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A novel influenza A (H1N1) virus has spread rapidly across the globe. Judging its pandemic potential is difficult with limited data, but nevertheless essential to inform appropriate health responses. By analyzing the outbreak in Mexico, early data on international spread, and viral genetic diversity, we make an early assessment of transmissibility and severity. Our estimates suggest that 23,000 (range 6000 to 32,000) individuals had been infected in Mexico by late April, giving an estimated case fatality ratio (CFR) of 0.4% (range: 0.3 to 1.8%) based on confirmed and suspected deaths reported to that time. In a community outbreak in the small community of La Gloria, Veracruz, no deaths were attributed to infection, giving an upper 95% bound on CFR of 0.6%. Thus, although substantial uncertainty remains, clinical severity appears less than that seen in the 1918 influenza pandemic but comparable with that seen in the 1957 pandemic. Clinical attack rates in children in La Gloria were twice that in adults (

It is widely accepted that psychiatric comorbidity can increase the severity, chronicity, and treatment resistance of psychiatric disorders. In various studies worldwide, it has been estimated that the prevalence of alcohol use disorders in women with disordered eating behaviors (DEB) is situated at between 2.9 and 48.6%. It is worth noting that previous studies have not considered the analysis of the variables that could explain the comorbidity between DEB and alcohol use in adolescents, such as impulsivity, which is the key variable for explaining this comorbidity. On the other hand, most studies have addressed the adult population in psychiatric hospitals or people with eating disorders (ED) or alcohol use disorders. It is considered that those subjects have already developed psychiatric comorbid disorders. Impulsivity could be an unspecific trait that aggravates the psychiatric condition of a determined person and it is therefore more likely for that person to seek specialized care. According to the above, the role of impulsivity in the comorbidity of ED and alcohol use might not be similar to that of the general population, mostly among those who have not yet developed a whole clinical syndrome. Therefore, we consider that it is important to clarify the involvement of impulsivity in the comorbidity between disordered eating behaviors (DEB) and binge drinking (BD) in high school students. It is also crucial to analyze the association between impulsivity and the coexistence of DEB and binge drinking (BD) in female students aged between 15 and 19 years at public high schools in the State of Mexico. Methods Data for this study were drawn from the Project entitled "Prevalence and Factors Associated with Disordered Eating Behaviors in Adolescent Women with Different Levels of Urbanization and Migration Intensity" (CONACyT-SEP-2004-46560). The design for this study is cross-sectional and analytical. A sample of 2357 female students at 11 public high schools in the State of Mexico was randomly selected during the 2006-2007 school year. For data collection for this project, a questionnaire was used that included socio-demographic variables, the Plutchik Impulsivity Scale (PIS),the Brief Questionnaire to Measure Risky Eating Behaviors (BQREB) and the questions on alcohol use included in the Questionnaire of Surveys on Substance Use in Students in Mexico (2003 version). Data were analyzed with the STATA version 10 survey function. Results Impulsivity was associated with the coexistence of DEB and BD (U=224427; p<0.01). The 3.5% of female students with impulsivity presented DEB and BD together vs. 0.6% who did not; 19.6% of female students with impulsivity presented one of the two behaviors vs. 7.8% without this trait. Impulsivity was associated positively and significantly with the coexistence of DEB and BD (t=3.8; p<0.01), regardless of socioeconomic variables, such as the father's educational attainment, the mother's educational attainment, and the number of services in the household. Conclusion The results of this paper indicate a statistically significant association between impulsivity and the coexistence of DEB and BD. This means that there is a greater percentage of coexistence of DEB and BD in female high school students considered to be impulsive in comparison with adolescents without this trait. This occurs regardless of socioeconomic variables, such as the father's educational attainment, the mother's educational attainment, and the number of services in the household. Future research should establish the role of other variables such as depression and examine the association of impulsivity with socioeconomic variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Depressive symptoms constitute a common mental health problem, with a relevant social and personal impact. These symptoms are present not only among the urban population in more economically developed countries, but also in rural areas in poor and middle development countries. In order to obtain reliable information on the frequency of depressive symptoms, their risk factors or the impact of preventive and clinical measures, valid measurement instruments are needed. Radloff's Center for Epidemiological Studies - Depression scale (CES-D) was originally developed for the study of depressive symptoms in an open population. While the CES-D is not useful for the evaluation of depressive disorders according to psychiatric criteria, it can still yield useful information about the presence of depressed mood, feelings of guilt and worthlessness, feelings of helplessness and hopelessness, psychomotor retardation, and somatic complaints, which constitute dimensions of depression. The instrument has been shown to be valid in culturally diverse groups. It has also been shown to correlate with the clinical diagnosis of depression, with sensibility as high as 100%, while its specificity has been reported as 57-88%. Shorter versions of the CES-D have been developed. Their advantages include a more easy inclusion in ample questionnaires, and their being less tiresome for respondents. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of CES-D, both the original, 20- item version, and the 10- item version by Andresen et al., in women living in the Mixteca, a poor rural area which includes part of the states of Guerrero, Oaxaca and Puebla, in southern Mexico. The instrument was applied as part of a comprehensive survey on health and migration in three rural municipalities in the Mixteca. The sampling design included cluster, proportional to size sampling of localities, and systematic selection of households. At each household, one woman of between 15 and 49 years of age responded a questionnaire which included the CES-D. A total of 468 women were included in the sample (median 35 yrs, interquartile range 28, 42). Of these, 89% were married or had a stable partner, 5% were single, 13% separated, and 12% widowed. The majority (65%) had only six years of schooling, while 16% had no formal education. The statistical analysis was conducted on the 343 questionnaires with complete answers to the CES-D (73% of the sample). The mean score in CES-D-20 was 11.3 (standard deviation 8.8). The mean score in CES-D-10 was 6.3 (standard deviation 5.0). According to the respective cut-off points, prevalence of depressive symptoms was 24.5% for the CES-D-20 and 22.3% for CES-D-10. A descriptive statistical analysis of the scores in each item and in the complete scales was conducted. In order to evaluate the internal consistency of CES-D, both 10- and 20- item versions, inter-item and item-total correlations were calculated. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was also obtained. Factor analysis was employed to determine if the actual aggregation of the items was coherent with the theoretical dimensions they were intended to measure. Another way to prove validity was through the analysis of the association between the score in the CES-D and the answers to questions about «nervios», an ethnical syndrome well recognized in the region and sharing characteristics with depression. Also, the association of scores with other variables known to be related to depressive symptoms, such as being chronically ill or the educational level, was investigated. In order to evaluate CES-D-10 capacity to identify depressive symptoms, taking the CES-D-20 as reference, Spearman's correlation coefficient between the scores in both scales was calculated. The kappa statistic was employed to evaluate the concordance between scales in the classification of individuals according to their respective cut-off points.… [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a study on the validation of the Eating Disorder Inventory (EDI) in examining Mexicans with eating disorders. This measurement provides an evaluative strategy covering various psychological characteristics such as drive for thinness, body dissatisfaction, ineffectiveness, perfectionism, and maturity fears. Based on a non-probabilistic analysis of patients with eating disorders, results showed that EDI is an effective measure in assessing their psychological traits.