Consumption of alcoholic beverages is widely encouraged by the mass media, despite the related health risks. Today's students in the health fields are the professionals of tomorrow who will be providing advice and serving as role models for patients. The aim of this study was to analyze alcohol consumption and related factors among these students. A total of 608 male and female university students from Maceió, the capital of Alagoas State, Brazil, completed a self-administered questionnaire. Data analysis included Poisson regression and multinomial logistic models. Prevalence of lifetime use of alcohol was 90.4%. Prevalence of alcohol abuse was 18.3% in men and 6.1% in women. Heavier alcohol consumption and alcohol abuse were observed in males, older students, non-natives of Maceió, smokers, and those exposed to alcohol advertising. The results emphasized the vulnerability of these young people to risky health behaviors. Their future social role highlights distinct needs in their university education to enable them to act professionally in this area.

In this article, we analyze the physical and mental stress and illness of military and civil police force officers in the State of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) due to their working conditions and professional activities. The same methodology was used for the study of two categories, namely a quantitative approach (simple random sampling by conglomerates, involving a total of 1,458 civil police officers and 1,108 military police officers, who answered questionnaires anonymously) and a qualitative approach (focal groups involving 143 professionals and 18 interviews with managers of both police forces). The data presented here are all original. Disorders identified were: overweight and obesity in both forces but mainly in the Military Police; low frequency of physical exercise and high levels of cholesterol, especially in the Civil Police. The main health complaints are neck, back or spinal cord pain, eyesight complaints and headaches/ migraines. Sixteen point two per cent of officers of both forces reported physical lesions that were more prevalent in the Military Police, among whom psychic suffering was also more frequent (SRQ20). The need for changes in the individual and professional dimensions and in institutional aspects regarding the conditions and organization of work and of health services is emphasized.

Resumo O artigo propõe a padronização da escala de auto-estima de Rosenberg (1956Rosenberg ( /1989) para adolescentes residentes de um bairro urbano do Rio de Janeiro (São Gonçalo), através do estudo de adaptação transcultural (Herdman, Fox-Rushby & Badia, 1998). A amostra foi composta por 266 adolescentes escolares das 7ª/8ª séries do Ensino Fundamental e 1º/2º anos do Ensino Médio da rede pública e particular do referido município. As seguintes equivalências foram avaliadas: conceitual e de itens, semântica (significado referencial e geral), de mensuração (confiabilidade teste-reteste, consistência interna, análise fatorial e validade de construto), operacional e funcional. Foram encontrados bons resultados para equivalência semântica, o alfa de Cronbach foi de 0.68, Kappa predominantemente moderado e regular, e a análise fatorial proposta é de duas estruturas fatoriais (baixa e alta auto-estima). Na validade de construto, a escala correlacionou-se significativa e positivamente com apoio social, e inversamente com vitimização de violência psicológica, violência ocorrida entre pais e entre os irmãos. Os resultados indicam a aplicabilidade da escala na população de referência, sugerindo a necessidade do desenvolvimento de outros trabalhos em amostras distintas. Palavras-chave: Auto-estima; Escala; Confiabilidade; Validade. AbstractThe article proposes a cross-cultural adaptation (Herdman, Fox-Rushby & Badia, 1998) of "Rosenberg SelfEsteem Scale" for adolescents who live in an urban neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro (São Gonçalo). The sample was composed of 266 adolescents, students of the 7th/ 8th grade of Elementary School and of the 1st/2nd grade of High School, of public and private schools of São Gonçalo/RJ. The following equivalences were evaluated: conceptual and itens equivalences, semantic equivalence (referential and general meaning), measurement equivalence (test-retest reliability, internal consistency, factorial analysis and construct validity) and operational and functional equivalences. Good results were obtained for semantics equivalence, alpha of Cronbach was of 0.68, the Kappa was moderate and regular, and the factorial analysis proposed two structures of factors (low and high self-esteem). Construct validity showed significant positive correlation with social support and negative correlation with psychological abuse, violence between parents and brothers. The results indicate the applicability of the scale in a reference population, suggesting the necessity to develop others studies in distinct samples. Keywords: Self-esteem; Scale; Reliability; Validity.No Brasil (Gobitta, 2000;Hutz, 2000) e em vários outros países, a temática da auto-estima é pouco abordada cientificamente. Palavra fácil na psicologização das relações humanas, o tema da auto-estima se tornou popularizado por livros de auto-ajuda e pelo senso comum, o que acarreta dificuldades conceituais e metodológicas. Se por um lado, a propagação "superficial" desse conceito traz dificuldades, requerendo esforço na consolidação cientí-fica de...

BackgroundDengue is an acute febrile illness caused by an arbovirus that is endemic in more than 100 countries. Early diagnosis and adequate management are critical to reduce mortality. This study aims to identify clinical and hematological features that could be useful to discriminate dengue from other febrile illnesses (OFI) up to the third day of disease.MethodsWe conducted a sectional diagnostic study with patients aged 12 years or older who reported fever lasting up to three days, without any evident focus of infection, attending an outpatient clinic in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, between the years 2005 and 2008. Logistic regression analysis was used to identify symptoms, physical signs, and hematological features valid for dengue diagnosis. Receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve analyses were used to define the best cut-off and to compare the accuracy of generated models with the World Health Organization (WHO) criteria for probable dengue.ResultsBased on serological tests and virus genome detection by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), 69 patients were classified as dengue and 73 as non-dengue. Among clinical features, conjunctival redness and history of rash were independent predictors of dengue infection. A model including clinical and laboratory features (conjunctival redness and leukocyte counts) achieved a sensitivity of 81% and specificity of 71% and showed greater accuracy than the WHO criteria for probable dengue.ConclusionsWe constructed a predictive model for early dengue diagnosis that was moderately accurate and performed better than the current WHO criteria for suspected dengue. Validation of this model in larger samples and in other sites should be attempted before it can be applied in endemic areas.

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