Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

Objective: To describe the epidemiology of occupational accidents with exposure to biological material among nurses. Method: Epidemiological, descriptive and retrospective study, involving 102 cases of occupational accidents among nurses. Results: There was a predominance of females (77.4 %); 20 to 29 years of age (58.8 %); and brown skin color (53.9 %). Most of the workers had a work registration (64.7 %). In 68.2% of the cases, the circumstance of the accident was percutaneous exposure and, in 71.5%, by organic material - blood; the main agent was the lumen needle (66.6 %); 44.1 % were wearing gloves and 35.9 % were wearing masks at the time of the accident; (43.2 %) had the case evolution field filled in as ignored/white. Conclusion: Accidents are mostly the result of daily practice actions, such as punctures, although these professionals use protective equipment. Therefore, continuing education on safety at work, coupled with awareness about the relevance of notification is a challenge for the exercise of a safe practice.

Introduction: cervical cancer is responsible for 7% of deaths from some type of cancer in women in the world. In Costa Rica, an average of 320 cases is diagnosed and 140 women die from this disease each year.  Objective: identify barriers to timely detection and treatment of cervical cancer according to healthcare access dimensions in Costa Rica. Methodology: a qualitative systematic review of literature was carried out between May and September 2021. Articles using quantitative, qualitative or both methods published between January 2010 to June 2021 from a primary or secondary source that identified barriers to healthcare access from general population, users or health personnel in Costa Rica were analyzed. Results: 9 scientific articles were selected. The 5 dimensions and 26 barriers of the Tanahashi model were identified: 12 corresponded to the availability, 5 to accessibility, 3 to acceptability, 2 to contact coverage and 4 to effective coverage. Conclusions: the barriers to accessing medical care are multiple and are present in all the dimensions described in the Tanahashi model. The findings of this study highlight the importance of addressing barriers in all dimensions. Addressing some access barriers can be complex. However, other variables are relatively simple to address at the system, policy, or practice level.

Objective: to provide a better understanding of the problems associated with the social management of water in six indigenous communities based on qualitative and quantitative data obtained during the 2020-2021 period. Methodology: a mixed and exploratory research was carried out in which qualitative and quantitative data were obtained. The qualitative data is the result of the workshops carried out within the framework of the research project B9314 “Social management of water in indigenous territories from Visual Sociology. Selected cases in the provinces of Puntarenas and Limón”; while water analyzes are quantitative results obtained from water quality analyses conduct in key spots identified by the community. Results: The analyzes carried out showed that 13 of the 15 water samples collected presented fecal contamination, of predominantly animal origin, however, contamination of anthropic origin was also observed. The workshops carried out in the community indicate that this contamination can be associated with a combination of environmental degradation factors, probably related to the usurpation of land by non-indigenous people, deforestation, population growth, pollution and the lack of effective protection policies. of water sources, both within the territories and at the institutional level, which is aggravated due to the limited effective action of the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers to carry out actions to supply water for human consumption in the case studies. Conclusions: The problems associated with the social management of water in the communities under study are of a multicausal nature and for this reason require multidisciplinary training and support processes to improve the quality of life of indigenous populations.

Introduction: this article addresses the relationship between the gross rates of transmission and the net death rates from COVID-19 -study variables-, with socioeconomic and health indicators -contrast variables- at four moments of observation during the first year of the syndemic in Costa Rica. The objectives of the research work are: a) identify the moments of observation based on the number of accumulated cases per epidemiological week; b) establish the statistical correlation between the crude rates of transmission and the contrast variables; c) establish the statistical correlation between the net death rates and the contrast variables; d) describe the development of transmission and death rates at the cantonal level, and e) socioeconomically characterize the cantons with very high values in those rates. Methodology: a study with a quantitative approach is developed through the statistical method and the application of hypothesis tests at a bivariate level, namely, Pearson and Spearman correlations. Results: the main results indicate that transmission is closely related, mostly, to socioeconomic factors -population density; Social Development Index (IDS); Human Development Index (HDI) and crime rates against property-, while deaths they are related to biological factors such as the rates of diseases -hypertension and respiratory-. Conclusions: the study demonstrates the relationship between disease and social inequalities, that is, how social inequality is reproduced in the field of health.

