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

From an exhaustive literature review on the subject of Neighborhood and Urban Improvement (MBU, by the Spanish acronym), a critical overview of the situational outlook of this model of community intervention in Costa Rica is presented below. A collection of information was carried out from secondary documentary sources internationally on issues of Neighborhood and Urban Improvement programs (MBU) and participatory intervention methods for the use of public spaces in urban areas. After establishing and evaluating the criteria for inclusion and exclusion, six of all the scientific publications recovered related to these topics were selected and subjected to critical analysis separately and altogether, for which a qualitative input data matrix was used. The findings serve as a precedent to infer that the Environmental Health is the best indicator of the livability of human settlements and, considering that the health benefits of implementing Neighborhood and Urban Improvement processes in Costa Rica are yet to be evaluated, it is a challenge and an opportunity for the discipline to get involved in a comprehensive approach to this process in the country to contribute to the social and participatory reconstruction of community health.

Objective: to analyze the factors that affect use and nonuse of contraception in adolescent and young adults in Costa Rica (between ages 15 - 35). Methods: The influence of personal and socioeconomic characteristics in the decision of the use of contraception can be observed through data collected in the survey National Youth Survey 2007 (Encuesta Nacional de Juventud 2007) and the methodology based on the binary Probit Model with selection bias correction through Heckman. Results: it is showed that the age of both the person and the partner, the stability of the relationship, and residency in urban areas are factors related to lower probability of contraception use. On the other hand, being female, having university education, access to information about birth control and STDs (Sexually Transmitted Diseases), frequency in sexual intercourse, and good supportive family relationships are factors related to higher probability of contraception use. Conclusions: This results could work as a guide to design public policies to prevent teenage pregnancies and STDs. Furthermore, it is important to highlight the significance of sex education for teenagers and their families. This way, education could go beyond encouraging abstinence; it could motivate a responsible sexual life.  

Objective: to evaluate the available variables of mortality from the last population census in Argentina. Methods: it is based on indirect estimation methods which provide a reading of the quality of these statistics in comparison with previous censuses and vital statistics. Results: The rates of child and adult mortality compared with birth and death rates show that this data does not reveal serious problems of quality or coverage and the level (and trend) indicated by the sources is widely supported. Discusion: although the results seem to show consistency, the ability to detect and quantify the errors remains a blind spot until all of the necessary information is published for a thorough examination, given the limited universe of publications by the National Institute of Statistics of Argentina. Conclusion: the mortality population estimates are consistent with previous census data from 2001 and with estimates of births and deaths from the intercensal period.

Objective: to evaluate the association between diet and socioeconomic and demographic factors among elementary school students. Methods: A cross-sectional study, involving a random sample of 256 children of both genders, aged between six to eleven years, from grades first through fifth of seven Adventist elementary private schools located in the southwest region of São Paulo State. These schools enroll students independent of their religion. Socioeconomic and demographic data were obtained through a self-administered questionnaire sent home and completed by the parent or legal guardian. The diet quality was assessed through ALES index. Crude and adjusted odds ratios were calculated and logistic regression was used to analyze the variables. Results: Of the sample, 33.2% showed a poor ALES index score and 66.8% had a good score. There were no statistically significant differences between diet quality and the following variables: age, socioeconomic status, maternal level of education, head of household, maternal employment outside the home, exclusive breastfeeding up to 6 months, and origin of school snacks. The variables that remained associated with a good diet quality were: being female (OR = 0.53; 95% CI, 0.30-0.92) and being Adventist (OR = 2.52; 95% CI, 1.10-5.78). Conclusions: The factors associated with good diet quality were gender and religion.

Objective: To inquire: a) if there are differences in living conditions estimated through socio-economic variables among families with 3 to 6 years old children, living in urban, peri-urban and rural areas of Villaguay department, Entre Ríos, Argentina; and b) in case there is any, whether these differences are expressed in child nutritional status and in the perception of households food insecurity (PHFI) (regarding access). Population and Methods. The study was transverse and included 303 children aged 3 to 6 years old. For the anthropometric study, we considered body weight and height, along with The Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (Frisancho, 2008) reference to determine nutritional status indicators. Socioeconomic information was inquired through a semistructured survey, while the PHFI was obtained from the survey proposed by the Academy for Educational Development (AED), both filled by parents of children measured anthropometrically. Results and Conclusion. In general, it was observed that the studied populations showed socio-economic differences in relation to parental education level and employment, critical overcrowding, and health insurance, among others; these differences might be expressed in the differential distribution of children malnutrition and in the perception of the limitations that parents said to have to a good nutrition both in terms of quantity and quality.

Objective: To describe the homicides rate for young Nicaraguan immigrants in Costa Rica. Methods: We used a Poisson log-linear regression model at small administrative areas-level to describe the homicides rate for young Nicaraguan immigrants in Costa Rica, given the co-variables (Agresti, 2002; Cameron y Trivedi, 1998; Neter, Wasserman, Kutner & Nachtsheim, 1996). Results: Incidence rate for percentage of poor households, percentage of adults 35 years-old and more, and the percentage of the population on the service sector of the economy are 1.04, 1.05 and 1.05 respectively. Conclusions: Poverty, population structure and economic activities of the service sector of the economy are the co-variables that best describe the homicides rate for young Nicaraguan immigrants in Costa Rica.

Objective: To analyze type II diabetes mortality rates geographic distribution and evolution in time across both Mexican border regions during the period 1998-2013. Methods: The work is based on exploratory and inferential data analysis conducted using death reports from the national health information system. The analysis considers social determinants of health as a theoretical paradigm and includes microdata on consumption patterns at household level for the US-Mexico and Mexico-Guatemala border states. Results: A convergence path for type II diabetes mortality rates is found during the last 15 years between the studied border regions. Conclusions: The evidence presented indicates that the southern border states had been experiencing an epidemiologic transition towards mortality causes such as type II diabetes in the last decade. A trajectory that reflects a convergence pattern towards mortality rates found in the northern border states. 

La resistencia al servicio militar obligatorio en España durante el último tercio del siglo XX, sirvió para articular un importante movimiento antimilitarista y juvenil. Este movimiento comenzó durante la década de los setenta muy ligado a la doctrina de la noviolencia y su vinculación con la objeción de conciencia. Durante la década siguiente la resistencia al servicio militar se hizo cada vez más extensa entre la juventud española. La extendida desobediencia a las leyes de conscripción acabó forzando el fin del servicio militar obligatorio. Para conseguir este objetivo, los jóvenes desobedientes tuvieron que hacer frente a diversos contextos políticos, redefiniendo sus estrategias, logrando conseguir un paulatino aumento de apoyos sociales, consiguiendo un constante trasvase generacional y sobre todo asumiendo y convirtiendo la represión derivada de la desobediencia a las leyes en algo dañino para el propio Gobierno.