BMJ Ment Health
January 2025
Background: Stressful life events (SLEs) are associated with increased risk of depression or anxiety. Coping mechanisms may moderate this relationship but little is known on this topic in young people or in Latin America.
Aim: To investigate whether coping strategies predict odds of depression and/or anxiety and moderate the relationship between SLEs and depression and/or anxiety in young people in Peru, Lima and Bogotá.
Alzheimers Dement
December 2024
Background: Peru does not have official prevalence data of dementia, however, particular studies indicate that in urban areas 6.85% of the population over 65 years of age has it. Countries such as Peru have significant drivers of the condition such as low socio-economic (monetary poverty 27.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Dementia is a complex health condition that poses challenges not only to people living with dementia (PLWD) but to their families, the health system and society as a whole. Even though there is still no cure for dementia, different interventions are showing substantial contribution. mHealth-based assistive technology has shown the potential to provide efficient healthcare for PLWD and their caregivers in cognitive training, health and safety monitoring, educational support, and socialization.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn its efforts to reduce increasing rates of obesity and nutrition-related noncommunicable diseases, Peru implemented front-of-package (FOP) warning labels (also called warnings) on processed and ultra-processed foods in June 2019. The goal was to inform consumers about high levels of sugars, saturated fats, sodium, and trans fats in packaged products. We designed a qualitative study to reveal the recall, understanding, and use of the warnings and to explore the perceived changes in purchasing behaviors among mothers of preschool children in Peru.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Latin American youth have a high prevalence of mental health disorders and face major socioeconomic and public safety problems. This study assesses the association between stressful life events (SLEs) and depression, anxiety, and quality of life among adolescents and young adults from deprived neighbourhoods of Latin America.
Methods: The sample consisted of 2,402 participants, between adolescents (15-16 years) and young adults (20-24 years), from Bogotá (Colombia), Buenos Aires (Argentina), and Lima (Peru), assessed in 2021-2022 and recruited in education and community settings and social media.
Reducing anxiety and depression in adolescents is a global health priority. Personal and social resources (e.g.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: This study aims to identify factors associated with excessive screen time among preschoolers in Lima, Peru.
Methods: Cross-sectional analysis from a 2019 panel study in Lima, Peru, was conducted focusing on women, aged 18 and above, who are mothers of 3- to 5-year-olds in mid-high and mid-low districts. There were two outcome variables: excessive TV and excessive electronic devices screen time, defined as ≥ 1 h of screen exposure for each one.
Aim: 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.
Background: The co-occurrence of chronic diseases and acute infectious events exacerbates disability and diminishes quality of life, yet research in Low- and Middle-Income countries is scarce. We aimed to investigate the relationship between infectious events and multimorbidity in resource-constrained settings.
Methods: We conducted a sequential mixed-method study in Lima and Tumbes, Peru, with participants having multimorbidity from the CRONICAS Cohort Study.
Objective.: 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.
Purpose: Working mothers are at greater risk for postpartum depression. Maternity leave characteristics, including length, wage replacement and employment protection, could have relevant implications for mothers' mental health. We propose to explore whether there is an association between maternity leave characteristics and postpartum depression.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: 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.
Nutritional warnings are used as a public health strategy to address obesity. Peru approved in 2013 and implemented in 2019 a law requiring nutritional warnings on the marketing and packaging of processed foods high in sugar, sodium, saturated fat, and containing trans-fat. The complexity behind the design and approval of these policies over six years provides unique learnings, that inform the obesity prevention context, especially when proposed policies face strong opposition from powerful stakeholders.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: This study aimed to conduct a process evaluation of a salt substitute trial conducted in Peru.
Methods: Through semi-structured interviews of intervention participants, we documented and analyzed process evaluation variables as defined by the Medical Research Council Framework. This study was a stepped wedge trial conducted in Tumbes, Peru in 2014.
The SALURBAL (Urban Health in Latin America) Project is an interdisciplinary multinational network aimed at generating and disseminating actionable evidence on the drivers of health in cities of Latin America. We conducted a temporal multilayer network analysis where we measured cohesion over time using network structural properties and assessed diversity within and between different project activities according to participant attributes. Between 2017 and 2020 the SALURBAL network comprised 395 participants across 26 countries, 23 disciplines, and 181 institutions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe sale of ultra-processed products has increased in Latin America in recent years, as well as the prevalence of overweight and obesity. In Peru, Law No. 30021 passed in an attempt to reduce overweight and obesity in children and adolescents; however, the development of this law was characterized by constant modifications to the documents prepared in this regard.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnlabelled: We sought to explore mental health and psychosocial impact among young people (18 to 24 years old) in Bogotá during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Methods: We carried a cross sectional study using a web-based survey to assess mental health and personal impact among 18 to 24 years old living in Bogotá during the first 4 months of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. The depressive symptoms were measured with PHQ-8 and anxiety symptoms with (GAD-7).
Front-of-package warning label (FOPWL) policies incentivize the food industry to reduce the content of regulated nutrients in products. We explored changes in the content of nutrients of concern (sugar, saturated fat, trans fat, and sodium) and the percentage of products in the Peruvian food supply that would carry a FOPWL before and after Peru’s implementation of FOPWLs. Longitudinal data on the top-selling foods and beverages (n = 94) were collected at three time points: three months before the implementation of the policy, four months after, and two years after.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Sugar-sweetened beverage consumption is associated with obesity and chronic disease. In 2018, Peru increased the tax on high-sugar beverages (≥6 g of sugar per 100 mL) from 17 to 25%, yet little is known about pre-existing beverage trends or demographic characteristics associated with purchases in the country. The aim of this study was to explore beverage purchasing trends from 2016 to 2017 and examine variation in purchase volume by sociodemographic characteristics among urban households in Peru.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Environ Res Public Health
November 2022
Background: Arts-based methodologies can be beneficial to identify different representations of stigmatized topics such as mental health conditions. This study used a theater-based workshop to describe manifestations, representations, and potential causes of depression and anxiety as perceived by adolescents and young adults.
Methods: The theater company conducted three online sessions with a group of adolescents and another with a group of young adults from Lima, Peru.
Background: Gender inequality is high in Latin America (LA). Empowering girls and young women and reducing gender gaps has been proposed as a pathway to reduce adolescent pregnancy. We investigated the associations of urban measures of women's empowerment and gender inequality with adolescent birth rates (ABR) in 366 Latin American cities in nine countries.
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