BackgroundSuicide affects people from different backgrounds, ethnical groups, socio-economic status and geographical locations. In Latin America, suicide reports arescarce, specially in Andean countries. In Ecuador, very few reports have partially described this phenomenon, nonetheless, estimation of the burden of disease (BoD) hasnever been reported in the country.MethodsA country-wide comparison was performed using the Ministry of Public Health’s national databases of overall mortality, Hospital Discharges Database, and the Population Census of the National Institute of Census and Statistics (INEC). The study variables analyzed were age, geographical distribution to provincial level, sex, means of suicide, educational attainment, marital status and mortality. Linear Regression and relative Risk analysis were used to predict outcome and the likelihood that suicide occur among study variables.ResultsIn the last 15 years, 13,024 suicides were officially reported. Men were 3 times more likely than women to die by suicide. The overall age-adjusted suicide ratio in Ecuador corresponds to 7.1 per 100,000 per year. The sex-specific rates were 5.3 in women and 13.2 in men. The primary mean of suicide was hanging X70 (51.1%), followed by self-poisoning X68-X69 (35.2%) and firearms X72-X74 (7.6%). Provinces located at higher altitude reported higher rates than those located at sea level (9 per 100,000 vs 4.5 per 100.000). The total economic loss due to suicide was estimated to be $852.6 million during the 15 years’ analysis.ConclusionsThis is the first geodemographic study exploring the complete burden of suicide in Ecuador and one of the very few in Latin-America. In the last 15 years of available data, Ecuador ranks above the regional average with an adjusted suicide rate of 7.1 per 100,000 inhabitants. An important finding is that Suicide affects rather younger populations, adding more than 10,000 years of premature years of life lost (YYL) between 2001 and 2015, becoming the first and fourth leading cause of death among adolescent women and men respectively.Suicide affects people from different backgrounds, socioeconomic status and educational attainment. The mean of suicide changed over time showing that gun and pesticides related deaths decreased significantly since 2001, while hanging and suffocation increased in more than 50%.

ObjectivesTo describe the epidemiology of abortion in Ecuador from 2004 to 2014 and compare the prevalence between the public and the private health care systems.MethodsThis is a cross-sectional analysis of the overall mortality and morbidity rate due to abortion in Ecuador, based on public health records and other government databases.ResultsFrom 2004 to 2014, a total of 431,614 spontaneous abortions, miscarriage and other types of abortions were registered in Ecuador. The average annual rate of abortion was 115 per 1,000 live births. The maternal mortality rate was found to be 43 per 100,000 live births.ConclusionsAbortion is a significant and wide-ranging problem in Ecuador. The study supports the perception that in spite of legal restrictions to abortion in Ecuador, women are still terminating pregnancies when they feel they need to do so. The public health system reported >84% of the national overall prevalence.

El objetivo de esta investigación fue determinar las características fisicoquímicas de suelos deuso agrícola y forestal en San Pablo de Tarugo, Chone, provincia de Manabí, Ecuador. Se empleó elmétodo analítico descriptivo y técnicas como la entrevista y la observación directa. Se realizaronanálisis de multielementos (nitrógeno amoniacal, fósforo, potasio, calcio y magnesio), textura,densidad aparente, pH, conductividad eléctrica, materia orgánica y color en muestras en suelosagrícola (cultivo de yuca) y forestal. La textura del suelo agrícola es arcillo-arenosa, mientrasque el suelo forestal es franco; la densidad aparente fue de 0.44 g/cm3 y 0.76 g/cm3 en sueloforestal, respectivamente; el suelo agrícola es ácido (5.50) y el suelo forestal es neutro (7.25); losmultielementos reflejaron valores similares en ambos suelos; y, en ambos suelos predominan lastonalidades oscuras. La conductividad eléctrica es menor en suelo agrícola (216.67 uS/cm), puesel suelo forestal alcanzó los 400.00 uS/cm; asimismo, el suelo forestal contiene más del doble demateria orgánica (30.00 %), evidenciándose diferentes características fisicoquímicas en los suelosanalizados.

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