Latin Research Articles

Incidence, trends and patterns of female breast, cervical, colorectal and prostate cancers in Antigua and Barbuda, 2017–2021: a retrospective study

BackgroundGlobally, estimates of cancer cases and deaths have increased since 2018, particularly in Latin America and Caribbean countries. In Antigua and Barbuda, understanding the burden of common cancers such as female breast, cervical, colorectal and prostate cancers is critical. This study aimed to assess the incidence, trends, and patterns of these four cancers from 2017 to 2021.MethodsUsing a retrospective observational study design, information on these cancers was abstracted from medical records at four key study sites in Antigua and Barbuda. Estimates of age-specific and age-standardized incidence were determined using direct standardization. The KeyFitz method was used to derive standard errors and confidence intervals. Derived estimates were employed to analyze trends and Joinpoint regression modeling was used to determine annual percentage change.ResultsBetween 2017 and 2021, 391 cases of female breast (41.7%), cervical (10.2%), colorectal (20.2%) and prostate (27.9%) cancers were diagnosed. Overall mean age at presentation was 61.5 (± 12.9) years, ranging from 24 to 94 years, age-standardized incidence rate 65.2 (95% CI: 58.7–71.6) per 100,000 population. Age-standardized incidence rate for female breast cancer was 49.9 (95% CI: 42.2–57.8), annual percentage change in incidence a low of -0.2%. Prostate cancer had the second highest age-standardized incidence rate at 41.6 (95% CI: 33.8–49.4), annual percentage change showed a gradual but steady increase at 21.7%. Per cancer types, variations in age-standardized incidence rates were noted across age-groups, year-of-presentation, and parishes. Collectively, there was an 8.1% (95% CI: -14.9–37.6) annual percentage change increase in age-standardized incidence rates between 2017 and 2021. Incident cases, age-standardized incidence rates, and trends per cancer type are expected to gradually increase during 2022–2030 (average annual percentage increase is 3.4%).ConclusionsThis study is a first step in providing reasonable evidence on the incidence, trends, and patterns of four common cancers in Antigua and Barbuda. Female breast and prostate cancers were the dominant cancer types in terms of incidence, age-standardized incidence and predicted increasing incidence trends. Variableness in cancer-specific age-standardized rates across parishes and years of presentation were observed. Besides research, this study has importance for instituting cancer prevention and control measures, including surveillance and healthy lifestyles initiatives.

Ecology and Energy in Latin America

Ecology and Energy in Latin America

Brazilian Politics on Trial: Corruption and Reform under Democracy. By Luciano Da Ros and Matthew M. Taylor. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Press, 2022. 281p. $35.00 cloth. - The Limits of Judicialization: From Progress to Backlash in Latin America. By Sandra Botero, Daniel M. Brinks, and Ezequiel A. Gonzalez-Ocantos, Eds. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022. 381p. £29.99 paper.

Brazilian Politics on Trial: Corruption and Reform under Democracy. By Luciano Da Ros and Matthew M. Taylor. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Press, 2022. 281p. $35.00 cloth. - The Limits of Judicialization: From Progress to Backlash in Latin America. By Sandra Botero, Daniel M. Brinks, and Ezequiel A. Gonzalez-Ocantos, Eds. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022. 381p. £29.99 paper.

Trends and future predictions of chronic kidney disease due to diabetes mellitus type 2 attributable to dietary risks: insights based on GBD 2021 data.

The 2021 Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study shows a continuous increase in the burden of chronic kidney disease due to diabetes mellitus type 2 (CKD-T2DM) from 1990 to 2021. This study examines the influence of dietary risk factors across various populations and socioeconomic groups. Utilizing the 2021 GBD data, we analyzed age-standardized CKD-T2DM metrics-including mortality, disability-adjusted life years (DALY), and age-standardized rates (ASR)-stratified by age, gender, and region. The study employs estimated annual percentage changes (EAPC) to monitor temporal trends and project future trends from 2022 to 2035 using bayesian age-period-cohort (BAPC) analysis. The results indicate that, in 2021, 20.55% of CKD-T2DM mortality and 23.21% of CKD-T2DM DALY were attributed to poor diets, especially those low in fruits and high in red and high processed meat. Throughout this period, both mortality and DALY rates associated with dietary risks increased significantly, with the most rapid increase in diet high in sugar-sweetened beverages, highlighting the considerable impact of dietary factors on the global CKD-T2DM landscape. Geographic disparities in T2DM trends are evident, with the most significant increases in age-standardized mortality rates (ASMR) and age-standardized DALY rates (ASDR) observed in regions such as high-income North America and Central Latin America. Socio-demographic index (SDI) is negatively correlated with the CKD-T2DM burden attributable to dietary risk factors. Public health interventions that target dietary changes can significantly reduce the global burden of CKD-T2DM.

