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Background: During the pandemic in Peru, the COVIDA (Collaboration Network of Volunteer Brigade Members for the Investigation, Detection, and Primary Management of Community Cases Affected by COVID-19) project proposed an innovative way to provide telemonitoring and teleorientation to COVID-19 patients, led by health care student volunteers. However, it has not been described how this interaction is perceived from the patient's perspective and which factors increase their engagement with this service., Objective: The aim of this study is to describe the perceptions of patients about COVIDA and identify factors associated with their engagement with this service., Methods: A mixed methods study was conducted to evaluate perceptions of patients that participated in the COVIDA project. This telehealth intervention organized by the National University of San Marcos was implemented in Peru from August to December 2020. The service involved daily phone calls by volunteer students to monitor registered COVID-19 patients until the completion of the 14th day of the illness or if a warning sign was identified. The volunteers also provided teleorientation to address the patients' needs and concerns. Quantitative analysis was performed to describe the characteristics of the patients and to assess the factors related to their engagement with the service, which was defined by the percentage of participants who completed the follow-up according to their individual schedule. Qualitative analysis through semistructured interviews evaluated the patients' perceptions of the service regarding the aspects of communication, interaction, and technology., Results: Of the 770 patients enrolled in COVIDA, 422 (55.7%) were female; the median age was 39 (IQR 28-52) years. During the monitoring, 380 patients (49.4%) developed symptoms, and 471 (61.2%) showed warning signs of COVID-19. The overall median for engagement was 93% (IQR 35.7%-100%). Among those patients who did not develop warning signs, engagement was associated with the presence of symptoms (OR 3.04, 95% CI 2.22-4.17), a positive COVID-19 test at the start of follow-up (OR 1.97, 95% CI 1.48-2.61), and the presence of comorbidities (OR 1.83, 95% CI 1.29-2.59). Patients reported that the volunteers provided clear and valuable information and emotional support. Communication via phone calls took place smoothly and without interruptions., Conclusions: COVIDA represents a well-accepted and well-perceived alternative model for student volunteers to provide telemonitoring, teleorientation, and emotional support to patients with COVID-19 in the context of overwhelmed demand for health care services. The deployment of this kind of intervention should be prioritized among patients with symptoms and comorbidities, as they show more engagement with these services., (©Stefan Escobar-Agreda, Javier Silva-Valencia, Percy Soto-Becerra, C Mahony Reategui-Rivera, Kelly De la Cruz-Torralva, Max Chahuara-Rojas, Bruno Hernandez-Iriarte, Daniel Hector Espinoza-Herrera, Carlos Alberto Delgado, Silvana Matassini, Javier Vargas-Herrera, Leonardo Rojas-Mezarina. Originally published in JMIR Formative Research (https://formative.jmir.org), 13.09.2024.)

Background: Telemedicine-based interventions show promise in addressing mental health issues among rural populations, yet evidence regarding their impact among the health care workforce in these contexts remains limited., Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the characteristics and the responses and perceptions of recently graduated physicians who work in rural areas of Peru as part of the Servicio Rural Urbano Marginal en Salud (Rural-Urban Marginal Health Service [SERUMS], in Spanish) toward a telehealth intervention to provide remote orientation and accompaniment in mental health., Methods: A mixed methods study was carried out involving physicians who graduated from the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos and participated in the Mental Health Accompaniment Program (MHAP) from August 2022 to February 2023. This program included the assessment of mental health conditions via online forms, the dissemination of informational materials through a website, and, for those with moderate or high levels of mental health issues, the provision of personalized follow-up by trained personnel. Quantitative analysis explored the mental health issues identified among physicians, while qualitative analysis, using semistructured interviews, examined their perceptions of the services provided., Results: Of 75 physicians initially enrolled to the MHAP, 30 (41.6%) opted to undergo assessment and use the services. The average age of the participants was 26.8 (SD 1.9) years, with 17 (56.7%) being female. About 11 (36.7%) reported have current or previous mental health issues, 17 (56.7%) indicating some level of depression, 14 (46.7%) indicated some level of anxiety, 5 (16.6%) presenting a suicidal risk, and 2 (6.7%) attempted suicide during the program. Physicians who did not use the program services reported a lack of advertising and related information, reliance on personal mental health resources, or neglect of symptoms. Those who used the program expressed a positive perception regarding the services, including evaluation and follow-up, although some faced challenges accessing the website., Conclusions: The MHAP has been effective in identifying and managing mental health problems among SERUMS physicians in rural Peru, although it faced challenges related to access and participation. The importance of mental health interventions in this context is highlighted, with recommendations to improve accessibility and promote self-care among participants., (©Kelly De la Cruz-Torralva, Stefan Escobar-Agreda, Pedro Riega López, James Amaro, C Mahony Reategui-Rivera, Leonardo Rojas-Mezarina. Originally published in JMIR Formative Research (https://formative.jmir.org), 10.09.2024.)

