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Abstract: Malnutrition in all its forms has risen on global agendas due to the recognition of its magnitude and consequences for a wide range of human, social, and economic outcomes. Implementing strategies and programs with the needed scale and quality is a major challenge. The Brazilian National Survey on Child Nutrition (ENANI-2019) pointed out several advances but numerous challenges. In this paper, we reflect on the implementation progress of breastfeeding, complementary feeding and young children malnutrition strategies and programs in Brazil and how existing challenges can be overcome through the lens of implementation science. First, we present a brief history of such programs. Second, we selected two breastfeeding initiatives to illustrate and reflect on common implementation challenges. In these case studies, we used the RE-AIM (Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, Maintenance) framework to analyze the implementation and scaling up barriers and facilitators. We found common barriers related to unclear goals about the reach of programs, challenges in assessing effectiveness and fidelity/quality during the real-world implementation, discontinuation or lack of funding, and lack of monitoring and evaluation impacting the sustainability of programs. We also discuss the use of implementation science to achieve adequate nutrition by 2030 and present critical elements for successful scale implementation of nutrition programs based on global evidence. Despite the investment to implement different actions aimed at facing infant feeding and malnutrition, high-quality implementation research must become a priority to catalyze progress in Brazil.

This paper analyzed the genesis of the PrEP1519 study and feasibility conditions for its construction. A qualitative-approach study was conducted using the Bourdieusian sociology framework to reconstruct the dynamics of the social environment where PrEP1519 emerged during 2015-2018. A document analysis and ten in-depth interviews were carried out to analyze the trajectory of the project. Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) was introduced in Brazil as a public policy in 2017. The lack of scientific evidence available among the adolescent population led to the development of a demonstrative cohort study, associated with an intervention, aimed at combining the prevention and treatment of sexually transmitted infections at three sites in Brazil. PrEP1519 sought to generate evidence for global use and to help the Brazilian Ministry of Health apply PrEP among adolescents. The articulation of bureaucratic, scientific, and activist stakeholders enabled this study. The feasibility conditions for developing PrEP1519 included a favorable relationship of national organizations with international organizations, the favorable approach that public administrators had at the time towards new technologies and prevention strategies, the researchers’ previous experience in studies with the target population or with PrEP, articulation efforts with social movements, civil society organizations, and other public agencies, and the integration between scientific institutions, which allowed using international resources and developing a response to the problem. Completing this study at a moment when conservatism advances in Brazil demands that the scientific community and activists closely monitor and take stances on PrEP to ensure its availability for adolescents as a public policy.

This paper identifies and discusses factors that hinder interprofessional and intersectoral articulation, as well as evaluates the main regulations on the rights of children and persons with disabilities and scientific literature on intersectoriality A qualitative and applied research was conducted by means of a questionnaire applied online to education professionals who care for children with disabilities, in the municipality of Duque de Caxias, Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil. The open answers of the questionnaire were analyzed from a constructionist perspective, based on the production of polyphonic meanings. The norms contradict intersectoriality by reinforcing sectoriality, and their guidelines do not present the material dimension of the political processes, constituting a field of implications for inclusion practices. It identified three pillars that limit intersectoriality: individual and collective work overload; difficulty in engaging other actors in the network; limited knowledge to meet the demands received. The way these aspects were raised expresses barriers to access and operationalization of the Network of Care for Persons with Disabilities (RCPD) and reiterates contradictions produced by the normative guidelines that regulate work. e reduction of hospital stay, which is so impactful on the functional condition of the elderly.

The harmful use of alcohol is a major risk factor for the global burden of disease, and public policies are the most effective strategies to prevent it. Population-based surveys are milestones for planning, implementing, and monitoring those policies. However, there are numerous ways to measure alcohol consumption which may result in different indicators. Researchers and stakeholders should find common ground in the understanding of these measures to avoid misinterpretation and confusion in the field. Answering to the “Five W’s Epidemiology”, when interpreting alcohol-related information, may improve the communication, as well as reproducibility and comparability of research findings. This paper aims to exemplify this approach by describing some indicators from the World Health Organization’s Global Information System on Alcohol and Health (GISAH) and the corresponding data available from the latest Brazilian household surveys. Notably, none of the Brazilian surveys reports on all the nine selected GISAH indicators, and only two provided the necessary methodological details to be fully reproducible. A stronger agenda is of the utmost importancefor advancing in the monitoring and prevention of alcohol-related harms in Brazil.