Analysis of financial literacy and inclusion factors in Peruvian university women

Women’s financial literacy and financial inclusion have gained prominence in recent years. Despite progress, knowledge and access to finance remain common barriers for women, especially in emerging economies. Globally, domestic and economic violence has been recognized as a relevant social concern from a gender perspective. In this context, financial literacy and financial inclusion are considered to play a key role in reducing violence against women by empowering them with the necessary knowledge to manage their financial resources and make informed decisions. This study aims to evaluate the determinants that influence Peruvian female university students’ financial literacy and financial inclusion. To this end, a theoretical behavioral model is proposed, and a survey is applied to 427 female university students. The results are analyzed using a Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Model (PLS-SEM). The results validate all the proposed hypotheses and highlight significant relationships between financial literacy and women’s financial inclusion. A relevant relationship between financial attitude and financial behavior is also observed, as well as the influence of financial behavior and financial self-efficacy on financial literacy. The results also reveal that women feel capable of making important financial decisions for themselves and consider that financial literacy could help reduce gender-based violence. Based on these findings, theoretical and practical implications are raised. It highlights the proposal of a theoretical model based on antecedents, statistically validated in a sample of women in Peru, which lays the foundation for understanding financial literacy and financial inclusion in the Latin American region.

Review of the Concept of Service Quality and its Measurement Models

Service quality is a fundamental concept in organizational management, closely linked to customer satisfaction and business sustainability. This paper presents a systematic review of recent literature using the PRISMA methodology, encompassing 2024 studies indexed in Scopus and WoS, with a focus on Latin American institutions. The results show the diversity of approaches and applications in different sectors, from health to transport, tourism and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). While studies in Scopus cover a broad spectrum, WoS presents a more clinical and in-hospital approach. A common trend towards cultural adaptation of measurement models was identified, highlighting the importance of customer perception as a key indicator of quality. The exclusion of studies was mostly related to the lack of thematic affinity, since many studies focused on in-hospital treatments far from the main objective of this research.

Looking for Innovation Opportunity Areas in the Value Chain in the Agri-food Sector

Agricultural producers know their business very well, through daily practice they know the best way to carry out their processes; however, currently, it is necessary to continually seek improvements in its production processes to remain competitive and not only survive but grow. Thus, today we speak of open innovation, which implies the establishment of networks, made up of diverse local, regional, national and international nodes and components through which small or medium-sized producers can learn about experiences from other latitudes, which help them develop innovation projects to stay competitive. Through the review and analysis of cases of some Mexican agricultural producers and other Latin American countries based on the experience and proposals of some international organizations, which use the network innovation model, in this work a simple and synthetic proposal is developed for the opportunity areas to carry out innovation projects in the different links of the value chain of agri-food production processes.

FATORES ASSOCIADOS A SÍNDROME DE BURNOUT ENTRE PROFISSIONAIS DE SAÚDE

The present study seeks to know the factors associated with burnout syndrome among health professionals. An integrative literature review was conducted, and articles retrieved from the Virtual Health Library, Latin American and Caribbean Literature in Health Sciences, Scientific Electronic Library Online and Online System for Search and Analysis of Medical Literature were analyzed based on the descriptors burnout syndrome; health professional and occupational diseases, from the Boolean operators. Burnout syndrome has a significant prevalence among health professionals, associated with individual, economic and institutional conditions. Hospital managers should be aware of these data in order to develop systematic occupational health programs in order to favor the integral health of workers.

Acceptability and Feasibility of a Blended School-Based Intervention to Prevent Suicidal Ideation Among Adolescents in Chile: Results from a Randomized Control Pilot Study.