Children living in low-resource settings are frequently gut-colonized with multidrug-resistant bacteria. We explored whether breastfeeding may protect against children's incident gut colonization with extended-spectrum beta-lactamase-producing Escherichia coli (ESBL- Ec ) and Klebsiella , Enterobacter , or Citrobacter spp. (ESBL-KEC). We screened 937 monthly stool samples collected from 112 children aged 1-16 months during a 2016-19 prospective cohort study of enteric infections in peri-urban Lima. We used 52,816 daily surveys to examine how exposures to breastfeeding in the 30 days prior to a stool sample were associated with children's risks of incident gut-colonization, controlling for antibiotic use and other covariates. We sequenced 78 ESBL- Ec from 47 children to explore their diversity. Gut-colonization with ESBL- Ec was increasingly prevalent as children aged, approaching 75% by 16 months, while ESBL-KEC prevalence fluctuated between 18% and 36%. Through 6 months of age, exclusively providing human milk in the 30 days prior to a stool sample did not reduce children's risk of incident gut-colonization with ESBL- Ec or ESBL-KEC. From 6 to 16 months of age, every 3 additional days of breastfeeding in the prior 30 days was associated with 6% lower risk of incident ESBL- Ec gut-colonization (95% CI: 0.90, 0.98, p  = .003). No effects were observed on incident ESBL-KEC colonization. We detected highly diverse ESBL- Ec among children and few differences between children who were predominantly breastfed (mean age: 4.1 months) versus older children (10.8 months). Continued breastfeeding after 6 months conferred protection against children's incident gut colonization with ESBL- Ec in this setting. Policies supporting continued breastfeeding should be considered in efforts to combat antibiotic resistance.

Background: Telementoring seems to be a promising strategy to deliver training and counselling to physicians in remote areas. In Peru, early graduated physicians must work for the Rural and Urban-Edge Health Service Program where they face important training needs. The aim of this study was to describe the usage of a one-on-one telementoring program for rural physicians and evaluate the aspects related to the perceptions of acceptability and usability., Methods: Mixed methods study on recently graduated physicians who work in rural areas and participate in the telementoring program. The program used a mobile application to connect these young doctors with specialized mentors to answer queries about real-life problems raised by working in a rural area. We summarize administrative data to assess participant characteristics and their participation in the program. Additionally, we conducted in-depth interviews to explore the perceived usability, ease of use, and reason for non-use of the telementoring program., Results: Of 74 physicians (mean age 25, 51.4% women) enrolled, 12 (16.2%) actively used the program and performed a total of 27 queries, which received response in an average time of 5.4 ± 6.3 h. In the interviews, the main reasons for non-use were connectivity issues, feelings of shame, and self-efficacy. For those who used the telementoring program they referred it was easy to use and solve their inquiries timely., Conclusions: The implementation of a telementoring program sought to provide guidance to recently graduated physicians working in rural areas. Low use rates show that administrative and process-related deficiencies in the program implementation need to be improved., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Background: In Peru, there is an increase in the creation of mobile health (mHealth) apps; however, this situation could present problems related to the quality of information these apps share, data security and privacy, usability, and effectiveness, as there is no specific local regulation about their creation and use., Objective: The objective of this study was to review mHealth apps created, uploaded, or used in Peru, and perform an analysis of the national regulatory framework that could be applied to evaluate whether there is a need to develop and implement a specific regulation to these apps., Methods: A total of 3 reviews were performed. First, we reviewed information about Peruvian mHealth apps created up to May 2019 from scientific publications, news, government communications, and virtual stores, and evaluated their purpose, creator, and the available evidence of their usability and effectiveness. The second review was carried out by taking a sample of the 10 most commonly used mHealth apps in Peru (regardless of the country of creation), to evaluate the information they collect and classify them according to the possible risks that they could present in terms of security and privacy. In addition, we evaluated whether they refer to or endorse the information they provided. Finally, in the third review, we searched for Peruvian standards related to electronic health (eHealth) that involve information technology that can be applied to regulate these apps., Results: A total of 66 apps meeting our inclusion criteria were identified; of these, 47% (n=31) belonged to government agencies and 47% (n=31) were designed for administrative purposes (private and government agencies). There was no evidence about the usability or effectiveness of any of these apps. Concerning the 10 most commonly used mHealth apps in Peru, about the half of them gathered user information that could be leaked, changed, or lost, thus posing a great harm to their users or to their related patients. In addition, 6/10 (60%) of these apps did not mention the source of the information they provided. Among the Peruvian norms, the Law on the Protection of Personal Data, Law on Medical Devices, and administrative directives on standards and criteria for health information systems have some regulations that could be applied to these apps; however, these do not fully cover all aspects concerning the evaluation of security and privacy of data, quality of provided information, and evidence of an app's usability and effectiveness., Conclusions: Because many Peruvian mHealth apps have issues related to security and privacy of data, quality of information provided, and lack of available evidence of their usability and effectiveness, there is an urgent need to develop a regulatory framework based on existing medical device and health information system norms in order to promote the evaluation and regulation of all the aforesaid aspects, including the creation of a national repository for these apps that describes all these characteristics., (©Leonardo Rojas Mezarina, Javier Silva-Valencia, Stefan Escobar-Agreda, Daniel Hector Espinoza Herrera, Miguel S Egoavil, Mirko Maceda Kuljich, Fiorella Inga-Berrospi, Sergio Ronceros. Originally published in JMIR mHealth and uHealth (http://mhealth.jmir.org), 10.07.2020.)

