Ricardo Cartes-Velásquez

Exponential growth of dental schools in Chile: effects on academic, economic and workforce issues

In the last 30 years, Chile has undergone noteworthy economic development and an exponential growth in the access of its population to higher education. The aim of this paper was to review the changes in academic, economic and workforce issues that occurred as a consequence of the growth in supply of undergraduate dental vacancies between 1997 and 2011. Data collected from the Consejo de Educación Superior - CES, Comisión Nacional de Acreditación - CNA, and Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas de Chile - INE included these variables: number of dental schools, school type (private or traditional, see explanation below), city where the school is located, entry vacancies, total student enrollment, admission scores, percentile rank of dentistry as a university career, tuition fees, accreditation status, and number of inhabitants. There was an exponential increase in dental schools in Chile (5 to 34) that occurred in association with the rise in tuition fees (US

Prevalencia de síndrome metabólico en individuos de etnia Mapuche residentes en zonas rurales y urbanas de Chile

3900 to US

Maloclusiones y su Impacto Psicosocial en Estudiantes de un Liceo Intercultural

9800), a deterioration in the academic level of dental students (650 to 550 points in admission scores) and a predicted 77.5% oversupply of dentists by 2025, according to WHO criteria. The exponential increase in dental schools in Chile brought about negative consequences, such as increasing career costs, deterioration in the academic level of dental students, and an oversupply of dentists, associated with lower incomes and possibly leading to unemployment. Additional research should be conducted to determine whether an increase in the number of dentists can improve the populations access to dental care and reduce the oral disease burden.

Prevalencia de hipertensión arterial en comunidades pehuenches, Alto Biobio

BACKGROUND Metabolic Syndrome (MS) increases the risk of diabetes and mortality associated with cardiovascular disease. However, the prevalence of MS could differ by ethnicity and lifestyle factors. AIM To determine the prevalence of MS in Mapuche individuals living in urban and rural environments in Chile and to investigate whether the prevalence and risk of MS in urban and rural environments differs by sex, age and nutritional status. MATERIAL AND METHODS A total of 1077 Mapuche participants were recruited from urban (MU = 288) and rural (MR = 789) settings. Body mass index, waist circumference and blood pressure were measured. A fasting blood sample was obtained to measure serum glucose, HDL cholesterol and triacylglycerol. The prevalence of MS was determined using the unified IDF and ATP-III criteria. RESULTS An environment and sex interaction was found for the prevalence of MS (p = 0.042). The prevalence was significantly lower in male MR (13%) compared to other groups (22, 23 and 25% among female MR, female MU and male MU respectively). Also, the prevalence of central obesity and low HDL-cholesterol were significantly lower in male MR. MU are at an increased risk of developing MS compared to MR, with an odds ratio of 1.59 (95% confidence intervals 1.1 to 2.2). This risk increases along with age or body mass index of the population. CONCLUSIONS The adoption of an urbanized lifestyle increases the risk of developing MS in Mapuche individuals. This risk is enhanced by age and nutritional status.

Impacto y visibilidad de la Revista Chilena de Cirugía tras su indización en las bases de datos SciELO e ISI: Análisis bibliométrico

Las maloclusiones estan consideradas como la tercera patologia oral de mayor prevalencia e impacto en el mundo, a pesar de esto son pocos los estudios en Chile que abordan el tema y consideran sus consecuencias en la calidad de vida o su relacion con grupos poblacionales especificos. El objetivo de este estudio es determinar la prevalencia y su impacto psicosocial en jovenes que estudian en un liceo con poblacion indigena. Se realizo un estudio descriptivo de corte transversal, en 129 alumnos, 73,6% pehuenche, del Liceo de Ralco; se utilizo el Indice Estetico Dental para cuantificar la magnitud de las maloclusiones y un Cuestionario de Autoimagen para evaluar el aspecto psicosocial. Los resultados muestran una prevalencia del 67,4% y un 21,7% para el nivel discapacitante de maloclusiones, siendo significativamente mayor en poblacion pehuenche y rural, valores por sobre el de estadisticas nacionales e internacionales. A mas de la mitad de los jovenes las maloclusiones le ocasionan problemas para relacionarse con sus pares. Todo lo anterior hace necesario implementar estrategias preventivas y curativas que den solucion a este problema.

PAUTAS DE CHEQUEO, PARTE II: QUOROM Y PRISMA

La prevalencia de HTA corresponde al 24,5%; no pesquisamos diferencias estadisticamente sig-nificativas por sexo, etnia ni estado nutricional. En cam-bio, si las hubo por edad, donde las personas mayores te-nian una mayor prevalencia y gravedad de HTA que sus contrapartes mas jovenes; el 70,59% de los mayores de 65 anos tenia HTA. De la misma forma, se aprecia un au-mento progresivo de las presiones diastolicas, sistolicas y medias con la edad. Solo el 32% de la poblacion pre-viamente diagnosticada tenia presiones en rango normal.

