Características de la investigación en el posgrado: avances y limitaciones. Facultad de Ciencias Médicas. Universidad de Cuenca. 2009 ­ 2014 / Characteristics of postgraduate research: advances and limitations. Faculty of Medical Sciences. University of Cuenca. 2009-2014

Objective: To determine the characteristics of the postgraduate research in order to generate research policies.Methods: A cross-sectional analytical re-search was conducted to determine the characteristics of research in the various postgraduate levels. A stratified random sample of the database of postgraduate research contained in the website of the University of Cuenca was used. Chi2 sta-tistic was used, and a level of significance was accepted p <0.05 in hypothesis tes-ting. The sample consisted of 98 research papers.Results: The model for biomedical research is predominant (79.6%) in the Masters is the social (65.5%). (p: 0.000). Most are clinics (78.6%) investigations. Research with so-cial components developed in the masters (72.4%). (p: 0.000). The number of resear-chers males (50.0%) is similar to that of wo-men (50.0%). The investigations are made by an author. Investigations are applied (100.0%) and quantitative (94.9%). Only the Masters there are qualitative (6.9%), mixed (6.9%) and other (3.4%) investigations. (p = 0.051). Dominated by observational stu-dies (78.6%); the intervention constitute 21.4% (p = 0.889). The descriptive research (36.7%), analytical (39.8%) have greater weight than those of intervention (23.5%), p: 0.321). In the analytical cross-sectional research predominate (89.7%), and the ex-perimental intervention (78.3%). There is no international cooperation and inter is mini-mal (7.1%) referred to the Masters. There is good correspondence with the lines of ins-titutional research (57.1%) in most research and the use of international bibliographic standards is high (99.6%).Conclusions: The fundamental characte-ristics of research at the graduate has not changed substantially. The predominant biomedical research remains, quantitati-ve, clinical, observational, there has been progress in reducing the descriptive inves-tigations and have increased (transverse) and experimental analytics. The master has developed more social health research. Research has failed to overcome the aca-demic and personal interest level, no inter-national collaboration and inter is scarce. It has improved the technical component, is majority use international bibliographic standards.

Call for a change in research funding priorities: the example of mental health in Costa Rica / Solicitud de un cambio en las prioridades de financiamiento de la investigación: el ejemplo de la salud mental en Costa Rica

The World Health Organization (WHO) Mental Health Action Plan 2013-2020 urges its Member States to strengthen leadership in mental health, ensure mental and social health interventions in community-based settings, promote mental health and strengthen information systems, and increase evidence and research for mental health. Although Costa Rica has strongly invested in public health and successfully reduced the burden of nutritional and infectious diseases, its transitional epidemiological pattern, population growth, and immigration from unstable neighboring countries has shifted the burden to chronic disorders. Although policies for chronic disorders have been in place for several decades, mental disorders have not been included. Recently, as the Ministry of Health of Costa Rica developed a Mental Health Policy for 2013-2020, it became evident that the country needs epidemiological data to prioritize evidence-based intervention areas. This article stresses the importance of conducting local epidemiological studies on mental health, and calls for changes in research funding priorities by public and private national and international funding agencies in order to follow the WHO Mental Health Action Plan.

El Plan de Acción sobre Salud Mental 2013-2020 de la Organización Mundial de la Salud (OMS) insta a sus Estados Miembros a que fortalezcan el liderazgo en el ámbito de la salud mental, garanticen las intervenciones de salud mental y asistencia social en los entornos comunitarios, promuevan la salud mental y fortalezcan los sistemas de información, e incrementen los datos científicos y las investigaciones sobre salud mental. Aunque Costa Rica ha invertido mucho en salud pública y ha reducido con éxito la carga de enfermedades nutricionales e infecciosas, su modelo epidemiológico transitorio, el crecimiento de la población y la inmigración desde países vecinos inestables han desplazado la carga de morbilidad hacia los trastornos crónicos. Aunque existen políticas en vigor dirigidas a los trastornos crónicos desde hace varios decenios, no se ha incluido en ellas a los trastornos mentales. Recientemente, cuando el Ministerio de Salud de Costa Rica elaboró una Política Nacional de Salud Mental para el periodo del 2013 al 2020, se hizo evidente que el país necesita datos epidemiológicos para priorizar las áreas de intervención con base en pruebas científicas. Este artículo subraya la importancia de llevar a cabo estudios epidemiológicos de ámbito local sobre salud mental, y solicita cambios en las prioridades de financiamiento de la investigación por parte de los organismos de financiamiento públicos y privados, nacionales e internacionales, con objeto de cumplir con lo que establece el Plan de Acción sobre Salud Mental de la OMS.

Evidences to validate public policies: a review with an international research perspective / Evidencia para validar políticas públicas: una revisión con perspectiva internacional

Nutrition and related health issues are nowadays topics of general interest. The prevalence of overweight and obesity has increased with alarming speed over the past twenty years, being described by the World Health Organization as a global epidemic. An evidence-based approach to public health interventions should be based on the best available information. Given the substantial investment of society in fundamental and applied health research, and the high expectations of society for reducing the burden of illness, attention to these matters should have high priority. There's an urgent need to foster the development of international standards, such as food labeling and profiling. Considering the complex network involved in obesity development, it is necessary to promote multiple-concurrent interventions, taking into account that by focusing on a single intervention in isolation, all other factors being constant, each individual policy change is likely to appear ineffective.

