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Objective: To quantify the supply of essential drugs and the fully filled-in prescription level in the Units Specialized in the Treatment of Chronic Diseases (UNEMES-EC) in Mexico., Materials and Methods: The supply and prescription indicators were measured in 30 of the 86 existing UNEMES-EC. The supply of drugs was recorded using a list of 17 essential drugs related to the treatment of diabetes, hypertension, overweight and obesity. The information on fully filled-in prescriptions was obtained through a questionnaire applied to 1 200 health care users., Results: Only 13.3% of these units showed a complete supply of the 17 essential drugs: Supply levels were higher in units with external drugstore service. 35% of the interviewed patients reported out-of-pocket expenditures in medicines., Conclusion: UNEMES-EC should improve their levels of drug supply and fully filled-in prescriptions to reduce out-of-pocket expenditures.

Objective: To present the results of the burden of disease, injuries and risk factors in Mexico from 1990 to 2010 for the principal illnesses, injuries and risk factors by sex., Materials and Methods: A secondary analysis of the study results published by the Global Burden of Disease 2010 for Mexico performed by IHME., Results: In 2010, Mexico lost 26.2 million of Disability adjusted live years (DALYs), 56 % were in male and 44 % in women. The main causes of DALYs in men are violence, ischemic heart disease and road traffic injuries. In the case of women the leading causes are diabetes, chronic kidney disease and ischemic heart diseases. The mental disorders and musculoskeletal conditions concentrate 18% of health lost. The risk factors that most affect men in Mexico are: alcohol consumption, overweight/obesity, high blood glucose levels and blood pressure and tobacco consumption (35.6 % of DALYs lost). In women, overweight and obesity, high blood sugar and blood pressure, lack of physical activity and consumption of alcohol are responsible for 40 % of DALYs lost. In both sexes the problems with diet contribute 12% of the burden., Conclusions: The epidemiological situation in Mexico, demands an urgent adaptation and modernization of the health system.

Objective: To introduce the Hospital Standardized Mortality Ratio (HSMR) as an alternative to assess the quality of hospital care in Mexico., Material and Methods: Data-sets of public hospital discharges were used as source of information. The analyses were based in a logistic model to estimate the risk of hospital death adjusting by sex, age, length of stay and main diagnosis. The HSMR is estimated dividing the observed deaths by the addition of the risk for each discharge by hospital., Results: The ISSSTE had the lowest HSMR. At state level, the best figure was obtained by the hospitals of the ISSSTE in Veracruz, while the worst performance corresponds to hospitals of the SS in Nayarit., Conclusion: Our results suggest that this indicator can be used as a suitable alternative to evaluate the performance of hospitals in terms of mortality.

Objective: To assess health care quality provided to type-2 diabetic and hypertensive patients in primary care settings from the Mexican Ministry of Health and to evaluate whether accredited clinics providing services to the Mexican Seguro Popular performed better in terms of metabolic control of those patients compared to the non-accredited., Material and Methods: Cross-sectional study performed on 2008. Previous year clinical measures were obtained from 5 444 diabetic and 5 827 hypertensive patient's clinical records. Adequate metabolic control (glucose <110 mg/dl for diabetes and blood pressure <140/90 mmHg for hypertension) associated factors were assessed by multiple-multilevel logistic regression methods., Results: Patients attending accredited clinics were more likely to be controlled, however, metabolic control was not constant over time of accreditation., Conclusions: Additional efforts are required to monitor accredited clinics' performance in order to maintain both metabolic control and clinical assessment of patients.

Objective: To measure the prevalence of adverse events (AE) in surgical adult patients from the main public health institutions in Mexico., Material and Methods: A two stage retrospective medical record review was carried out. A total of 6 119 medical records were randomly selected. The medical records were evaluated by a doctor. Logistic regression was used to identify likely associated variables., Results: The AE prevalence was 4.1%. There were no significant differences by sex or institution. The patients 65 years or older who are served in big hospitals have more risk of suffering an AE. Patients with an AE remained in the hospital an average of nine more days than those without one., Conclusion: According to our results, in 2008 there were at least 128 400 AE in Mexico. It is necessary to develop further studies to investigate the main factors associated to surgical adverse events and to improve patient safety.

