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Objective: To characterize the epidemiology, identify trends in prevalence, seasonality, and risk factors for orofacial clefts (OFC), selecting the São Paulo state (SPS) population database., Design: A population-based study to estimate the OFC prevalence trends in recent years, stratified by maternal age and SPS geographical clusters., Setting: All live births (LB) with OFC in SPS from 2008-2019., Patients: 5342 cases of OFC among 7 301 636 LB., Interventions: Not applicable., Main Outcome Measures: OFC prevalence trends, annual percent change (APC) with a 95% confidence interval, and seasonality., Results: We found an OFC prevalence of 7.3/10 000LB in SPS, Brazil. Among all the cases, the majority were male (57.1%), Caucasian (65.4%), 77.8% born at term, 75.8% weight >2500 g, 97.1% singleton, and 63.9% of births were by cesarean section. From 2008-2019, SPS presented a stationary OFC prevalence trend; in São Paulo city, the highest APC was observed (0.05%); the maternal age group with the highest OFC prevalence rate was ≥35 years (9.2/10 000LB). We identified the existence of seasonal variation based on the conception date in the final months of the year, corresponding to the spring season ( P  < .001)., Conclusion: OFC had a stationary prevalence trend in recent years, with the highest prevalence in the Central North Cluster and ≥35 years maternal age group. Seasonality was observed in the spring season, and congenital malformation of lips was the most common associated pathology. This population-based study is the first to summarize the current epidemiology of OFC in SPS., Competing Interests: Declaration of Conflicting InterestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

In Latin American countries, obesity prevalence has increased significantly as a result of rapid urbanization and an improvement in socioeconomic conditions. We report the prevalence of overweight and/or obesity and prevention efforts in five countries: Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, Peru, and Chile. In children, the highest and lowest rates of obesity are found in Chile (23 % in 6-year-olds) and Peru (1.8 % in those <5 years), respectively. In adults, Mexico and Chile present similar high rates of obesity (around 35 %), whereas in Brazil and Colombia, the rates are around 20 % and 16.5 %, respectively. In general, the highest prevalence occurs in low-income women. Every country has developed initiatives to target obesity, from the government to the private sector and academia, mainly at the health sector and school settings. Food labeling is being addressed, but has not been implemented yet. Two interventions are described, a community-based in Mexico and a school-based in Chile. Because the increase in chronic diseases, especially diabetes, has paralleled that of obesity, effective prevention efforts are urgently needed.

In public health, social interventions for promoting health and preventing disease are common. Bibliographical investigations in the fields of Health and Information Science showed that the strategic use of information is based on power, knowledge and ethics. This paper shows the importance of information as an element of change in the cognitive structure of the individual, member of a community, where these actions take place. To this purpose, informational strategies were created based on concepts coming from areas such as Communication, Linguistics, Cognition, Sociology, Anthropology and Education. These strategies act at the moment the information is transferred; they use the appropriate speech pattern; facilitate the understanding of the information by the individual; put the information into context; act upon the imposition and legitimation of the information; and help educating the individual through information. Considering all these aspects, information used in a strategic way will be a link between health professionals and the communities they intend to change.