Introduction: This essay presents the methodology for Group Bonding Nutritional Counseling (GBNC), which has been developed at the School of Nutrition at the University of Costa Rica in recent decades. In relation to GBNC, the objectives are: 1) To present the epistemological foundations; 2) To show the methodology on how to develop the group bonding nutritional counseling; and 3) To describe the desirable soft skills for the facilitator in a group bonding nutritional counseling process. GBNC’s conceptual approach is centered on the patient as a person exercising their autonomy and agency over their life, and how GBNC helps in the resolution of obstacles for better treatment adherence. GBNC´s methodological approach is based on Pichon-Rivière’s operative groups which was adapted for nutritional counseling. Proposition: GBNC goes beyond group interactive nutrition education and includes all the steps to nutritional care, including individual follow ups. GBNC’s methodology has robust theoretical background, as well as adequate settings for its implementation, evaluation, and use.  Arguments for discussion: For the past decades, the School of Nutrition at the University of Costa Rica has developed the methodological framework for GBNC: from its theory foundation, useful soft skills for the facilitator to conduct, guide and support groups to focus on the task, and proficiently to handle the vectors of group dynamics. GBNC is useful for people to work on improving their health as it allows them to face daily barriers they encounter. Conclusions: GBNC has great methodological potential for group support in the treatment of adults with chronic diseases; it is inexpensive and improves time management and human resources in nutritional care.  In addition, it allows patients to exercise their autonomy, agency, and problem-solving skills in a safe space, within the containment of the group and the nutritionist.

Introduction: Nicaraguan immigrant population is the most representative in Costa Rica, and when a comparison is established, it is observed that there are higher levels of poverty in migrant households compared to those of the native population, in such a way that the purpose of this investigation is to know what factors produce vulnerability in these dwellings. Methodology: This is a quantitative approach study using the ENAHO 2019 database used to measure poverty, first, in a descriptive scope through characterizations of contingencies between the population of Nicaraguan and autochthonous origin and later, in an explanatory one using regression logistic models, to find significance and reinforce the findings. Results: There are factors that put the impoverished Nicaraguan immigrant population in serious situations of vulnerability, in which factors such as labor exploitation coupled with the lack of access to health insurance were seen. In other words, these would be the main factors of social vulnerability. Conclusions: It was evidenced that the Nicaraguan immigrant population has shortcomings in better working conditions and access to health insurance, in addition it is subjected to labor marginality, in fact this function as vulnerability factors, and that they serve to obtain and exploitation of cheap labor in the capitalist dynamics of people in households headed by Nicaraguan immigrants.

The covid-19 pandemic has had various social impacts globally, however, the favelas and their communities are considered groups with greater vulnerability. In the absence of basic sanitation, precarious residences, low income or poverty, and unemployment are factors that differ in the impacts generated by covid-19 on this specific public, compared to other localities. I have these parameters established as of great concern, determined the question that is the focus of this research: What is being produced by researchers on the subject of COVID-19 in vulnerable territories and in favelas? In order to answer the research question and considering that there have been no studies that address this issue from a systematic review, this article aims to analyze the scientific production in journals indexed in the Web of Science collection on COVID-19 and favelas. As results, it is highlighted the amount of studies produced in India and in Brazil, despite few cited, and that the co-occurrence map allows to focus on the potential of the receptivity of thematic studies on populations and their local reality of vulnerability.

This essay offers a series of methodological reflections for research in conflict contexts. The text takes as a reference the experience of a sociology thesis from the University of Costa Rica developed together with the recovery movement of the Indigenous Territory of Salitre, located in the southern region of Costa Rica. The essay focuses on the ethical and methodological implications of scientific research in a territory marked by serious territorial disputes. An outline of the context in which the research was developed and some notes on the work of sociology in the face of socio-territorial conflicts are also presented.  

The editorial team of the journal Población y Salud en Mesoamérica of the University of Costa Rica is pleased to present volume 20, issue 1. A compilation of articles with which the journal celebrates its twentieth issue of uninterrupted publications related to health from a demographic and social perspective, thus contributing to improve the dissemination of scientific research at the local and regional level.

Introduction: Tuberculosis (TB) persists as an important public health problem in Argentina with a worrying concentration in large urban centers. The objective of this study is to recover the meanings and practices of professionals from a public network of health services in a large urban conglomerate on the TB care-care process. Methodology: An exploratory study with a qualitative approach was carried out, based on semi-structured interviews with members of the health teams of a hospital and health centers of the CABA. Results: It was identified that, from the perspective of the health teams, there are different nuances of meaning about the complexity of the TB approach. These varied according to the characteristics of the services in which they were inserted and of the people with TB. Strategies for dealing with complex cases were described: having interdisciplinary teams, acting together with other health effectors and dialoguing with civil society organizations under a territorial approach. Conclusions: The control of the TB problem in large urban conglomerates presents extensive challenges. From the perspective of health teams, complex situations are observed that require the development of certain strategies to address them. These allow the adaptation of interventions to provide an integrated response.