Objective: To document the fact that differences in the treatment received by health services users in Mexico are mainly dependent on the type of provider, regardless of the users' socioeconomic status., Methods: The data were obtained by means of a survey of 18 018 users who visited 73 health services in 13 states within Mexico. They were asked to grade the way the institution had performed in seven of the eight domains that define appropriate user treatment (autonomy, confidentiality, communication, respectful manner, condition of basic facilities, access to social assistance networks, and free user choice). The questionnaire included some vignettes to help determine user expectations. A composite ordinal probit model was applied; the perception of quality in connection with each of the appropriate treatment domains was the independent variable, whereas gender, educational level, age, type of provider, and user expectations were used as control variables., Results: The type of provider was the main factor that determined users' perceptions regarding the treatment they received when visiting health services in Mexico. Institutions belonging to the social security system performed the worst, while the services provided under the program targeting the rural population (IMSS Oportunidades) received the highest scores. Overall, the domain that was most highly ranked was respectful manner, whereas the lowest score was given to the ability to choose the provider. Men felt they had been able to communicate better than women, while respectful manner, communication, and social support showed a significant negative association with educational level (P < 0.05)., Conclusions: Differences were noted in the way different public health service providers in Mexico treat their users, regardless of the latter's socioeconomic status. Social security system providers showed the greatest deficiencies in this respect. Respectful manner was the domain that received the highest scores in the case of all providers. Organizational changes need to be made, since the shortcomings detected are not solely determined by factors related to health personnel, but also by certain aspects of the way the health system is structured in Mexico.

Objective: To present and discuss findings on the responsiveness of the Mexican health system., Material and Methods: The data source was the 2002-2003 National Performance Assessment Survey. A descriptive analysis was performed and results were adjusted for user's expectations using vignette information. Final results were disaggregated by sex, provider, age, and education level., Results: Responsiveness scores given by women and senior individuals were higher than those provided by men and young adults. Major differences were observed when provider comparisons were made. In ambulatory care, the Ministry of Health and private providers were better rated than major social security institutions. For in-patient care, private providers were better rated than public health institutions., Conclusions: Responsiveness of the Mexican health system requires improvements in certain areas in order to meet one of the basic goals of all health systems.

Objective: To describe the rate of caesarean sections in Mexico in the last 10 years and evaluate its relationship with several socioeconomic variables, type of health care services, and specialists' availability., Material and Methods: The Ministry of Health's register of births was used as source of information. The dependent variable was the type of delivery (vaginal or caesarean). The independent variables were: gross domestic product, human development index, illiteracy percentage among women, social exclusion index and, gynecology and obstetrics specialists supply. Correlations between variables were evaluated using Pearson's parametric test and Spearman range test. A lineal multiple regression was used to model the national caesarean data of 1999., Results: National caesarean percentage increased in the last 10 years at an annual rate of 1%. It was considerably higher in social security institutions and the private sector. Caesareans percentages in 1999 were slightly above 35%. The highest values were those of the private sector with 53%, followed by social security institutions, with 38.2%. The variables more strongly associated with C sections were GDP, specialists' availability and human development index., Conclusions: It seems reasonable to advocate for a widespread descent in caesarean sections in Mexico. Important declines in certain contexts have been witnessed by implementing measures such as a second opinion before any C-section, a precise definition of the reasons for using it, and the monitoring of individual caesarean percentage among hospital obstetricians.