Pautas de chequeo, parte I: consort y trend

Objetivo: Caracterizar la visibilidad internacional e impacto de la Revista Chilena de Cirugia (RCC) tras su indizacion en las bases SciELO (2006) e ISI (2009). Metodo: Busqueda en la plataforma WOK de Thomson-Reuters de las citaciones ISI de articulos de la RCC en el periodo pre-indizacion (1992-2005), indizacion SciELO (2006-2008), e indizacion ISI (2009-2011). Las variables analizadas fueron: numero total y promedio anual de citas a la RCC, de articulos de la RCC citados y de articulos que citan a la RCC; autores, revistas e instituciones que citaron, asi como su caracter (nacional e internacional), y las citas trienales. Resultados: El promedio anual de citas ISI en el periodo pre-indizacion, SciELO e ISI fue de 16,9; 58,3 y 164,7, respectivamente; mientras que el grado de internacionalizacion de los articulos que originaron las citas a nivel de autores-instituciones/revistas para cada periodo fue de 8,6% / 32,4%; 8,5% / 38,3%; y 25,8% / 33,6%, respectivamente; las citas trienales de cada periodo fueron 3, 12 y 34. Las revistas con mas citas a RCC fueron Rev Med Chile, RCC, World J Surg y Cir Esp, mientras que a nivel de autores-instituciones vemos una concentracion en la Universidad de Chile, Pontificia Universidad Catolica y Universidad de La Frontera. Conclusion: La indizacion de RCC en las bases SciELO e ISI ha traido un incremento en su impacto (citas) y visibilidad internacional, aunque persiste una fuerte citacion endogamica que debe ser resuelta a fin de alcanzar un buen nivel internacional.

Effects of a Nintendo Wii exercise program on spasticity and static standing balance in spastic cerebral palsy

cheklists, part ii: QuOrum and Prisma Systematic reviews, especially those that include meta-analysis, are the designs that provide the highest level of evidence. However, like other research designs, they can present with low quality reports that undermine the contribution they can make to readers, generating doubts about their validity. To address this situation, various actors in the biomedical sciences developed in the mid 1990s the qUORUM statement, consisting of 18 items grouped into six domains, with the aim of improving the quality of reports of metaanalyzes. In 2009 the same group published the PRISMA statement as an evolution of the previous one, allowing conducting systematic reviews of randomized clinical trials and other types of design, consisting of 7 domains with 27 items. Like other checklists, their impact in the practice has been variable, but certainly contributes to the improvement of the report. This article describes both checklists for use by the authors of the Revista Chilena de Cirugia, in order to achieve an improvement of their articles in a simple and efficient way.

Does Nintendo Wii Balance Board improve standing balance? A randomised controlled trial in children with cerebral palsy.

cheklists, part i: cOnsOrt and trend One of the most common problems in scientific articles is its poor reporting, a situation that leads to lack of information, affecting internal and external validity, questioning his contribution and usefulness. This has been studied leading to propositions by the international scientific community, reflected in a series of guidelines or checklists as COnSORT and TRE nD for randomized clinical trials (RCTs) and non-randomized intervention studies (nRISs) respectively. The COnSORT checklist was created in 1996, with a final version in 2010, consisting of 25 items, grouped into 6 domains: Title and Summary, Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, and Other information; representing the critical points in a RCT report. In many cases RCTs are no feasible so other research designs such as nRISs has to be executed, for this design the TREn D checklist was developed in 2004, consisting of 22 items, grouped into 5 domains: Title and Summary, Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion. Even when the evidence has been contradictory regarding the impact of these checklists, they represent an important tool to improve biomedical research. This article tries to explain these checklists and encourage its use by the authors of the Revista Chilena de Cirugia, in function to contribute to continuous improvement of their articles in a simple and efficient way.

Instructions for the Use of MInCir Scale to Assess Methodological Quality in Therapy Studies

ABSTRACT Objective: This study sought to evaluate the effects of a Nintendo Wii Balance Board (NWBB) intervention on ankle spasticity and static standing balance in young people with spastic cerebral palsy (SCP). Methods: Ten children and adolescents (aged 72–204 months) with SCP participated in an exercise program with NWBB. The intervention lasted 6 weeks, 3 sessions per week, 25 minutes for each session. Ankle spasticity was assessed using the Modified Modified Ashworth Scale (MMAS), and static standing balance was quantified using posturographic measures (center-of-pressure [CoP] measures). Pre- and post-intervention measures were compared. Results: Significant decreases of spasticity in the ankle plantar flexor muscles (p < 0.01). There was also a significant reduction in the CoP sway area (p = 0.04), CoP mediolateral velocity (p =0.03), and CoP anterior–posterior velocity (p = 0.03). Conclusion: A 6-session NWBB program reduces the spasticity at the ankle plantar flexors and improves the static standing balance in young people with SCP.