Background At present, the Americas report the largest number of cases of COVID-19 worldwide. In this region, Mexico is the third country with most deaths (20,781 total deaths). A sum that may be explained by the high proportion of people over 50 and the high rate of chronic diseases. The aim of this analysis is to investigate the risk factors associated with COVID-19 deaths in Mexican population using survival analysis. Methods Our analysis includes all confirmed COVID-19 cases contained in the dataset published by the Epidemiological Surveillance System for Viral Respiratory Diseases of the Mexican Ministry of Health. We applied survival analysis to investigate the impact of COVID-19 on the Mexican population. From this analysis, we plotted Kaplan-Meier curves, and constructed a Cox proportional hazard model. Results The analysis included the register of 16,752 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with mean age 46.55 ± 15.55 years; 58.02% (n = 9719) men, and 9.37% (n = 1569) deaths. Male sex, older age, chronic kidney disease, pneumonia, hospitalization, intensive care unit admission, intubation, and health care in public health services, were independent factors increasing the risk of death due to COVID-19 (p < 0.001). Conclusions The risk of dying at any time during follow-up was clearly higher for men, individuals in older age groups, people with chronic kidney disease, and people hospitalized in public health services.

Chronic diseases in childhood can affect the physical and mental health of patients and their families. The objective of this study was to identify the sociodemographic and psychosocial factors that predict resilience in family caregivers of children with cancer and to define whether there are differences in the levels of resilience derived from these sociodemographic variables. Three hundred and thirty family caregivers of children with cancer, with an average age of 32.6 years were interviewed. The caregivers responded to a battery of tests that included a questionnaire of sociodemographic variables, the Measuring Scale of Resilience, the Beck Depression Inventory, the Inventory of Quality of Life, the Beck Anxiety Inventory, an interview of caregiver burden and the World Health Organization Well-Being Index. The main findings indicate that family caregivers of children with cancer reported high levels of resilience, which were associated positively with quality of life, psychological well-being and years of study and associated negatively with depression, anxiety and caregiver burden. The variables that predicted resilience in families of children with cancer were quality of life, psychological well-being, depression and number of children. Family caregivers who were married and Catholic showed higher resilience scores. We conclude that being a caregiver in a family with children with cancer is associated with symptoms of anxiety and with depressive episodes. These issues can be overcome through family strength, well-being, quality of life and positive adaptation processes and mobilization of family resources.

BackgroundThe resilience to face disease is a process of positive adaptation despite the loss of health. It involves developing vitality and skills to overcome the negative effects of adversity, risks, and vulnerability caused by disease. In Mexico, the Mexican Resilience Measurement Scale (RESI-M) has been validated with a general population and has a five-factor structure. However, this scale does not allow evaluation of resilience in specific subpopulations, such as caregivers.MethodThis study investigated the psychometric properties of RESI-M in 446 family caregivers of children with chronic diseases. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was performed, internal consistency values were calculated using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient, and mean comparisons were determined using t-tests.ResultsThe expected five-factor model showed an adequate fit with the data based on a maximum likelihood test. The internal consistency for each factor ranged from .76 to .93, and the global internal consistency was .95. No average difference in RESI-M and its factors was found between women and men.ConclusionThe RESI-M showed internal consistency and its model of five correlated factors was valid among family caregivers of children with chronic diseases.

Background. At present, the Americas region contributes to the largest number of cases of COVID-19 worldwide. In this area, Mexico is in third place respecting deaths (20,781 total deaths), rate that may be explained by the high proportion of the population over 50 years and the rate of chronic diseases. The aim of the present work was estimate the risk factors associated with the death rate, considering the time between symptoms onset and the death occurrence, in the Mexican population. Methods. Information of all the confirmed cases for COVID-19 reported on the public dataset released by the Epidemiological Surveillance System for Viral Respiratory Diseases of the Mexican Ministry of Health was analyzed. Kapplan-Meier curves were plotted, and a Cox proportional hazard model was constructed. Results. The analysis included 16,752 registries of confirmed cases of COVID-19 with mean age 46.55±15.55 years; 58.02% (n=9719) men and 9.37% (n=1,569) died. Men (H.R. 1.21, p<0.01, 95% C.I. 1.09-1.35), older age (H.R. 8.24, p<0.01, 95% C.I. 4.22-16.10), CKD (H.R. 1.85, p<0.01, 95% C.I. 1.51-2.25), pneumonia (H.R. 2.07, p<0.01, 95% C.I. 1.81-2.38), hospitalization and ICU admissions (H.R. 5.86, p<0.01, 95% C.I. 4.81-7.14, and H.R. 1.32, p<0.01, 95% C.I. 1.12-1.55, respectively), intubation (H.R. 2.93, p<0.01, 95% C.I. 2.50-3.45) and health care in public health services (more than twice the risk, p<0.01), were independent factors increasing the risk of death due to COVID-19. Conclusions. The risk of dying at any time during follow-up was especially higher in men, individuals at the older age groups, with chronic kidney disease and people hospitalized in the public health services.

This study analyzes the potential economic benefits of identifying and treating patients with so-called prediabetes and prehypertension through the Mexican prevention program known by its Spanish acronym PREVENIMSS. The results show that for each US dollar invested in prevention, $84-$323 would be saved over a twenty-year period. For this and other reasons, providing preventive care for prediabetes and prehypertension patients is better than the current routine care model, in which care is provided in most cases when the disease has progressed substantially. Yet data show that screening and preventive care services are still not being used widely enough in Mexico, are provided too late, or are not sufficiently targeted to the most at-risk individuals. Investing in preventive care for patients with prediabetes and prehypertension is cost saving.