Publicidad televisiva y preferencias alimentarias en escolares de la Región Metropolitana / Television advertising and food preferences of school age children of the Región Metropolitana

Background: There is an alarming increase in the prevalence of child obesity in Chile. Lack of exercise and bad feeding habits strongly contribute to the problem. Aim: To investigate the influence of television publicity on school age children food preferences. Material and methods: A semi structured interview was applied to a representative sample of 786 school age children aged 6 to 11 years old, living in Metropolitan Santiago. Time watching television during week days and the attitude towards food and beverage commercials was analyzed and related to food preferences. Results: Ninety nine percent of school age children watch television during week days and 20 percent watches more the three hours daily. Snack commercials such as those about potato chips, chocolates, cookies and ice cream, are preferred by 35 percent of children. Soda commercials are preferred by 33 percent and yoghurt commercials by 12 percent. Eighty five percent of children had money to buy food. Of these, 66 percent bought snacks, 15 percent bought sodas and 7 percent yoghurt. The same tendency was observed in school collations. Conclusions: The high percentage of children watching television and the influence of commercials in their food preferences, requires an urgent educational strategy to promote healthy feeding habits

Evolución en el tratamiento quirúrgico electivo de aneurisma de la aorta abdominal infrarrenal / Evolution in the elective surgical treatment of infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurysm

Los aneurismas de la porción infrarrenal de la aorta abdominal (AAA) constituyen el tipo más frecuente de aneurisma. Su incidencia ha experimentado un alza real estos últimos años debido a múltiples causas. La reparación quirúrgica protésica es aún el estándar de tratamiento. El objetivo de este trabajo es evaluar los resultados del tratamiento quirúrgico electivo de AAA realizados por el equipo de cirugía vascular del Hospital del Salvador. Para tal efecto se revisaron en forma retrospectiva los antecedentes de 106 pacientes. Para obtener un mejor análisis a través del tiempo se dividió la serie en 2 períodos. Un 1er período entre 1983 y 1989 (84 meses) y un 2º período entre 1990 y 1997 (90 meses). Ambos grupos fueron similares respecto de edad, sexo, patologías asociadas, diámetro promedio de aneurismas y tipo de compromiso aneurismático. En el 1er período hubo un 25 por ciento de morbilidad y en el 2º un 30,6 por ciento. La mortalidad general fue de 4 pacientes que corresponde a un 3,7 por ciento, siendo de 6,82 por ciento en el 1er período y de sólo 1,61 por ciento en el 2º período. Los resultados de morbimortalidad de nuestra serie son comparables con otras series extranjeras

Mortalidad infantil en Chile: el gran descenso / Infant mortality in Chile: the great descent

Infant mortality in Chile decreased from 120 to 12 per thousand between 1960 and 1994. Outstanding events of ths "great descent" are reviewed, based on past research and on updated information. Demographic and socioeconomic changes and improvements in health care that occured during this period of decline are shown. It is estimated that 30 percent of the reduction of infant mortality between 1972 and 1982 was due to the decreasing proportion of biths of high mortality risk, as a consequence of the fertility decline imitiated in the mid 60s. Possible explanations for the continuing decline of infant mortality during the economic crisis of 1975 and 1982 are discussed. Finally, neonatal and postneonatal mortality rates by causes are compared between 1994 and causes of death in extreme groups of infant mortality differentials by age of mother, bith order, gestational age, place of residence and educational level of the mother are shown