Background: The introduction of natural language processing (NLP) technologies has significantly enhanced the potential of self-administered interventions for treating anxiety and depression by improving human-computer interactions. Although these advances, particularly in complex models such as generative artificial intelligence (AI), are highly promising, robust evidence validating the effectiveness of the interventions remains sparse.
Objective: The aim of this study was to determine whether self-administered interventions based on NLP models can reduce depressive and anxiety symptoms.
Background: The costs associated with healthcare are of critical importance to both decision-makers and users, given the limited resources allocated to the health sector. However, the available scientific evidence on healthcare costs in low- and middle-income countries, such as Peru, is scarce. In the Peruvian context, the health system is fragmented, and the private health insurance and its financing models have received less research attention.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The COVID-19 pandemic led to a global reduction in health care accessibility for both infected and noninfected patients, posing a particular burden on those with chronic conditions, including mental health issues. Peru experienced significant devastation from the pandemic, resulting in a collapsed health care system and leading to the world's highest per capita mortality rate as a result of COVID-19. Understanding the trends in health care utilization, particularly in mental health care, is crucial for informing pandemic response efforts and guiding future recovery strategies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAim: To describe the perceptions and experiences of key stakeholders to understand the use of telehealth in community mental health centers (CMHCs) during the COVID-19 pandemic in Lima and Callao, Peru.
Methods: A qualitative study was carried out in four CMHCs in Lima and Callao, Peru. Forty-nine individual semi-structured interviews were conducted between September 2021 and March 2022, considering CMHCs' users and their relatives, health and administrative workers, directors, as well as local and national policymakers.
Front Psychol
May 2024
Background: Online psychological interventions have emerged as a treatment alternative because they are accessible, flexible, personalized, and available to large populations. The number of Internet interventions in Latin America is limited, as are Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) of their effectiveness and a few studies comparing their effectiveness in multiple countries at the same time. We have developed an online intervention, Well-being Online, which will be available to the public free of charge in 7 countries: Mexico, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Brazil, Spain, and the Netherlands.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Burnout syndrome (BS) is a prevalent occupational health problem in health professionals. To describe the prevalence and factors associated with BS in Peruvian health professionals.
Method: A systematic review and meta-analysis were performed.
Background: Depression significantly impacts quality of life, affecting approximately 280 million people worldwide. However, only 16.5% of those affected receive treatment, indicating a substantial treatment gap.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Abdominal obesity (AO) is characterised by excess adipose tissue. It is a metabolic risk that affects the physical and mental health, particularly in women since they are more prone to mental health problems like depression. This study investigated the association between AO and depressive symptoms in Peruvian women of reproductive age (18-49 years).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Anxiety disorders are among the main mental health problems worldwide and are considered one of the most disabling conditions. Therefore, it is essential to have measurement tools that can be used to screen for anxiety symptoms in the general population and thus identify potential cases of people with anxiety symptoms and provide them with timely care. Our aim was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the General Anxiety Disorder-7 scale (GAD-7) in the Peruvian population.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDuring the pandemic, many individuals with chronic or infectious diseases other than COVID-19 were unable to receive the care they needed due to the high demand for respiratory care. Our study aims to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on services provided to people with chronic diseases in Peru from 2016 to 2022. We performed a secondary database analysis of data registered by the comprehensive health insurance (SIS), the intangible solidarity health fund (FISSAL), and private healthcare institutions (EPS), using interrupted time series analysis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Systematic reviews suggest that animal-assisted therapy (AAT) and pet-robot interventions (PRI) achieve a reduction in mental health variables such as depressive symptoms. However, these systematic reviews include both randomised and non-randomised studies, which prevents an adequate assessment of the effect of confounding variables.
Objective: This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to evaluate the comparative effectiveness of AAT and PRI through randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in reducing depression in older adults.