Copyright of Cadernos de Saude Publica is the property of Escola Nacional de Saude Publica Sergio Arouca and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Abstract: The topics of endometriosis and pain imply far-reaching problems for women’s health. Using a qualitative research approach, this paper addresses the subjective experience and effects of pain, the methods for dealing with these issues, and the needs of affected women in Austria. Data were collected by problem-focused interviews conducted with ten women suffering from endometriosis, which were later transcribed and subjected to qualitative content analysis. Findings are therefore described using content-related categories. Results show that negative thoughts and feelings like fear, despair, and anger are associated with endometriosis and pain. Moreover, predominantly negative impacts and changes are found in various areas of life, such as the well-being and psyche of those affected, their attitude towards life in general, partnerships, social life, leisure time and work-life balance. In dealing with endometriosis and pain, both Western biomedicine and complementary medicine treatments are used. Support from one’s inner circle of friends and exchange and interaction with others affected by the disease are seen to be invaluable. Attending physicians as well as patients themselves and their private, social, and working environment should encourage open communication about endometriosis and the related pain.

In Brazil, if patent prosecution takes more than 10 years, this extra period is added to the regular 20-year term. This paper analyses all pharmaceutical patents granted by the Brazilian National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI) with term extension and later discusses some intellectual property and health policy implications. On average, pharmaceutical patent applications wait seven years after substantive examination is requested before being examined, which takes only three and a half years. Furthermore, the role of the Brazilian Health Regulatory Agency (Anvisa) in providing prior consent has a marginal effect in prolonging the prosecution. Therefore, the extension of pharmaceutical patents’ term is caused by the number of pending applications per examiner, which halts the prosecution for double the time it takes to examine the applications. Thus, proper solutions should focus on reducing the backlog per examiner at the INPI, which has caused the extension of 92% of the pharmaceutical patents in three and a half years, on average. We concluded that the Brazilian pharmaceutical patenting policy is biased towards the patentee. This imbalance will only be effectively corrected when the INPI is financially and administratively autonomous to reduce the ratio between the pharmaceutical patent application backlog and the number of examiners.

Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is a public health problem in Brazilian municipalities. As much as there is a planning of public policies regards VL in São Paulo State, new cases have been reported and spread. This paper aims to discuss how the Center for Zoonoses Control conducts its actions spatially in endemic city of Presidente Prudente, São Paulo State. Data are from the Municipal Health Department of Presidente Prudente, Adolfo Lutz Institute, and Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics. We spatially estimated the dog population per census tract and used geoprocessing tools to perform choropleth maps, spatial trends, and spatial autocorrelation. We found a spatial pattern of higher prevalence in the city’s outskirt and a positive statistically significant spatial autocorrelation (I = 0.2, p-value < 0.000) with clusters of high-high relationships in the Northwest part of the city. Moreover, we identified a different direction in the path of the conducted serosurveys versus the canine VL trend, which stresses the fragility of the Center for Zoonoses Control actions to control the disease. The Center for Zoonoses Control always seems to chase the disease. The spatial analysis may be useful for rethinking how the service works and helps in public policies.

We sought to analyze the processes of formulation, updating and implementation of the Brazilian National Food and Nutrition Policy (PNAN), from 1999 to April 2020. This is a discussion paper, using institutional documentary sources, bibliographic search in national and international databases, as well as theses and dissertations. The theory of the cycle of public policies was adopted to systematize and present the set of information. PNAN was established in 1999 and updated ten years later, in a participatory process, based on an innovative approach centered on the paradigms of healthy food practices, the human right to food and nutritional security, aligned with the Brazilian Unified National. Regarding implementation, there are advances related to the publication of Food Guides with national guidelines; to the promotion of research in food and nutrition; to collective action to build the regulatory agenda, even if with disputes, and to the decentralization of financial resources for the execution of PNAN actions. The monitoring and evaluation focused on the food and nutritional situation; we found that there were insufficient mechanisms to feed back the policy. After 20 years, PNAN maintains the challenge of effectively fulfilling its historic commitment: the universal guarantee of the human right to adequate and healthy food.

