Community engagement, personal responsibility and self help in Cuba's health system reform.

In 2011 the Cuban health system began a process of sectoral reform to maintain and improve the health of Cuba's population, in response to new challenges and demands in the health sector and population health status. The main actions involved are reorganization, consolidation and regionalization of services and resources. Although community engagement and personal responsibility are not explicitly mentioned in the strategy document, it is advisable to use this opportunity to revitalize both topics and encourage appropriate and full incorporation into the Cuban health system.

Quantifying risk: verbal probability expressions in Spanish and English.

Objective: To investigate how Spanish- and English-speaking adults interpret verbal probability expressions presented in Spanish and English (eg, posiblemente and possibly, respectively).

Method: Professional translators and university students from México and the United States read a series of likelihood statements in Spanish or English and then estimated the certainty implied by each statement.

Results: Several terms that are regarded as cognates in English and Spanish elicited significantly different likelihood ratings.