To describe the relationship of blood lead levels to menopause and bone lead levels, we conducted a cross-sectional study on 232 pre- or perimenopausal (PreM) and postmenopausal (PosM) women who participated in an osteoporosis-screening program in Mexico City during the first quarter of 1995. Information regarding reproductive characteristics and known risk factors for blood lead was obtained using a standard questionnaire by direct interview. The mean age of the population was 54.7 years (SD = 9.8), with a mean blood lead level of 9.2 microg/dL (SD = 4.7/dL) and a range from 2.1 to 32.1 microg/dL. After adjusting for age and bone lead levels, the mean blood lead level was 1.98 microg/dL higher in PosM women than in PreM women (p = 0.024). The increase in mean blood lead levels peaked during the second year of amenorrhea with a level (10.35 microg/dL) that was 3.51 microg/dL higher than that of PreM women. Other important predictors of blood lead levels were use of lead-glazed ceramics, schooling, trabecular bone lead, body mass index, time of living in Mexico City, and use of hormone replacement therapy. Bone density was not associated with blood lead levels. These results support the hypothesis that release of bone lead stores increases during menopause and constitutes an internal source of exposure possibly associated with health effects in women in menopause transition.

Objective: To identify the availability of some essential drugs (ED) at primary health care units of the Mexican Ministry of Health (SSA), using data from a research work conducted in 1996 and 1997., Materials and Methods: A random sample of the 18 sanitary jurisdictions of states participating in the Extension of Coverage Program (ECP) was drawn. All primary care units from selected jurisdictions were evaluated through an inspection visit, using a checklist that included 36 ED. In phase I of the analysis, the absolute number and proportion of units without a single item of any of the 36 drugs were calculated. In the units with available drugs, the median of the distribution was also calculated. In phase II, the medians according to the type of health unit and state was obtained. The statistic utilized for the comparison of the medians was the Scheffé test with one way variance analysis. In addition, the drugs were classified according to their therapeutic indication and the medians and proportion of available drugs were calculated. The differences in proportion were evaluated with the statistic chi 2., Results: During the visits, on average, 18 of the 36 drugs included in the list of the study were found in the health units. The availability of antibiotics, antituberculosis drugs, and antimalarial drugs was particularly poor. In contrast, oral rehydration salts, family planning methods and vaccines were usually available. In general, the PAC3 states presented the best availability figures., Conclusions: The Ministry of Health of México will have to develop an enormous effort to overcome the obstacles related to the supply of essential drugs in primary health care units. Otherwise, all other efforts directed to meet the needs of the non-insured population will end up being useless, and enormous amounts of the already scarce resources of the health sector will be wasted since drugs are a vital component of the long chain of health care.

Objective: Present the results of the evaluation of a program for the non-insured population of the four poorest states of the country implemented by the Ministry of Health of Mexico between 1991 and 1995., Methods: The effects of the program were evaluated in three areas: i) increase in health services coverage; ii) delivery of personal health services, and iii) changes in health conditions of the target population. The extension of coverage was measured by the increase in potential access due to the construction of health infrastructure projects and the use of additional health manpower, mainly primary health care workers. For the evaluation of the impact of the program on the delivery of services, three surveys were developed: one for service utilization, another one for accessibility, and a third for quality of care. The impact on health conditions was evaluated by changes in health indicators of children under five and women of reproductive age., Results and Conclusions: The Program had a positive impact on coverage, accessibility and quality of services. Its impact on health conditions was also positive. However, these last changes cannot be attributed only to the program, but to the sum of several concurrent activities.

Objectives: The average age of menopause among women in Mexico City was calculated, considering their reproductive and socio-demographic characteristics. The information was obtained from a population-based control group from a case-controlled study of gynecologic cancer., Methods: Interviews were carried out with 1005 women resident in Mexico City chosen at random from a sample using the housing sample framework of the Mexico General Directorate of Epidemiology, 472 of whom had undergone a natural menopause., Results: The most important results include an average age for menopause in this population of 46.5 +/- 5 years (95% C.I. 46-48) with a median of 47. Groups of women with an average early menopause were those with no formal education (1.6 years), low socio-economic level (1.3 years, P < 0.05), nulliparas (2.6 years, P < 0.05), those who had never breastfed (2.2 years, P < 0.05) and those who had not used contraceptive hormones (1.7 years, P < 0.05)., Conclusion: This phenomenon must be documented in Mexico because of its strong links with the morbidity and mortality of the growing number of women who are reaching advanced ages and whose survival is calculated at 30 years after menopause.