pandemic may justify higher mortality figures in Peru than in other Latin American countries, despite prompt action for its containment and compliance with the protective measures. Psychological distress had a greater incidence in women, young people, people without a partner, and people without university studies. The most significant conditioning variables were self-perceived health status, headache or muscle pain over the past 14 days, level of studies, and age. The extensive use of preventive measures against COVID-19 is in line with the strict legislative measures taken, and this is, in turn, in line with other countries when looking at the lower effect on mental health, but contrary when focusing on the high lethality identified. The need to include the economy or availability and quality of healthcare in future studies arises, as well as the suitability to analyze the cause for differences between countries.