Background: During the first wave of the pandemic, a constant concern of healthcare workers, who are more vulnerable to contagion, is their personal safety. This is directly related to the availability of adequate PPE, which led to a perception of dissatisfaction and inequality with government responses. We aim t o determines whether perception of adequate PPE availability is associated with depressive, anxiety, and stress symptoms in different types of healthcare workers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe COVID-19 pandemic has had a major impact on family relationships, as several families have lost family members due to COVID-19 pandemic and become physically and emotionally estranged due to lockdown measures and critically economic periods. Our study contrasted two hypotheses: (1) family functioning changed notably before and after the COVID-19 pandemic initiation in terms of cohesion, flexibility, communication and satisfaction; (2) balanced families have a greater capacity to strictly comply with quarantine (., social confinement), compared to unbalanced families.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGovernments globally deployed various non-pharmacological public health measures to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic (i.e. lockdowns and suspension of transportation, amongst others); some of these measures had an influence on society's mental health.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective.: To understand the experiences of new and continuing users of Community Mental Health Centers (CMHC) of Lima and Callao, and their relatives, regarding the mental health care they received during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Materials And Methods.
Objective: To evaluate the factors associated with food insecurity (FI) among Venezuelan migrants residing in Peru. Secondarily, to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES).
Design: A cross-sectional study based on secondary data analysis of the 2022 Venezuelan Population Residing in Peru Survey (ENPOVE-2022, from the Spanish acronym) was conducted.
Family violence is a critical public health problem in Latin America. In Peru, family violence continues to be difficult to detect and prevent, with child-to-parent violence (CPV) arising as a key issue. This study aimed to do a psychometric adaptation of a brief scale of evaluation of CPV and intrafamily violence in a sample of Peruvian adolescents.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Human actions have influenced climate changes around the globe, causing extreme weather phenomena and impacting communities worldwide. Climate change has caused, directly or indirectly, health effects such as injury and physical injuries, which impact morbidity and mortality. Similarly, there is evidence that exposure to climatic catastrophes has serious repercussions on psychological well-being, and rising temperatures and drought have detrimental effects on mental health.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Mental health data from Latin America and the Caribbean countries (LACC) national and international surveys are essential for public health surveillance. This review aimed to identify and describe available mental health survey data in LACC, providing access details for researchers.
Methods: Our study was a scoping review.
BMJ Open
September 2023
Objectives: The Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ) and Generalised Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD) are widely used screening tools, but their sensitivity and specificity in low-income and middle-income countries are lower than in high-income countries. We conducted a study to determine the sensitivity and specificity of different versions of these scales in a Peruvian hospital population.
Design: Our study has a cross-sectional design.
Background: A consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic was that the provision of mental health services was reduced in several countries around the world, while the demand for mental health services increased.
Aims: Our study aims to determine any variation in the number of users served, health appointments, and care activities conducted at 58 Peruvian community mental health centers (CMHCs) between March 2019 and October 2021.
Methods: Our study used an observational design and analyzed information from the care provided in CMHCs.
Background: The long-lasting impact of the COVID-19 pandemic cannot be overstated. To combat its dire consequences, some screening measures have been hastily developed and require robust verification to explore their adequacy across different groups. The present research study aimed to analyze measurement invariance by sociodemographic characteristics of the Coronavirus Reassurance Seeking Behavior Scale (CRSB) in Peruvian adults.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground Profiles of depressive symptoms have been described due to heterogeneity in symptomatology and presentation. In our study, we estimate depressive symptom profiles and relate these symptom profiles to risk factors in the Peruvian population. Methods We carried out an observational study based on the Peruvian Demographic and Health Survey (2014-2022).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSoc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol
September 2023
Purpose: The COVID-19 pandemic increased the burden of mental disorders worldwide. Peru has been one of the countries most affected by COVID-19, however, studies evaluating the medium and long-term consequences of the pandemic on Peruvians' mental health are recent and represent a new field of study in proliferation. We aimed to estimate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the prevalence and treatment of depressive symptoms using nationally representative surveys in Peru.
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