Although tuberculosis preventive therapy is one of the cornerstones for eliminating the disease, many barriers exist in the cascade of care for latent tuberculosis infection, including the need to certify healthcare professionals for reading tuberculin skin tests (TST). This paper proposes and evaluates a simple protocol for TST reading training. Primary care workers from different backgrounds received a 2-hour theoretical course, followed by a practical course on bleb reading. Blebs were obtained by injecting saline into sausages and then in volunteers. A certified trainer then evaluated the effectiveness of this protocol by analyzing the trainees’ ability to read TST induration in clinical routine, blinded to each other’s readings. Interobserver agreement was analyzed using the Bland-Altman test. The trainees’ reading accuracy was calculated using two cut-off points - 5 and 10mm - and the effect of the number of readings was analyzed using a linear mixed model. Eleven healthcare workers read 53 saline blebs and 88 TST indurations, with high agreement for TST reading (0.07mm average bias). Sensitivity was 100% (94.6; 100.0) at 5mm cut-off and 87.3% (75.5; 94.7) at 10mm cut-off. The regression model found no effect of the number of readings [coefficient: -0.007 (-0.055; 0.040)]. A simple training protocol for reading TST with saline blebs simulations in sausages and volunteers was sufficient to achieve accurate TST induration readings, with no effect observed for the number of readings. Training with saline blebs injected into voluntary individuals is safer and easier than the traditional method.

Abstract: This article aims to assess the sociodemographic and epidemiological factors associated with AIDS and tuberculosis-HIV coinfection mortality in the Chilean adult population between 2000 and 2017. This is a retrospective observational study, evaluating the incidence density of TB-HIV coinfection mortality in the population over 14 years of age. We used data from the Chilean AIDS Cohort database, 17,512 people enrolled in highly active antiretroviral therapy in the public health system in Chile. The Kaplan-Meier survival function and Cox regression were applied. Incidence density of 0.05 for 39,283 person-years for mortality with TB-HIV coinfection was recorded, with an increase in new cases in people living with AIDS among Aymara and Mapuche indigenous populations. Risk factors included CD4 < 500 cells/mm3 (HR = 3.2; 95%CI: 2.2-4.9), viral load at the start of treatment > 10,000 copies/uL (HR = 1.3; 95%CI: 1.2-1.6). Having high school or higher education (HR = 0.76; 95%CI: 0.6-0.9) is a protective factor for mortality for coinfection. Mortality was concentrated in TB-HIV coinfected people with increasing mortality among women and indigenous populations. The paper contributes to the growing recognition of the role of social determinants in disease outcomes, and the requirement to improve community-focused and community-based testing, sex education in schools, and structural interventions to reduce the adult mortality in Chilean population.

Copyright of Cadernos de Saude Publica is the property of Escola Nacional de Saude Publica Sergio Arouca and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Abstract: Since the first recorded case of COVID-19 on February 26, 2020, Brazil has seen an exponential growth in the number of cases and deaths. The national testing approach has been insufficient to correctly use this tool in the support of containing the epidemic in the country. In this communication, we discuss efforts and challenges to scale-up COVID-19 testing at the Brazilian Unified National Health System (SUS). This communication presents the initial results of the research project created to investigate the political, industrial, technological, and regulatory aspects that may affect the diagnostic and testing capacity for COVID-19 in Brazil. The paper draws on the review of academic literature, media publication, and collection of public data on tests purchase and regulation. It enlists initiatives to enhance PCR testing, national production and development of technologies, as well as regulatory measures to fast-track new tests. Our analysis indicates some points of reflection. Firstly, the lack of a consistent national strategy to fight COVID-19 exarcebated supply problems of diagnostic components. If the country was eventually able to circumvent this situation, it still faces a more structural dependency on the importation of diagnostic components. Secondly, the discontinued funding and distribution of tests may have implied health policy fragmentation and the growing importance of local governments and non-state actors to fighting the epidemics within SUS. Finally, initiatives established since the second semester of 2020 have expanded the testing capacity at SUS. However, it has not been sufficient to control the progress of the epidemic in the country.

