Cross-cultural invariance of the Spanish version of the COVID-19 Assessment Scorecard to measure the perception of government actions against COVID-19 in Latin America.

Objectives: The present study aimed to evaluate the measurement invariance of a general measure of the perception of governmental responses to COVID-|19 (COVID-SCORE-10) in the general population of 13 Latin American countries.

Methods: A total of 5780 individuals from 13 Latin American and Caribbean countries selected by non-probabilistic snowball sampling participated. A confirmatory factor analysis was performed and the alignment method was used to evaluate invariance.

Assessment of Obsessive Thoughts About COVID-19 in 7 Latin American Countries: Structure and Measurement Invariance of the Obsession With COVID-19 Scale.

The present study aimed to evaluate the measurement invariance of the Obsession with COVID-19 Scale (OCS) among seven Latin American countries: Bolivia, Brazil, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Paraguay, and Uruguay. Although the OCS has been used in several countries and languages, there is a need for approaches that better integrate the cross-cultural equivalence of the scale. A total of 3185 people participated in the study.

Simplified Green's function for surface waves in quasi-incompressible elastic plates with application to elastography.

Surface wave elastography is a growing method to estimate the elasticity in soft solids. It is particularly useful in the case of agrifoods like meat, cheese, or fruits because it does not require major infrastructure or large equipment and could be developed in portable devices. However, estimating the shear elastic properties from surface wave measurements is not straightforward.

Psychological distress among undergraduate medical students: the influence of excessive daytime sleepiness and family functioning.

Mental health problems among undergraduate medical students is a well-known issue; however, their associated risk factors have been poorly studied. We aimed to assess the hypothesis that medical students have a higher prevalence of psychological distress and to explain this prevalence considering common risk factors for mental disorders. This was a cross-sectional, questionnaire-based descriptive study conducted with 467 Colombian undergraduate medical students from different years of training.

Mismatch between perceived family and individual chronotype and their association with sleep-wake patterns.

While social zeitgebers are known to shape diurnal preference, little research has been devoted to determining the contribution of the familiar group chronotype as social zeitgeber on individual circadian rhythms and sleep-wake patterns in adult subjects. The current study aimed to examine the matching between perceived family chronotype and individual chronotype and their relationship with sleep-wake patterns on weekdays and weekends, diurnal subjective somnolence, and substance consumption. Nine hundred and forty-two Colombian adults completed the Composite Scale of Morningness, the Epworth Sleepiness Scale, and responded to a questionnaire about circadian preferences of their family nucleus.

Mood rhythmicity is associated with depressive symptoms and caffeinated drinks consumption in South American young adults.

Among the factors that contribute to the onset and maintenance of depressive disorders, rhythmicity of symptoms and consumption of caffeine have recently gained attention. The current study aimed to examine the differential rhythmicity of relevant variables in a sample of young participants, considering the presence of depressive symptomatology and the frequency of caffeinated drinks consumption. A significant 24-hour differential rhythmicity of mood, cognitive and physiological variables was found indicating an evening peak pattern in the participants with depressive symptoms.

Anxiety symptomatology, sex and chronotype: The mediational effect of diurnal sleepiness.

Diurnal subjective sleepiness has been associated with a large number of negative outcomes, such as increased risk of accidents and development of mental disorders as depression and anxiety. However, the role of the diurnal subjective sleepiness as a mediator is poorly understood. The goal of the present study was to examine the role of diurnal subjective sleepiness as a mediator of the relationship between sex, chronotype and anxiety symptoms in healthy young adults.

No Association of BDNF, COMT, MAOA, SLC6A3, and SLC6A4 Genes and Depressive Symptoms in a Sample of Healthy Colombian Subjects.

Background. Major depressive disorder (MDD) is the second cause of years lived with disability around the world. A large number of studies have been carried out to identify genetic risk factors for MDD and related endophenotypes, mainly in populations of European and Asian descent, with conflicting results.

Study of a Functional Polymorphism in the PER3 Gene and Diurnal Preference in a Colombian Sample.

Polymorphisms in human clock genes have been evaluated as potential factors influencing circadian phenotypes in several populations. There are conflicting results for the association of a VNTR in the PER3 gene and diurnal preference in different studies. The objective of this study was to investigate the association between diurnal preference and daytime somnolence with the PER3 VNTR polymorphism (rs57875989) in healthy subjects from Colombia, a Latin American population.

A functional polymorphism in the promoter region of MAOA gene is associated with daytime sleepiness in healthy subjects.

Excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) is one of the main causes of car and industrial accidents and it is associated with increased morbidity and alterations in quality of life. Prevalence of EDS in the general population around the world ranges from 6.2 to 32.

A novel association of two non-synonymous polymorphisms in PER2 and PER3 genes with specific diurnal preference subscales.

The circadian system is responsible for the generation and maintenance of physiological and behavioral rhythms in mammals and allows synchronization with the environment. Different polymorphisms in clock genes have been studied in healthy humans, providing inconsistent results in different populations. In this study, we evaluated the possibility that two non-synonymous polymorphisms in PER2 (p.

Common functional polymorphisms in SLC6A4 and COMT genes are associated with circadian phenotypes in a South American sample.

The molecular study of circadian rhythms in humans could be an excellent approach to understand the relation between genes and behavior. It is possible that variations in genes involved in neurotransmission and/or synaptic plasticity, such as catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) and serotonin transporter (SLC6A4) could be of particular interest in understanding human circadian phenotypes. The aim of this study is to analyze the possible and novel associations of the functional polymorphisms in COMT and SLC6A4 genes (Val158Met and 5-HTTLPR) and circadian phenotypes in healthy Colombian subjects.