El sobrepeso y la obesidad, hoy definidos por la Organización Mundial de la Salud (OMS) como una epidemia global, son un importante problema de salud pública internacional. Su rápida propagación no sólo afecta a los países desarrollados, sino también a los que están en desarrollo, los cuales enfrentan la doble problemática de la desnutrición y el sobrepeso. Dada la importancia de la investigación sanitaria y las grandes expectativas de la sociedad para reducir el impacto de esta enfermedad, la atención de estos asuntos debe ser prioritaria. Existe una necesidad urgente de fomentar el desarrollo de normas internacionales como el etiquetado de alimentos y la elaboración de perfiles. No obstante, al igual que sucede con la medicina individual, los enfoques para intervenir en la salud pública han de fundamentarse en la mejor evidencia disponible. En el caso específico de la obesidad, puesto que se trata de una red compleja de factores, es indispensable promover intervenciones simultáneas. Lo contrario podría derivar en políticas individuales que no logren resultados eficaces. Este artículo propone, desde un punto de vista basado en las evidencias actuales sobre la obesidad y su desarrollo, una nueva perspectiva internacional para enfrentar esta epidemia.

Perfil dos bolsistas de produtividade em pesquisa do CNPQ em Psicologia / Profile of researchers in Psychology with productivity grants from Brazil's national council of technologiocal and scientific development (CNPQ) / Perfil de los becarios de productividad en investigación del CNPQ en Psicología

Este estudo teve por objetivo analisar o perfil dos bolsistas de produtividade em pesquisa do CNPq da área de Psicologia segundo os dados declarados na Plataforma Lattes. O número de artigos, livros e capítulos de livro, bem como orientações de iniciação científica, mestrado, doutorado e pósdoutorado de 297 pesquisadores bolsistas da área foram coletados no decorrer da última semana de abril de 2011. Também foram coletados dados acerca das instituições às quais os bolsistas estão vinculados. Foram realizadas análises estatísticas descritivas (levantamento de frequências, médias e desvios-padrão) para caracterização da produtividade da amostra, e inferenciais (qui-quadrado e ANOVA) para comparar os bolsistas de cada categoria em relação ao número de publicações e de orientações e de dados demográficos e institucionais. Os resultados mostram que houve predomínio do sexo feminino (63%) e da bolsa tipo 2 (58,6%) entre os bolsistas. A maioria dos bolsistas está vinculada atualmente a instituições públicas (79,1%). A Região Sudeste apresentou o maior número de bolsistas (53,6%), seguida da Região Sul (18,5%). Pesquisadores com bolsas de categorias mais altas (1A e 1B) apresentaram médias significativamente maiores quanto à produção de artigos, livros e capítulos de livro bem como ao número de orientações concluídas. As implicações e as limitações do estudo são discutidas.

The present work aimed to analyze the profile of researchers in psychology with productivity grants from Brazil's National Council of Technological and Scientific Development (CNPq), according to the information collected at the website called Lattes Platform. Numbers of papers, book chapters and books, as well as undergraduate, master and doctoral students' orientations were raised considering 297 researchers with productivity grants. This survey was conducted in the last week of April 2011. Information from the institutions where the researchers work were also collected. Descriptive analyses were held (frequencies, means and standard deviation of the study variables) to characterize the level of productivity of the sample, and inferential analyses were also conducted (Chi-square and ANOVA) to compare the productivity grants researchers of each category in what refers to the number of publications, orientations, social demographical data and institutional characteristics. The results showed the female gender (63%) and the grant type 2 (58,6%) were majority among productivity grants researchers. The majority of researchers works at public institutions (79,1%). The Southeast showed the major number of productivity researchers (53,6%), followed by the South (18,5%). Researchers with grants type 1A e 1B, which means high categories, presented significant higher means of papers, books and book chapters publications, as well as finished students' orientations. The results implications and the study limitations are discussed.

Este estudio tuvo como objetivo analizar el perfil de los becarios de productividad en investigación del CNPq del área de psicología según los datos declarados en la Plataforma Lattes. El número de artículos, libros y capítulos de libro, así como orientaciones de iniciación científica, maestría, doctorado y pos doctorado de 297 investigadores becarios del área fueron recolectados en el transcurso de la última semana de abril de 2011. También fueron recolectados datos acerca de las instituciones a las cuales los becarios están vinculados. Fueron realizados análisis estadísticos descriptivos (relevamiento de frecuencias, promedios y desviación estándar) para caracterización de la productividad de la muestra, e inferenciales (Ji-cuadrado y ANOVA) para comparar los becarios de cada categoría en relación al número de publicaciones y de orientaciones y de datos demográficos e institucionales. Los resultados muestran que hubo predominio del sexo femenino (63%) y de la beca tipo 2 (58,6%) entre los becarios. La mayoría de los becarios están vinculados actualmente a instituciones públicas (79,1%). La Región Sudeste presentó el mayor número de becarios (53,6%), seguida de la Región Sur (18,5%). Investigadores con becas de categorías más altas (1A y 1B) presentaron promedios significativamente mayores en relación a la producción de artículos, libros y capítulos de libro así como al número de orientaciones concluidas. Las implicaciones y las limitaciones del estudio son discutidas.