Abstract: This paper describes the history, objectives and methods used by the nine Brazilian cohorts of the RPS Brazilian Birth Cohorts Consortium (Ribeirão Preto, Pelotas and São Luís) Common thematic axes are identified and the objectives, baseline periods, follow-up stages and representativity of the population studied are presented. The Consortium includes three birth cohorts from Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo State (1978/1979, 1994 and 2010), four from Pelotas, Rio Grande do Sul State (1982, 1993, 2004 and 2015), and two from São Luís, Maranhão State (1997 and 2010). The cohorts cover three regions of Brazil, from three distinct states, with marked socioeconomic, cultural and infrastructure differences. The cohorts were started at birth, except for the most recent one in each municipality, where mothers were recruited during pregnancy. The instruments for data collection have been refined in order to approach different exposures during the early phases of life and their long-term influence on the health-disease process. The investigators of the nine cohorts carried out perinatal studies and later studied human capital, mental health, nutrition and precursor signs of noncommunicable diseases. A total of 17,636 liveborns were recruited in Ribeirão Preto, 19,669 in Pelotas, and 7,659 in São Luís. In the studies starting during pregnancy, 1,400 pregnant women were interviewed in Ribeirão Preto, 3,199 in Pelotas, and 1,447 in São Luís. Different strategies were employed to reduce losses to follow-up. This research network allows the analysis of the incidence of diseases and the establishment of possible causal relations that might explain the health outcomes of these populations in order to contribute to the development of governmental actions and health policies more consistent with reality.

Immunization, the most successful public health intervention to date, can only be effective if eligible individuals or their legal representatives have access to vaccines and subsequently comply with their use. Under-vaccination stems from multiple causes: access, affordability, awareness, acceptance and activation. In this paper, we focus on acceptance and, specifically, on factors pertaining to individual or parental compliance, specifically the psychology of judgment and decision making. We describe how heuristics and cognitive biases - a facet of thoughts and feelings - affect vaccination decision making. Additionally, we address when and how social processes play a role and how attitudes towards vaccines might reflect a more general underlying attitude or ideology. The understanding of how decision making, with regards to vaccines occurs, and the role played by heuristics and cognitive biases can help inform more appropriate public health interventions.

The continent of the Americas has the greatest number of people infected and deaths associated with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in the world. Brazil occupies the 2nd position in numbers of infected cases and deaths, preceded only by the United States. Older adults and those with pre-existing chronic illnesses are more vulnerable to the consequences of the virus. The SARS-CoV-2 epidemic has serious consequences for health services. Therefore, an assessment of the pandemic's effect on the older Brazilian population is urgently needed. The study examines the prevalence of COVID-19 related symptoms, care-seeking, and cancellation of surgery or other scheduled medical care among a nationally representative sample of Brazilians aged 50 and over derived from the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Aging (ELSI-Brazil) and a telephone follow-up survey (the ELSI-COVID-19 initiative) between late May and early June 2020. About 10.4% of older adults reported any fever, dry cough or difficulty breathing in the 30 days prior to the interview, with the highest prevalence in the North region (50%). Among individuals with symptoms, only 33.6% sought care. Individuals living in the South or Southeast regions were significantly less likely to seek care for COVID-19 related symptoms. Nearly one in six participants had to cancel scheduled surgery or other medical care; this proportion was higher among women, those with more education, and people with multiple chronic conditions. This paper is among the first to investigate the effect of COVID-19 on health care use in Brazil among older adults. Results highlight the need to adapt health care delivery (such as through telemedicine) to ensure the continuity of care as well as the urgent need for wide dissemination of information to guide the population on disease prevention measures and how to obtain healthcare when needed.

The continent of the Americas has the greatest number of people infected and deaths associated with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in the world. Brazil occupies the 2nd position in numbers of infected cases and deaths, preceded only by the United States. Older adults and those with pre-existing chronic illnesses are more vulnerable to the consequences of the virus. The SARS-CoV-2 epidemic has serious consequences for health services. Therefore, an assessment of the pandemic’s effect on the older Brazilian population is urgently needed. The study examines the prevalence of COVID-19 related symptoms, care-seeking, and cancellation of surgery or other scheduled medical care among a nationally representative sample of Brazilians aged 50 and over derived from the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Aging (ELSI-Brazil) and a telephone follow-up survey (the ELSI-COVID-19 initiative) between late May and early June 2020. About 10.4% of older adults reported any fever, dry cough or difficulty breathing in the 30 days prior to the interview, with the highest prevalence in the North region (50%). Among individuals with symptoms, only 33.6% sought care. Individuals living in the South or Southeast regions were significantly less likely to seek care for COVID-19 related symptoms. Nearly one in six participants had to cancel scheduled surgery or other medical care; this proportion was higher among women, those with more education, and people with multiple chronic conditions. This paper is among the first to investigate the effect of COVID-19 on health care use in Brazil among older adults. Results highlight the need to adapt health care delivery (such as through telemedicine) to ensure the continuity of care as well as the urgent need for wide dissemination of information to guide the population on disease prevention measures and how to obtain healthcare when needed.

