[Breast cancer trends in Latin America and the Caribbean].

Unlabelled: Breast cancer is currently the most significant cause of death from malignancies in Latin American women, including cervical cancer.

Objective: Describe the magnitude and spatial-temporal distribution of breast cancer in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) from 1979-2005.

Material And Methods: National and international incidence and mortality statistics were reviewed and organized (registries, databases, and published literature), basic estimators and mortality ratios for each country were calculated and trends were analyzed.

[Is it possible to improve the death registries in Mexico?].

Regarding death registries, Mexico has more than one hundred years of experience. However, to date we have been unable to solve the problem of filling out correctly infant and maternal death certificates. The need to have a comprehensive death registry system as described in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) led the Health Information Office at the Ministry of Health, in 2002, to initiate an "intentional search of maternal and infant deaths" at the national level in order to decrease the problems associated with misclassification of deaths.

[Burden of disease in the aged, Mexico, 1994].

Objective: To estimate the disability adjusted life years lost (DALYs) in population over 60 years of age in Mexico during 1994.

Material And Methods: Years of life lost due to premature mortality (YLL) and years lived with disability (YLD) were estimated for 108 diseases, both sexes, and 32 states of the Mexican Republic divided in rural and urban areas in the population over 60 years of age, using the methodology originally proposed by Murray and López adapted to specific local characteristics. The inputs used were: mortality statistics for 1994 (after corrections of under-registration and misclassification), statistics on incidence and prevalence from local epidemiological studies, national health surveys and estimates by the authors.

Mortality from cervical carcinoma in Mexico: impact of screening, 1980-1990.

Objective: To determine the temporal mortality trends of uterine cervical cancer in Mexico for the period 1980-1990.

Study Design: In Mexico, data from death certificates are collected in a national repository at the National Institute of Statistics, Geography and Informatics. These data were analyzed to obtain mortality trends, and regional variations were obtained for the same period using a Poisson regression model.

[Mother's work and severity of accidental injuries in children].

A study was conducted in children under five years old, in order to establish the association between the mother's work and the severity of unintentional injuries. The study was carried out at the emergency room of six pediatric hospitals in Mexico City. Cases were children with major injuries that required hospitalization, intensive care, surgery, or who died as a result of the injury.