Suicide prevention programs delivered in school settings have been shown to reduce suicide attempts and ideation among adolescents. School-based digital interventions targeting at-risk youth are a promising avenue for suicide prevention, and some evidence has shown that blending digital and face-to-face components may improve the effectiveness. However, further evidence on its acceptability, feasibility, and effectiveness is needed, especially in Latin America, where mental health support is limited. Reframe-IT is an internet-based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) program to reduce youth suicidal ideation in school settings. We created four complementary face-to-face CBT sessions and, through a pilot study, tested the acceptability, feasibility, and effectiveness of a blended intervention (Reframe-IT +) in adolescents (N = 52) from 6 public schools in Chile, randomized into two groups: Reframe-IT + (N = 33) and Control (N = 19). We found that the intervention was acceptable and feasible, with high degrees of satisfaction and adherence. We also observed a significant reduction in suicidal ideation and depressive symptoms in the intervention group compared to the control group at post-intervention. Our results suggest that the Reframe-IT + could be delivered as a suitable, acceptable, and effective intervention to reduce suicide ideation in adolescents in school settings. Further research is needed to confirm these preliminary results.

Evaluating climate-related financial policies’ impact on decarbonization with machine learning methods

This study examines how Climate-Related Financial Policies (CRFPs) support decarbonization and renewable energy transitions across 87 countries from 2000 to 2023. Using the Policy Sequencing Score (PSS) and a bindingness-weighted adoption indicator, it explores the relationships between CRFPs, CO2 emissions, and Renewable Energy Production (REP) across diverse economic and institutional contexts. Findings reveal significant variation in outcomes. Advanced economies and OECD countries leverage structured policies and robust institutions to achieve steady emissions reductions and REP growth, with diminishing returns at higher policy intensities. Emerging Markets and Developing Economies (EMDEs) face institutional and structural constraints but show strong responsiveness to targeted policies, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, where renewable energy growth potential is notable. Regions such as Latin America and East Asia display mixed trends, reflecting unique challenges and opportunities. Binding policies prove essential for environmental outcomes, particularly in institutionalized settings, while EMDEs require capacity building and international cooperation to address barriers. This study highlights the importance of tailoring CRFPs to specific contexts, emphasizing policy sequencing, enforcement, and capacity building. By identifying global and regional variations, the findings provide actionable insights for aligning financial systems with climate goals, fostering a sustainable low-carbon transition, and addressing equity challenges.

A Bayesian Approach to Produce Subnational Population Estimates Using a Population Base Statistical Register

Subnational Population Estimates (SPE) in Latin America are useful to implement new public policies in subnational areas with internal armed conflicts or difficult to access. In this work, we propose to combine a Population Base Statistical Register (PBSR) and the Official Population Projections (OPP) using a Bayesian approach to produce SPE. Our proposed procedures are useful for computing SPE of the population size or the SPE of the population size in percentage SPE (%). However, we focused on SPE (%) due to some data restrictions and to ensure data confidentiality. In this article, the PBSR is constructed using multiple administrative sources with registers from the health, education, vital statistics systems, tax registration, and, more importantly, the registers of the victims of the current internal armed conflict in Colombia. We also propose new fast Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithms to produce SPE (%) using data augmentation procedures to address the complications caused by the resulting joint posterior containing gamma functions. We implement our proposal to compute SPE (%) by age and sex groups in the municipality of Jamundí in Colombia which is currently affected by poverty, forced displacement, and the internal armed conflict and evaluate the accuracy with a Population Census.

What Can We Learn From Qualitative Impact Evaluations About the Effectiveness of Lobby and Advocacy? A Meta-Evaluation of Dutch aid Programmes and Assessment Tool.

Official development agencies are increasingly supporting civil society lobby and advocacy (L&A) to address poverty and human rights. However, there are challenges in evaluating L&A. As programme objectives are often to change policies or practices in a single institution like a Government Ministry, L&A programmes are often not amenable to large-n impact evaluation methods. They often work in strategic partnerships to foster change; hence, contribution may be a more relevant evaluation question than attribution. Small-n qualitative approaches are available to measure the effectiveness of L&A which use the theory of change as their analytical framework. We conducted a meta-evaluation of 36 evaluations of multi-component international programmes to support civil society L&A across Asia, Africa and Latin America, comprising the majority of programmatic support from one international donor. We assessed the confidence in causal claims in the evaluations using a new tool that we developed. Assessments of the contribution of the programmes to the changes in outcomes were not provided in many of the evaluations, nor were predictable sources of bias addressed. Given that L&A programmes are likely to adopt an influencing approach where many different inside-track and outside-track engagement objectives, opportunities and strategies are attempted, many of which might be expected to fail, there appeared to be a clear bias in the evaluations towards reporting outcomes that were achieved, ignoring those that were not. We provide guidance on how to improve the design, conduct and reporting of small-n qualitative evaluations of aid effectiveness.

