Introduction: Food Frequency Questionnaires (FFQ) have been widely used in several age groups, including adolescents, due to their greater advantages over other dietary measurement methods. Therefore, this study was designed to assess the validity and reliability of a FFQ designed for use on Costa Rican adolescents. Methodology: The validation and reproducibility studies were carried out in a sample of 107 adolescents of San José province selected through convenience sampling. For validation, a comparison of the nutrient intake and food consumption data obtained with the FFQ was made with those derived from the 3-day food record (3FR). Reliability was assessed by comparing nutrient intake and food consumption derived from the first FFQ with another FFQ performed four weeks after the first. Results: FFQ overestimates 3FR, with an average overestimation of 40.2% for foods and 38.8% for nutrients. The cross-classification was good for 24 of 26 nutrients and for 12 of the 21 food groups, and the weighted kappa showed an acceptable discriminant ability of the FFQ to categorize individuals into broad nutrient intake (except for protein and cholesterol) and food groups categories (dairy products, white rice, beans, vegetables, fruits and fruit juice, sugary drinks, breakfast cereal, candies and sweets, snacks, fast foods, fat, and ice cream). Conclusions: The FFQ designed for Costa Rican adolescents was unable to assess absolute dietary intakes; however, it is a reasonable tool to categorize adolescents into broad ranges of dietary intakes and could be used to evaluate dietary patterns in epidemiological studies of diet-disease associations.

Introduction: Monitoring the functional capacity of older adults is fundamental, and Handgrip Strength (HGS) is a consolidated marker of functional status in this age group. This study aimed to develop equations for predicting HGS in community-dwelling older adults in Primary Health Care (PHC). Methods: It is a cross-sectional study conducted with 316 older adults, in which a Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) was performed for the right hand (R-HGS) and left hand (L-HGS). The variables sex, age, weight, knee height (KH), arm circumference (AC), triceps skinfold (TSF), and calf circumference (CC) were considered predictors because they were easily obtained in PHC and significantly related to HGS. Results: In the final models, the variables sex, age, and KH together explained more than 50 % of the HGS variation. There was agreement between the estimated and measured HGS measurements, both for right and left side. Conclusions: It is concluded that the variability of HGS can be explained by age, sex, and KH, which are parameters simple and routinely used to evaluate older adults.

Objective: To describe study protocol and initial results of research project COVID-Inconfidentes. Method: This paper described the methodological procedures adopted and the prevalence of the SARS-CoV-2 infection in the population. A household survey was conducted between October and December 2020, in two historic cities of Brazil's mining region. Anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody was detected using the Wondfo® rapid test. The face-to-face interview consisted of administration of a questionnaire containing registration data, sociodemographic and economic variables, living habits, general health condition, mental health, sleep habits, and eating and nutrition. Results: We evaluated 1,762 residents, of which 764 (43.4 %) were in Mariana and 998 (56.6 %) in Ouro Preto. For both cities, 51.9 % of the interviewees were female, with a predominance of the age range 35 to 59 years old (47.2 %). The prevalence of the SARS-CoV-2 infection was 5.5 % in both cities, 6.2 % in Ouro Preto, and 4.7 % in Mariana (p-value > 0.05). Conclusion: The study was effective to estimate the seroprevalence of infection by the virus and its findings will enable further analyses of the health conditions of the population related to social isolation and the risk of infection with SARS-CoV-2.

Introduction: Violence is a complex phenomenon that affects individuals of different genders, ages, ethnicities and social classes, being considered an important public health problem in Brazil and in the world. Methodology: Study with a quantitative, epidemiological and analytical approach, whose objective was to characterize the main indicators and the way they are associated with violence in Brazil according to their forms, means and circumstances of occurrence, from 2011 to 2020. A dendrogram was produced through the combined application of Multiple Correspondence Analysis and Hierarchical Clustering techniques, characterizing the main profiles associated with violence in Brazil. Results: Violence is established as a complex and multicausal phenomenon, which results not only in high public expenditures, but mainly in the reduction of social cohesion due to the immeasurable damage caused to the population involved. In the present study, the violence is mostly of the physical type, affecting adult females, with low schooling and white or brown. Recurrence occurs mainly when the violence is psychological and sexual. As for the aggressor, they are usually adults, male, and the use of alcohol is common. An important participation of the Southeast region was observed in the notifications of all forms of violence. Conclusions: The magnitude and severity of the problem is brought into question, which must be investigated regionally and in a segmented manner, according to the type of violence. Thus, it infers that spending on violence prevention can mitigate economic, social and psychological problems in Brazil.