Brazil is the country of the world with the second most COVID-19 cases and deaths, and the pandemic's impacts pose multiple challenges for mental health. This paper reports on experience with the emergency organization of the volunteer and collaborative Working Group (GT, in Portuguese) on mental health and psychosocial care aimed at producing rapid responses for health services in the context of COVID-19. The study involved the identification and systematization of current evidence in the scientific literature on mental health and psychosocial care in public health emergencies and pandemics, with the establishment of a network involving 117 researchers and 25 institutions, and the organization of themes for the elaboration of materials, referenced on the response phases in public health emergencies and pandemics. In less than 60 days, 18 technical documents were produced, ranging from services organization and management for different vulnerable groups. The materials became references in health institutions and services. A national course on mental health and psychosocial care in COVID-19 was also organized, with more than 60,000 people registered. The experience provides food for thought and a contribution for future experiences involving knowledge translation in the current pandemic and in future public health emergencies and pandemics, with the following: (1) combination of volunteer and collaborative work involving professionals with experience in the organization of services and care in past events; (2) reliance on institutional support and resources; (3) speed and credibility of work involving the establishment of networks of professionals and institutions; and (4) responses to the urgent needs with the capacity to shape paths for care in mental health and psychosocial care.

Purpose: The paper analyses two current topics in sport economics research and their relationship. Looking at the past 25 years and 21 countries as well as leagues in European football, it is worth looking for the answer to the question of whether there is causality between international competitiveness and competitive balance. In other words, whether an increase in the balance of the national league (namely in excitement) causes the development (better performance of the national team) of a given country's football or this causality is reversed. Methodology: By measuring the extent of competitive balance and identifying the measure of competitiveness, the Granger causality was tested to analyse the relationship of the UEFA country coefficient, the FIFA World Ranking and the Herfindahl ratio of competitive balance (HRCB). Findings: Based on the estimation and testing of vector autoregressions in panel data, it can be stated that the FIFA World Ranking Granger-causes HRCB. Better sports performance of a country's national team indicates that a given league will also be appreciated, meaning that better and better players will arrive in a better and better league, which will attract more exciting games, so a decrease can be observed in competitive balance. Research limitations: The study focused on only two indicators of competitiveness, so it is worth examining causality with more measures in the future. Value: From a management perspective, it is believed that the boards of leagues should consider the results presented in this study, such as that better presence of the national team will make the league more balanced, which will lead to a rise in demand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the World Organization of Family Doctors (WONCA), quaternary prevention (P4) is a recent concept that aims to prevent medical overuse. Thus, this study aimed to measure and map research output on P4 as outline research trends, evaluating its current international status through a bibliometric and descriptive content analysis. We reviewed scientific articles on P4 recorded in PubMed, LILACS, SciELO or CINAHL with the outcomes: publication year, first authors’ name and nationality, journals’ name, country and ranking, publication language, used methods and main reported subjects. The analysis included 65 articles published in 33 journals of 16 countries between 2003 and 2018 with a peak of publications in 2015. The first authors came from 17 different countries, 23% Brazilian, with Uruguay as the leading nation in scientific production per capita. Q1 or Q2 journals amassed 28% of published papers. Bibliographic research comprised 88% of articles and 38% of all focused on specific examples of medical overuse. P4 represents an ethical and valid approach to prevent iatrogenic events and achieve equal and fair access to health services. Conceptual, geographical, and linguistic elements, as well as WONCA conferences and type of healthcare systems in the authors’ country were fundamental factors that affected research output. The available studies are still of limited quality and quantity, with further investigations needed to assess the effective impact of P4 on public health.

This paper focuses on our research and intervention in health promotion with patients and communities affected by various infectious diseases, in the project Knowledge-Sharing Platform. This project is developed at the National Institute of Infectious Diseases Evandro Chagas in the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and promotes the continuing involvement of health researchers and professionals in the collaborative production of knowledge on health with patients and community groups and in their training as community health promoters. The new epidemic scenario created the demand for a space of dialogue and knowledge-sharing on the prevention of COVID-19 transmission. Due to the interruption of regular activities in the Knowledge-Sharing Platform, a strategy was launched to serve as a link between science and society and help overcome the social isolation imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The WhatsApp group allowed project members to participate by addressing questions (audio) on COVID-19 through mediation by community group leaders. The main questions by participants related to risk factors, transmission, immunity to the novel coronavirus, care related to prevention, symptoms, and treatment; and COVID-19 and influenza vaccine. The educational material Caring in the Age of COVID-19 was produced and shared with community leaders and distributed to the respective groups and was eventually shared in their communities as a response to a demand for knowledge that responds to the concerns of people already exposed to structural vulnerability.

