V. Hernández Barrera

Self-perception of health status, mental health and quality of life among adults with diabetes residing in a metropolitan area.

AIM The study aimed to compare the self-perception of health, physiological distress and health-related quality of life (HRQL) in subjects with and without diabetes residing in a large metropolitan area (the city of Madrid), and to identify the variables associated with the poorest HRQL among diabetes patients. METHODS In this case-control epidemiological study, we selected 358 patients with diabetes from the Madrid City Health Survey. For every patient, two controls without diabetes were randomly selected from the same database and matched for age, gender and health district. The resultant study population comprised 1074 subjects, who were analyzed according to their self-rated health status, with mental health assessed by the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) and HRQL by the COOP/WONCA questionnaire. Independent variables included sociodemographic characteristics, lifestyle variables, associated chronic diseases and consumption of medications. Multivariate analyses were conducted using ANCOVA tests. RESULTS The prevalence of health perceived as fair or poor was 64.12% in those with diabetes vs 38.57% in those without diabetes (P<0.05). The GHQ-12 results showed that mental health was also significantly worse among diabetes sufferers, and the COOP/WONCA questionnaire results indicated significantly poorer HRQL in those with diabetes. The variables that determined a poorer perception of HRQL among diabetes sufferers were female gender, older age, obesity, lack of physical exercise, coexistence of depression, use of sleeping pills, and Alzheimers and cerebrovascular diseases. CONCLUSION Self-rated health and psychological well-being, and HRQL, are all considerably poorer among patients with diabetes vs those without diabetes. The poorest quality of life among those with diabetes associated with female gender, depression, lack of exercise and obesity.

Patterns of medication use in the immigrant population resident in Spain: associated factors.

This study mainly aimed at to ascertain to ascertain the prevalence of the consumption of medications, prescribed and self‐medicated, among the immigrant population (economic immigrants and not economic immigrants) resident in Spain, and to identify the factors associated with such consumption in this population.

Actividad física en niños españoles: Factores asociados y evolución 2003-2006

espanolel sedentarismo es uno de los principales problemas de la sociedad actual. Este estudio analiza los principales factores que inciden en los habitos de actividad fisica en jovenes espanoles entre 6 y 15 anos, y determina las principales tendencias de la actividad fisica en el tiempo libre entre el ano 2003 y 2006. Metodos: estudio descriptivo realizado con los datos de la Encuesta Nacional de Salud (ENS) de 2003 y 2006. El tamano de la muestra es de 4.420 ninos entre 6 y 15 anos en el 2003 y de 5.771 en el 2006. Se realizo un primer analisis univariante, una regresion logistica multivariante y finalmente calculamos la tendencia. Resultados: el 78,3% y 89,1% de esta poblacion eran ninos activos en el 2003 y 2006 respectivamente. El porcentaje de ninos activos era superior al de ninas para todas las categorias de edad, excepto para el rango de edad de 6-7 anos del 2003. Los ninos con una buena salud (valorada por sus padres) eran mas activos que los que no la tenian. Los jovenes cuyos padres tienen niveles de educacion altos practican mas actividad fisica que los de padres con estudios inferiores. Conclusiones: la juventud realiza mas ejercicio en su tiempo libre conforme aumenta su edad. Las estrategias dirigidas a la promocion de la actividad fisica en esta poblacion deben tener en cuenta las variables edad, sexo, percepcion de la salud y nivel de estudios del cabeza de familia principalmente. Englishsedentary lifestyle is one of the main problems in present-day society. This study analyzes the main factors that have an influence on the physical activity habits among Spanish young people aged 6 to 15 and determines its main trends during leisure time from 2003 to 2006. Methods: this is a cross-sectional study. The sample size is 4,420 children aged 6 to 15 in 2003 and 5,771 in 2006. A first univariate analysis is carried out and then, with the resulting significant variables, a multivariant logistic regression is made. Finally, the trend is determined. Results: seventy-eight point three percent and the 89.1% of these children were active in 2003 and 2006 respectively. The percentage of active boys was higher than that of girls for all age categories, except for children aged 6 to 7 in 2003. Children with a good health (considered by their parents) were more active than those without it. Those young people whose parents have high educational levels, practice more physical activity than those whose parents have lower studies. Conclusions: youth practise more exercise during their leisure time ultimately. The strategies directed to promote physical activity in children must take into account characteristics of age, sex, health perception and educational level of the head of the household.

Evolución en las coberturas vacunales antigripales en la Comunidad de Madrid entre los años 1993 y 2001

Resumen Introduccion La vacuna frente a la gripe es una medida de prevencion efectiva y segura. Los objetivos de este trabajo son calcular, para la Comunidad Autonoma de Madrid (CAM), las coberturas antigripales en 1993 y 2001, describir los factores asociados a la vacunacion y analizar la evolucion temporal entre estos anos. Sujetos y metodo Se han analizado los datos de los 1.985 y 1.998 adultos residentes en la CAM incluidos en las encuestas nacionales de salud (ENS) de los anos 1993 y 2001. Se calcularon las coberturas vacunales antigripales para cada ano y se analizo la influencia de la edad, el sexo y la presencia de enfermedades cronicas. Se ha empleado el analisis de regresion logistica para valorar cuales de estas variables tienen un efecto independiente en la vacunacion antigripal y para analizar la evolucion temporal de las coberturas. Resultados Para el total de la muestra se estima una cobertura vacunal en 1993 del 18,57% y en 2001 del 19,8%. En el modelo multivariable se observa una mejoria significativa entre 1993 y 2001 en las coberturas del grupo ≥ 65 anos. Sin embargo, no encontramos cambios significativos para el grupo Conclusiones Los sujetos con enfermedades de riesgo y edad