(Re)considering ‘radical’ for the teaching profession: a Global North-South reflection on teachers and teaching

ABSTRACT In this article, we explore the current place that the notion of ‘radical’ occupies in the teaching profession across our contexts of work and research. We draw on our experiences as educators and researchers across Australia, Brazil and England, and on a review of different scholarship and of historical and contemporary initiatives and discourses around the notion of ‘radical’ (and of ‘radicalism’) in education, focusing on particular exemplary cases from Global South (especially Latin America) and North contexts. We argue that whilst the term ‘radical’ might have been negatively framed by certain recent neoconservative and neoliberal educational policies and discourses across the world, reclaiming this notion to the teaching profession is necessary to (re)frame it as an intellectual profession committed to challenging systemic inequalities and to embracing social transformation and justice. This article is then positioned within broader discussions on both the teaching profession and radical education, seeking to contribute to a reimagining of this profession’s role in addressing contemporary challenges such as inequalities and injustices and the rise in authoritarianism.

Pastoral Theology before the Issue of Conscience

Conscience is classically a place of moral-theological or ethical reflection. More and more often, however, it is used by bishops as a place of decision in the face of ambiguousor controversial pastoral situations, such as the blessing of same-sex partners. In contrast, episcopal critics of the Synodal Way, for example, also refer to the conscience that,according to their interpretation, is precisely not a place of doctrinal development. This situation leads to the analysis of an understanding of conscience that was already ambiguous in the Council, which is continued in theological follow-up concepts or later magisterial positions. Regarding a “theology of the people” that was already developed in the 1970s in the German-speaking world – parallel to Latin America – this juxtaposition could be overcome from the practice of concrete decisions of conscience and thus the pastoral essence of Vatican II could be continued in the face of concrete problems today.

Generic Competencies in Dentistry: Students' and Teachers' Perceptions of Their Professional Relevance and Their Development in Undergraduate Studies at Universidad Diego Portales of Chile.

Generic competencies are transferable skills, knowledge and attitudes essential for personal and professional development and not restricted to any particular field. Evidence shows the relevance of incorporating them into the dentistry curriculum. However, defining which competencies to prioritise is complex and requires input from the academic community. This research aimed to understand the perception of dentistry students and teachers at Universidad Diego Portales regarding the importance of generic competencies in the profession and their development during undergraduate studies. 74 teachers and 256 students participated, representing 55% of the study population. The Tuning Latin America project's generic competencies questionnaire was used, assessing 27 competencies in terms of relevance, ranking, and development. A positive perception regarding the importance of generic competencies was observed, with over 90% of participants considering them quite or highly relevant. When ranking, five skills stood out: three from the learning process, one from social values, and one from interpersonal skills. Regarding the development of such skills, both teachers and students expressed that many competencies were not well implemented; over 50% of participants considered 14 of the presented skills as poorly developed or not developed at all. Each programme must select generic competencies for their students' training, as this definition varies according to the consulted group and country. Both teachers and students recognised the professional relevance of generic competencies in dentistry. Both groups perceived that many were not adequately developed in the curriculum.

Colombia, COVID-19, and the Colonial Trap Reflections on the Politics of Knowledge Production

The COVID-19 pandemic has made historical and contemporary colonial relationships between and within states more fraught. This complexity is apparent within the research process itself, adding a new dimension to debates on positionality and the politics of knowledge production. Drawing on critical approaches to International Relations, and in dialogue with an emerging literature on the implications of the pandemic for knowledge decolonization, we reflect on our experience as scholars from the UK/Ireland researching colonial legacy and Transitional Justice in Colombia. The aim of this autoethnographic article is to suggest how the COVID-19 pandemic affected inequalities between researchers based in Europe and participants in Latin America. Our findings are mixed. While Covid-related funding cuts undermined equity within relationships, the virtual field offered an opportunity to cultivate cooperation between researcher and participant and re-think issues of ethics, voice, and the research agenda itself. Finally, El Maestro Covid taught us valuable lessons on the colonial trap inherent in our endeavors.