Abstract: The increasing numbers of people at very old ages pose specific policy challenges for health and social care and highlight the need to rethink established models of service provision. The main objective of this paper is to introduce the concept of “avoidable displacement from home” (ADH). The study argues that ADH builds on and adds value to existing concepts, offering a holistic, person-centered framework for integrated health and social care provision for older people. It also demonstrates that this framework can be applied across different levels, ranging from macro policymaking to organizational and individual decision-making. The paper pays attention to the Brazilian context but argues that ADH is a universally applicable concept.

Abstract: This paper will report the findings of an education intervention performed by a workshop aimed to provide pregnant women with knowledge about pregnancy, delivery, breastfeeding and newborn care. A cross-sectional study, using a pre and post-intervention research design, was performed with 105 pregnant women from an obstetric service for a two-year period. Time points (pre and post) were compared using either Student t test and ANOVA. Significance was set at p ≤ 0.05. After the intervention all items increased their level from the three stations: antenatal care (20.4%), labor and delivery (36.8%) and postnatal and breastfeeding (32.1%). The total score of the surveys also increased 31.7% when comparing the pre and post applications (p < 0.001). It was evidenced the importance of strategies to improve knowledge about pregnancy and its surroundings to pregnant women. The workshop proposal presented increases in its knowledge and can most likely bring better results in short and long-term outcomes.

Several Latin American countries have made remarkable strides towards offering community mental health care for people with psychoses. Nonetheless, mental health clinics generally have a very limited outreach in the community, tending to have weaker links to primary health care; rarely engaging patients in providing care; and usually not providing recovery-oriented services. This paper describes a pilot randomized controlled trial (RCT) of Critical Time Intervention-Task Shifting (CTI-TS) aimed at addressing such limitations. The pilot RCT was conducted in Santiago (Chile) and Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). We included 110 people with psychosis in the study, who were recruited at the time of entry into community mental health clinics. Trial participants were randomly divided into CTI-TS intervention and usual care. Those allocated to the intervention group received usual care and, in addition, CTI-TS services over a 9-month period. Primary outcomes include quality of life (WHO Quality of Life Scale - Brief Version) and unmet needs (Camberwell Assessment of Needs) at the 18-month follow-up. Primary outcomes at 18 months will be analyzed by Generalized Estimating Equations (GEE), with observations clustered within sites. We will use three-level multilevel models to examine time trends on the primary outcomes. Similar procedures will be used for analyzing secondary outcomes. Our hope is that this trial provides a foundation for planning a large-scale multi-site RCT to establish the efficacy of recovery-oriented interventions such as CTI-TS in Latin America.

Abstract: Although it is well known that a successful implementation depends on the front-liners’ knowledge and participation, as well as on the organizational capacity of the institutions involved, we still know little about how front-line health workers have been involved in the implementation of the Brazilian National Program for Improving Access and Quality to Primary Care (PMAQ). This paper develops a contingent mixed-method approach to explore the perceptions of front-line health workers - managers, nurses, community health workers, and doctors - regarding the PMAQ (2nd round), and their evaluations concerning health unit organizational capacity. The research is guided by three relevant inter-related concepts from implementation theory: policy knowledge, participation, and organizational capacity. One hundred and twenty-seven health workers from 12 primary health care units in Goiânia, Goiás State, Brazil, answered semi-structured questionnaires, seeking to collect data on reasons for adherence, forms of participation, perceived impact (open-ended questions), and evaluation of organizational capacity (score between 0-10). Content analyses of qualitative data enabled us to categorize the variables “level of perceived impact of PMAQ” and “reasons for adhering to PMAQ”. The calculation and aggregation of the means for the scores given for organizational capacity enabled us to classify distinct levels of organizational capacity. We finally integrated both variables (Perceived-Impact and Organizational-Capacity) through cross-tabulation and the narrative. Results show that nurses are the main type of professional participating. The low organizational capacity and little policy knowledge affected workers participation in and their perceptions of the PMAQ.

