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Background: The third Sustainable Development Goal aims to ensure healthy lives and to promote well-being for all at all ages. The health system plays a key role in achieving these goals and must have sufficient human resources in order to provide care to the population according to their needs and expectations.Methods: This paper explores the issues of unemployment, underemployment, and labor wastage in physicians and nurses in Mexico, all of which serve as barriers to achieving universal health coverage. We conducted a descriptive, observational, and longitudinal study to analyze the rates of employment, underemployment, unemployment, and labor wastage during the period 2005-2017 by gender. We used data from the National Occupation and Employment Survey. Calculating the average annual rates (AAR) for the period, we describe trends of the calculated rates. In addition, for 2017, we calculated health workforce densities for each of the 32 Mexican states and estimated the gaps with respect to the threshold of 4.45 health workers per 1000 inhabitants, as proposed in the Global Strategy on Human Resources for Health.Results: The AAR of employed female physicians was lower than men, and the AARs of qualitative underemployment, unemployment, and labor wastage for female physicians are higher than those of men. Female nurses, however, had a higher AAR in employment than male nurses and a lower AAR of qualitative underemployment and unemployment rates. Both female physicians and nurses showed a higher AAR in labor wastage rates than men. The density of health workers per 1000 inhabitants employed in the health sector was 4.20, and the estimated deficit of workers needed to match the threshold proposed in the Global Strategy is 70 161 workers distributed among the 16 states that do not reach the threshold.Conclusions: We provide evidence of the existence of gender gaps among physicians and nurses in the labor market with evident disadvantages for female physicians, particularly in labor wastage. In addition, our results suggest that the lack of physicians and nurses working in the health sector contributes to the inability to reach the health worker density threshold proposed by the Global Strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The purpose of this study was to estimate the gap between the available and the ideal supply of human resources (physicians, nurses, and health promoters) to deliver the guaranteed package of prevention and health promotion services at urban and rural primary care facilities in Mexico.Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional observational study using a convenience sample. We selected 20 primary health facilities in urban and rural areas in 10 states of Mexico. We calculated the available and the ideal supply of human resources in these facilities using estimates of time available, used, and required to deliver health prevention and promotion services. We performed descriptive statistics and bivariate hypothesis testing using Wilcoxon and Friedman tests. Finally, we conducted a sensitivity analysis to test whether the non-normal distribution of our time variables biased estimation of available and ideal supply of human resources.Results: The comparison between available and ideal supply for urban and rural primary health care facilities reveals a low supply of physicians. On average, primary health care facilities are lacking five physicians when they were estimated with time used and nine if they were estimated with time required (P < 0.05). No difference was observed between available and ideal supply of nurses in either urban or rural primary health care facilities. There is a shortage of health promoters in urban primary health facilities (P < 0.05).Conclusion: The available supply of physicians and health promoters is lower than the ideal supply to deliver the guaranteed package of prevention and health promotion services. Policies must address the level and distribution of human resources in primary health facilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. To evaluate the results of the training provided by the National Public Health Institute (INSP per its abbreviation in Spanish) in health promotion to institutional staff of local health services during 2007 and 2008. Materials and methods. A non-experimental evaluative research with comparison group was conducted, in which quantitative and qualitative methods were used. Results. In states intervened a better conceptualization of health promotion, social participation and components of the Health Promotion Operating Model was observed; participatory action research was the basic strategy to work in the community and management showed a tendency to be more participatory and inclusive. Conclusion. A better conceptualization of health promotion has allowed health personnel develop more sustainable work processes in the community and has driven the search for consent and participatory management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via the original article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To identify the behavioral and normative believes factors that might have major influence on the decision to buy packaged foods in urban Mexican families., Materials and Methods: We performed a cross-sectional study in four urban cities of Mexico. Participants responded a self-administered questionnaire (n=3 340) outside of randomly selected supermarkets. A factor analysis was performed to identify what were the main behavioral and normative believes explaining consumers' decision when buying packaged foods., Results: Three factors explained the behavioral beliefs: the quality assessment of packaged foods explained 61% of the variance, products that maintain weight explained 25%, and the emotional experience with foods explained 13%. Three factors explained the normative beliefs: expectations of chil-dren and partner explained 46% of the variance, expectations from the participants' closest friends 23%, and expectation from other family members explained 14%., Conclusion: Behavioral and normative beliefs related to assessing the qual-ity of foods and meeting family expectations respectively are the main beliefs factors affecting consumers' packaged food purchase decisions in urban consumers.

The abuse of older adults is a serious public health issue that can be difficult to identify at the first level of care. Medical and nursing personnel are sometimes unable to identify older adults who suffer family mistreatment. This can occur when victims feel shame or as a result of cultural factors. In the light of this, healthcare personnel require a screening tool that can be used to identify signs of mistreatment. The aim of this study was to develop and validate a screening tool for detecting the familial mistreatment of older adults in primary care settings. A mixed method cross-sectional study was carried out in three phases between 2009 and 2012 in Mexico. The formative phase involved using a qualitative methodology to identify terms that older adults use to identify practices defined as forms of mistreatment. On this basis, the second phase involved the design of a screening tool through the formation of items in collaboration with a panel of experts. These items were tested on older adults to ensure their intelligibility. Finally, validity and reliability levels were evaluated through the application of the screening tool to a sample of older adults at a primary care facility and at a legal centre. These findings were discussed with gerontologists, and the data were analysed through an exploratory factor analysis with orthogonal rotation and Cronbach's alpha using STATA v13. From the results, we generated a screening tool that is culturally and socially tailored to older adults in Mexico. The tool has a Cronbach's alpha of 0.89, a sensitivity value of 86% (p < .05) and a specificity value of 90% (p < .05) for positive answers to the tool's 15 items. Applying this tool at the first level of care could limit damage to older adults' health and could lower the frequency of emergency room use in hospitals., (© 2017 The Authors. Health and Social Care in the Community Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Objective: To evaluate the results of the training provided by the National Public Health Institute (INSP per its abbreviation in Spanish) in health promotion to institutional staff of local health services during 2007 and 2008., Materials and Methods: A non -experimental evaluative research with comparison group was conducted, in which quantitative and qualitative methods were used., Results: In states intervened a better conceptualization of health promotion, social participation and components of the Health Promotion Operating Model was observed; participatory action research was the basic strategy to work in the community and management showed a tendency to be more participatory and inclusive., Conclusion: A better conceptualization of health promotion has allowed health personnel develop more sustainable work processes in the community and has driven the search for consent and participatory management.

Objective: To identify the strategies used by Mexican migrants to access health services in the U.S. and Mexico., Materials and Methods: Ethnographic study in five Mexican states, selected by their migration dynamics. A series of focus groups and in-depth interviews were conducted with health services users and providers., Results: Six strategies were identified and are used according to the severity of the disease: a) self-medication, b) telephone consultation with relatives, c) utilization of private services, d) travel to border towns, e) return to place of birth, f) getting medical care during their visits to places of origin., Discussion: The health care options used by Mexican migrants and their families are defined according to events related to the migration process. The implementation of public policies to protect the health of migrants on both sides of the border is critical.