Pedagogía Crítica, Educación y Cultura de Paz: Hacia una delimitación del objeto de estudio y estado del arte desde el origen decolonial

This article includes the reflections that arose from the Diploma in Educational Research, in particular from the meeting led by Dr. Miguel Ángel Maldonado García entitled “Strategies and Methodologies of research within the framework of Educational Research”, together with the exploration of the initial research idea that forms part of the doctoral thesis project in Educational Sciences of the National University of La Plata/Argentina -UNLP- around the idea of pedagogy for peace and its study field, which is education for peace, as an area that is in continuous dynamism and evolution. This approach seeks to investigate critical positions on the idea of peace from the regional context, especially the decolonial approach and the implementation of Law 1732 of September 1, 2014, which establishes the Chair of Peace in all educational institutions in Colombia. Bearing this in mind, the aim is to be able to base and construct a proposal that serves as a decolonial pedagogical approach, aimed at educating for peace and creating a culture of peace in Latin America and especially in Colombia, that offers the possibility of improving current teaching practices in the implementation of the Chair of Peace in the country’s educational institutions.

Políticas Educativas Neoliberales: trabajo académico y salud de profesoras

Neoliberal educational policies have been implemented for more than three decades in Latin America, which have altered teaching practices. Likewise, the educational reforms have not considered the characteristics or idiosyncrasies, in this case, of Mexico, since they have been a copy of the European and U.S. educational models. Based on these problems, the main objective was to: make evident some problems in professional teaching practice, as well as the health repercussions of high school and university teachers as a consequence of neoliberal educational policies. There was the participation of 10 teachers who work at different educational levels: High School and Higher Education; in the State of Mexico, Hidalgo and Chile in South America. The research was divided into three phases: before, during and after the pandemic. The methodology used was qualitative, with a descriptive and interpretive approach. The results were presented as a “novel” constructed from the participants' narratives. Their problems related to teaching work, trigger a series of sickness at a biopsychosocial level. Definitely, the educational institution is going through a crisis and a rethinking of teaching work is urgently needed so that, the meaning of the teaching role does not die and along with it, the educational institution.

Introduction COVID-19 Coronavirus: Pandemic Politics in Latin America and Precarity and Health: Health as Asset, Health as Right

Introduction COVID-19 Coronavirus: Pandemic Politics in Latin America and Precarity and Health: Health as Asset, Health as Right

Expresiones de lo singular latinoamericano en los ensayos de Alejo Carpentier (1904-1980), Octavio Paz (1914-1998), Gabriel García Márquez (1927-2014) y Mario Vargas Llosa (1936)

In his essays El pachuco y otros extremos (1950) and La inteligencia mexicana (1950) Octavio Paz (1914-1998) as well as Alejo Carpentier (1904-1980) in De lo real maravilloso americano (1967) and Conciencia e identidad de América (1975), gave themselves the task of conjuring up a series of responses to Latin American singularities embedded in a universal tradition; this task was also undertaken by Gabriel García Márquez (1927-2017) in La soledad de América Latina (1982) and Por un país al alcance de los niños (1994); finally, Mario Vargas Llosa (1936) expressed about it in ¿Libertad para los libres? (1983) and Dentro y fuera de América Latina (2005). The narrative works of these writers were vital in the consolidation of the Latin American literature, but it is valid to point out that the same happened with their extensive intellectual production, specifically in the essays already mentioned. The essay, without a doubt, is a genre that allowed the transmission of ideas, what makes it a “potentiator” of the discursive enunciation, and from there we allow ourselves to establish the “ideologemas”, or translinguistic instruments that provide information about the historical and social coordinates of the text, and that for the specific case of this work are present in the different discourses on this territory denominated Latin America. In this way, the goal of this study is to analyze the expressions of the Latin American singularities in these authors through the ideologemas: “loneliness”, “miscegenation”, “wonder”, “myth” and “travel”.