Objective: Given the evidence missing from validity studies that replicate the internal structure of the Mental Health Inventory - 5 (MHI-5) in Peruvian adolescents, this study performs a preliminary evaluation of the psychometric properties of MHI-5, specifically its internal structure., Methods: The sample was 75 students of both sexes from a private high school-level educational institution, in the Casma city (Lima, Peru). The analysis was performed by applying a confirmatory factor analysis approach within the modeling of structural equations., Results: A single significant dimension was found to be viable for interpreting the scores, but the fit was substantially improved when a factor was introduced that represented the effect of two item negative phrasing. On the other hand, the internal consistency was greater than .70, and it is considered satisfactory given its brevity., Conclusions: It is concluded that the MHI-5 maintains the essential one-dimensionality, but it is required to introduce the possible effect of the method due to the content of some of its items. Consistency reliability was acceptable for screening purposes. The following steps are discussed to accumulate more validity evidence, suggesting to develop a shorter version without the problematic items, to reduce the potential response bias.

We aim to determine the prevalence of self prescribing behaviour during pregnancy and its characteristics. For this purpose, we designed a cross sectional study and interviewed 400 pregnant women who had their prenatal care at Instituto Nacional Materno Perinatal, Lima. We found that 10.5% of the patients (42 patients) had a self prescribing behavior during pregnancy, 64.5% think that self prescribing behavior can produce congenital malformations. The medications used were classified as type A and B according to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Paracetamol was used more frequently (47.6%) followed by amoxicillin (16.7%). All the women who self-prescribed have had this behavior before pregnancy. According to these results, we conclude there is a low prevalence of self-prescribing behavior during pregnancy compared to the international literature.

Objectives: To estimate the prevalence and associated factors with the labor porjection in the countryside of physicians from Lima., Materials and Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study of 782 physicians who were surveyed during their affiliation at Peruvian Medical College during March and April 2010. Labor projection in the countryside was defined such as if they responded "inside the country" to the question "Where do you plan to be working in the next five years?" We used a multiple logistic regression model to find the associated factors., Results: The average age of the participants was 25 years, 54% were female and 73% graduated in private universities. Only 7.0% reported plans to work in the countryside and 0,5% in rural areas. No association with gender, place of birth, having physicians in their family, university type, the english efficiency, having resided for more than a one year in the provinces and the year of completion of internship was found. In the multivariate analysis, we found association with having made the internship inside the country (OR: 3.1, 95%CI :1.5-6.3), communicate in Quechua (OR: 2.9, CI 1.4- 6.1), both parents born in the countryside (OR: 2.8, CI :1.4-5.6), while a monthly salary projection of more than $ 1780 dollars (OR: 0.4 CI :0.2-0,8) and living with their nuclear family or partner (OR: 0.3, CI :0.1-0.5) were negatively associated., Conclusions: Labor projection of work in the countryside of recently collegiated physicians from Lima is low. Some of the factors found can help to design strategies to reverse this situation.

Background: Lung hydatid cyst caused by Echinococcus granulosus is endemic in many areas of the world. We aimed to compare the outcome of surgical treatment in intact and ruptured (infected or noninfected) cysts., Methods: We reviewed the medical records of 115 patients with lung hydatid disease who were surgically treated between 2001 and 2005 in a tertiary hospital in Lima, Peru. Patients were divided into 3 groups based on cyst characteristics: intact cysts (n = 41), ruptured noninfected cysts (n = 47) and ruptured infected cysts (n = 27). If a patient had more than one type of cyst, the most severe form of disease was recorded. Data related to symptoms, morbidity and mortality were recorded and compared. We also calculated direct patient costs., Results: Mean age of patients was 23.6 +/- 15.1 years old. Ruptured cysts were present in 64 % of patients and giant cysts (> 10 cm diameter) were present in 26 % of patients. Hemoptysis was present in 47.0 % of patients and was more frequent in patients with ruptured infected cysts. Lung resection was performed in 58 % of patients. The most common postoperative complication was infection of the operative wound (6.08 %). Perioperative mortality was zero. Patients with ruptured cysts had a longer hospitalization time and higher total cost (12.28 +/- 0.92 days, US$ 890.34 +/- 303.35) than patients with intact cysts (10.17 +/- 0.79 days, US$ 724.81 +/- 14.38)., Conclusion: Surgical treatment of lung hydatid disease is safe, with a good outcome and a low mortality rate. The lung resection rate was higher than most published series and reflects the relatively high proportion of patients with giant and ruptured infected cysts.