Abstract: In Mexico, diabetes represents a serious public health problem and a high-cost disease for the health system. Health research is essential for generating new knowledge to combat such a serious issue, however, there is not enough information on how to generate and use it. This paper examines the public funding of 303 diabetes research projects, granted by the National Council of Science and Technology in Mexico between 2002 and 2014. The projects were systematized and classified according to their type of research, discipline or subject, and aim of knowledge. Considering these information, an econometric model that links the funding with the characteristics of the projects was prepared. The results show that the funding is focused on the basic and biomedical areas, particularly on genetic research, and also that diabetes research resources have increased over time, not steadily, but rather cyclically. In diabetes research projects there is a high level of concentration at several dimensions: research areas, topics, objects, institutions conducting research, and regions. The analysis of the resource allocation suggests that Mexico needs a stronger and oriented diabetes research agenda, including in its bases discussions about balance between basic and applied research, and about oriented research towards practical implementations. The importance of promoting health systems research to improve diabetes care is also discussed, as well as implementing mechanisms to assess the impact of diabetes research in short, medium and long term, as part of Mexico’s science and technology policy.

Abstract: Dental mortality has been reported by longitudinal studies on periodontal maintenance therapy (PMT), but the independent effect of smoking on tooth loss (TL), adjusted for important confounding variables, has been poorly evaluated. This systematic review aimed to assess and analyze the isolated effect of smoking TL among individuals undergoing PMT. Electronic, manual, grey literature, and recent articles (from April 2018) were searched, with no restriction regarding language; respective dates of publication were included. Epidemiological clinical studies reporting TL data among smokers undergoing PMT in comparison to nonsmoker control groups were selected. Methodological quality was assessed using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. Meta-analysis was performed, as well as I2 heterogeneity and sensitivity tests. Evidence quality was assessed using GRADE (Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation). Eleven papers were included in the systematic review: four case-control and seven cohort studies. Ten out of the 11 studies concluded that smoking was an important risk factor for the occurrence of TL. Meta-analysis of four of the cohort studies found that smokers had 3.24 times the chance of occurrence of TL than nonsmokers undergoing PMT (95%CI: 1.33-7.90). Overall, studies’ risk of bias was low. The quality of the scientific evidence moderately supports that smokers undergoing PMT have a greater chance of TL than nonsmokers.

Admission to a university may cause significant changes in the pattern of exposure to health risks. The aim of this paper is to describe the study design and methodological procedures adopted in the Longitudinal Study on the Lifestyle and Health of University Students (ELESEU). This study examines a dynamic cohort of full-time students at a public university in the State of Mato Grosso, Brazil. This research, which started in 2015, will have four years of follow-up and is scheduled to end in 2018. A self-administered questionnaire is applied, containing questions regarding demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, and information on health conditions and risk factors such as lifestyle, perceived stress, symptoms of depression, body image, risk behaviors for eating disorders, self-assessment of health and diet quality, and other issues related to nutrition and health. Anthropometric and blood pressure measurements are also recorded. Two 24-hour dietary recalls and cholesterol, triglycerides, and glucose capillary measurements are collected in 50% of the students. In 2015, 495 participants (82.6% of the eligible students) were assessed in the baseline study. Of these, 348 (70.3%) were followed up in 2016. In 2016, 566 participants were included in the cohort (81% of the eligible students). This study will help to identify the factors that might influence changes in the nutritional, health, and metabolic status of young adults during college life.

The goal of this paper is to estimate the prevalence and to identify factors related to the use of other tobacco products among schoolchildren. A cross-sectional study was conducted with a representative sample of high school students enrolled in the 9th grade. A total of 109,104 students were interviewed, and 4.8% of them had used other tobacco products in the previous 30 days. The factors that increased the likelihood of using other tobacco products were: male gender, being administratively dependent on the school, having a job, living with mother and/or father, perception that the parents or guardians would not care if they smoked, having difficulties sleeping, not having close friends, having experienced domestic violence, skipping classes, having used tobacco and alcohol within the past 30 days, having experimented drugs, having smoking parents or guardians, having seen people smoking. The prevalence of using other tobacco products is high among Brazilian students, and is associated with higher socioeconomic conditions, presence of risk behavior, and living in an environment permissible to tobacco use.

Cigarette production involves a number of substances and materials other than just tobacco, paper and a filter. Tobacco additives include flavorings, enhancers, humectants, sugars, and ammonium compounds. Although companies maintain that tobacco additives do not enhance smoke toxicity and do not make cigarettes more attractive or addictive, these claims are questioned by independent researchers. This study reviewed the studies on the effects of tobacco additives on smoke chemistry and toxicity. Tobacco additives lead to higher levels of formaldehyde and minor changes in other smoke analytes. Toxicological studies (bacterial mutagenicity and mammalian cytoxicity tests, rat 90 days inhalation studies and bone-marrow cell micronucleus assays) found that tobacco additives did not enhance smoke toxicity. Rodent assays, however, poorly predicted carcinogenicity of tobacco smoke, and were clearly underpowered to disclose small albeit toxicologically relevant differences between test (with tobacco additives) and control (without tobacco additives) cigarettes. This literature review led to the conclusion that the impact of tobacco additives on tobacco smoke harmfulness remains unclear.