Introduction: Tuberculosis is the major cause of health problems among communicable diseases and predominates as an etiology in cases of death from a single infectious agent. In the prison environment, this is even more evident, as overcrowding, poor nutrition, drug consumption and the coexistence of other diseases, associated with the precariousness of the health service, favors the spread of the disease within the walls and to the families of inmates. Currently, it is estimated that the incidence of tuberculosis in the population deprived of liberty corresponds to approximately 11.2% of new cases in the country, and this group represents only 0.3% of the Brazilian population. Methods: In this context, the present study aims to carry out an epidemiological analysis of tuberculosis in the prison population of the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, based on secondary data from the Notifiable Diseases Information System (SINAN), in addition to identifying the main factors related to this type of involvement using measures of dispersion, central tendency and frequency, as well as Student’s T tests for independent samples and Mann-Whitney U tests in cases where the assumptions for parametric tests were not met, considering a 95 % confidence interval. Results: 1880 cases of tuberculosis were registered, with a monthly average of 22.38 notifications. The proximity of the factors brown ethnicity, male sex, age between 20 and 29 years to the center of case density and between the use of alcohol, other drugs and the abandonment of treatment was notable. Conclusion: Thus, the need for new prevention strategies in this context is highlighted due to the high incidence of tuberculosis, often related to negligence and misinformation.

Homicide is one of the most important mortality causes that has reduced the Mexican life expectancy. That is why the aim of this work is to identify some sociodemographic and economic factors that can help explain homicides in Mexico and measure their impact, assuming the current conditions prevail. To do that, several Machine Learning (ML) methods were evaluated. The C5.0 model is best suited for the data at hand. After fine-tuning the algorithm, we used the estimated model to identify the main factors that explain homicides. Among these factors, eleven were selected that can be influenced by direct changes in domestic public policy, laws and/or regulations. These were used as input in a two-level fractional factorial Statistical Design of Experiments (DOE) to estimate their main effects and possible interactions. Although several of these factors had statistically significant effects on homicide rate, the one that had the biggest and direct impact from a practical perspective, was the Rule of Law Index (RLI). In fact, if we assumed that all states had the median RLI of 0.37, implementing domestic policies and procedures to move them all to the best RLI level could significantly reduce homicide rates.

A case series of suspected cases of congenital Zika syndrome in a maternity hospital in Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas, Mexico was assembled to assess why they were not reported and explore the hypothesis of dengue antibody dependent Zika disease. Clinical and imaging records, and interviews of a total of 13 of the cases revealed that only one of them was laboratory confirmed because appropriate specimens were not collected from the newborns as required by the case definition. 1) Microcephaly, 2) hypoplasia/hypogeneses, thinning or absence of brain structures, 3) multiple birth defects, 4) calcifications, and cysts, 5) meningocele/encephalocele and 6) hydrocephalus were found in 100%, 76.9%, 38.5%, 38.5%, 30.8%, and 23.1%, respectively. They clustered geographically, and 77% occurred within May 2016 to March 2017, and recalled or were told by a doctor they Zika fever. Using as referent a group of mothers who delivered normal newborns in the same hospital, and an 80% plaque reduction neutralization test for dengue virus 1 and 2, there was a four-fold increased risk of congenital Zika syndrome among those with dengue 1 antibody as compared to those with dengue 2 antibody (odds ratio = 3.6; 95% confidence interval: 0.7, 20.5), reaching only borderline statistical significance. The case definitions of congenital Zika syndrome used during the pandemic probably needed to be simpler to gain sensitivity.