Zinc for prevention and treatment of the common cold.

Background: The common cold is an acute, self-limiting viral respiratory illness. Symptoms include nasal congestion and mucus discharge, sneezing, sore throat, cough, and general malaise. Given the frequency of colds, they are a public health burden and a significant cause of lost work productivity and school absenteeism.

Depressive symptoms among Peruvian adult residents amidst a National Lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background: Population health and well-being in Latin America, the current epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic, has been severely affected during the past semester. Despite the growing evidence about the link between the pandemic, its control measures, and mental health worldwide, there is still no regional evidence of the potential mental health impact. We describe the prevalence and distribution of depressive symptoms across demographic and socioeconomic risk factors in the Peruvian population amidst a national lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Social predictors of food insecurity during the stay-at-home order due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Peru. Results from a cross-sectional web-based survey.

Background: Stay-at-home orders and social distancing have been implemented as the primary tools to reduce the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). However, this approach has indirectly lead to the unemployment of 2·3 million Peruvians, in Lima, Perú alone. As a result, the risk of food insecurity may have increased, especially in low-income families who rely on a daily wage.

Emerging mental health challenges, strategies, and opportunities in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic: Perspectives from South American decision-makers.

Objective: To identify emerging mental health problems, strategies to address them, and opportunities to reform mental health systems during the COVID-19 pandemic in South America.

Methods: An online questionnaire was sent to mental health decision-makers of ministries of health in 10 South American countries in mid-April 2020. The semi-structured questionnaire had 12 questions clustered into three main sections: emerging challenges in mental health, current and potential strategies to face the pandemic, and key elements for mental health reform.

Inequalities in access to water and soap matter for the COVID-19 response in sub-Saharan Africa.

The COVID-19 pandemic has spread rapidly since the first case notification of the WHO in December 2019. Lacking an effective treatment, countries have implemented non-pharmaceutical interventions including social distancing measures and have encouraged maintaining adequate and frequent hand hygiene to slow down the disease transmission. Although access to clean water and soap is universal in high-income settings, it remains a basic need many do not have in low- and middle-income settings.

Nonparametric Assessment of Differences Between Competing Risk Hazard Ratios: Application to Racial Differences in Pediatric Chronic Kidney Disease Progression.

Associations between an exposure and multiple competing events are typically described by cause-specific hazard ratios (csHR) or subdistribution hazard ratios (sHR). However, diagnostic tools to assess differences between them have not been described. Under the proportionality assumption for both, it can be shown mathematically that the sHR and csHR must be equal, so reporting different time-constant sHR and csHR implies non-proportionality for at least one.

[Spatial analysis of gestational anemia in Peru, 2015].

Objectives: To establish regional prevalences of anemia in pregnant women receiving care at public clinics in Peru in 2015 and identify high-prevalence district conglomerates.

Materials And Methods: An ecological study was carried out on data from pregnant women with anemia registered on the Nutritional Status Information System (SIEN) who received care in 7703 public clinics in 2015. Regional and district prevalences of gestational anemia were calculated.

[Spatial analysis of childhood obesity and overweight in Peru, 2014].

Objectives.: To estimate regional prevalence and identify the spatial patterns of the degree of overweight and obesity by districts in under five years children in Peru during 2014.

Materials And Methods.

Food Environments around American Indian Reservations: A Mixed Methods Study.

Objectives: To describe the food environments experienced by American Indians living on tribal lands in California.

Methods: Geocoded statewide food business data were used to define and categorize existing food vendors into healthy, unhealthy, and intermediate composite categories. Distance to and density of each of the composite food vendor categories for tribal lands and nontribal lands were compared using multivariate linear regression.

Patient acceptability of and readiness-to-pay for pharmacy-based health membership plans to improve hypertension outcomes in Lima, Peru.

Introduction: Pharmacies have been used to improve population health in Peru and other countries globally, operating as a non-traditional health access point. A pharmacy-based model holds potential to improve patient management of hypertension, a leading risk factor for non-communicable diseases in low- and middle-income countries. The aim of this study was to evaluate patient acceptability of hypertension services and health membership plans, if offered through private pharmacies in the future.

Length of urban residence and obesity among within-country rural-to-urban Andean migrants.

Objective: To evaluate the association between length of residence in an urban area and obesity among Peruvian rural-to-urban migrants.

Design: Cross-sectional database analysis of the migrant group from the PERU MIGRANT Study (2007). Exposure was length of urban residence, analysed as both a continuous (10-year units) and a categorical variable.