There have been no previous estimates on differences in adult or overall mortality in indigenous peoples in Brazil, although such indicators are extremely important for reducing social iniquities in health in this population segment. Brazil has made significant strides in recent decades to fill the gaps in data on indigenous peoples in the national statistics. The aim of this paper is to present estimated mortality rates for indigenous and non-indigenous persons in different age groups, based on data from the 2010 Population Census. The estimates used the question on deaths from specific household surveys. The results indicate important differences in mortality rates between indigenous and non-indigenous persons in all the selected age groups and in both sexes. These differences are more pronounced in childhood, especially in girls. The indicators corroborate the fact that indigenous peoples in Brazil are in a situation of extreme vulnerability in terms of their health, based on these unprecedented estimates of the size of these differences.

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Telemedicine has been seen as an important tool for facing the challenges of universal health systems. The goal of this article is to discuss the main challenges to its full dissemination in Brazil. Being a somewhat new area, there are not many scientific papers that systematize it. This article is an exploratory paper, as it aims to provide an overall perspective on the subject. From an economic point of view, telemedicine is a strategic area due to its an intrinsic potential of being a source for generating innovation, for requiring and incorporating technological breakthroughs from other areas, and for its interdisciplinary nature and dynamic inter-relations that drive different industries. From the social perspective, it has the potential to make access to health services democratic, by connecting remote regions with health services located in hospitals and centers of reference for prevention, diagnosis and treatment. Resumo: A telemedicina está sendo vista como uma ferramenta importante para enfrentar os desafios dos sistemas de saúde universais. O objetivo deste artigo foi discutir os principais desafios para a sua plena disseminação no Brasil. Em função do caráter relativamente emergente desta área, existe uma escassez relativa de trabalhos científicos que a sistematizem. Por isso, este artigo se enquadra na categoria de trabalho exploratório, já que tem por objetivo proporcionar uma visão geral sobre o tema. Destaca-se, que do ponto de vista econômico, a telemedicina se constitui em uma área estratégica por seu potencial intrínseco de ser fonte geradora de inovações, por demandar e incorporar avanços tecnológicos oriundos de outras áreas e, em função da sua natureza interdisciplinar e de suas inter-relações dinâmicas, pela possibilidade de impulsionar diferentes indústrias. Do ponto de vista social, tem o potencial de democratizar o acesso aos serviços de saúde, integrando regiões remotas com serviços de saúde localizados em hospitais e centros de referência no que se refere à prevenção, diagnóstico e tratamento.

The article discusses aspects of the papers by Carles Muntaner and Graça Druck focusing on the process of flexibilization of labor relations from the 1980s and its impact on workers' health.

Abstract This paper examines the net effect of birth order on child nutritional status in Bangladesh using data from the Bangladesh Demographic Health Survey, 2011 (BDHS). Analyses were restricted to 4,120 surviving, lastborn singleton children who were younger than 36 months at the time of the survey. Logistic regression was used to assess the association between birth order and child nutritional status. Results indicate 38.1% children are stunted and 8.2% children are fifth or higher order birth. Order of birth is one of the significant predictors of child being stunted. Third order, fourth order, and fifth or higher order children are 24%, 30%, and 72%, respectively, more likely to be stunted after adjusting for all other variables. Besides birth order, results also indicate that child age, size at birth, birth intention, maternal education, maternal body mass index, wealth index, place of residence and mass media access exert strong influences over child malnutrition. Reducing birth rates which limit number of births and birth order as well may reduce child malnutrition in Bangladesh.

Abstract This paper reviews the potential utility of using the concepts and tools of systems to understand and act on health in cities. The basic elements of systems approaches and the links between cities as systems and population health as emerging from the functioning of a system are reviewed. The paper also discusses implications of systems thinking for urban health including the development of dynamic conceptual models, the use of new tools, the integration of data in new ways and the identification of data gaps, and the formulation of different kinds of questions and identification of new policies. The paper concludes with a review of caveats and challenges.