State of Mental Health Research of Adolescents and Youth in Chile: An Ontological Analysis.

Knowing the state of mental health research in adolescents and youth can be an important tool for decision-making, especially in contexts of limited resources. The aim of this study is to map the scientific research on adolescent and youth mental health in Chile using an ontological framework. We have mapped the population of research articles on mental health of adolescents and youth in Chile in Scopus, Web of Science, and SciELO databases onto the ontology. The PRISMA reporting guidelines were used to screen the 1688 items based on relevance, duplication, and version. The corpus of 346 articles was coded into the ontology through an iterative process among the seven authors. This ontological mapping shows isolated research efforts that have been carried out in Chile to explain the whole state of mental health in adolescents and youth. There is a lack of coordination between the priorities established by the decision-makers and the researchers. Our results coincide with the need to strengthen mental health research in the country, and to prioritizing those topics that contribute to decision-making based on the needs of the population.

Genomic surveillance of the Lambda SARS-CoV-2 variant in a global phylogenetic context.

The massive sequencing of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and global genomic surveillance strategies allowed the detection of many variants of concern and interest. The variant of interest Lambda (C.37), which originated in South America, has been the most prevalent in Peru and Chile, but its dispersion in other continents still remains unknown. The current study aims to determine the phylogenetic relationship among C.37 isolates worldwide, focusing on spike mutations to understand the spread of Lambda in pandemics. A total of 7441 sequences identified as C.37 were downloaded from the GISAID database; local analysis was carried out to identify spike mutations and phylogenetic analysis was carried out to determine the rate of spread of the virus. Our results showed some spike mutations of Lambda that allowed us to detect small local outbreaks in different countries that occurred in the past and identify several clades that have not yet been designated. Although the lineage C.37 is not epidemiologically relevant in Europe or North America, the endemic behavior of this variant in Peru had a major impact on the second SARS-CoV-2 wave.

Access to Healthcare during COVID-19.

Ensuring access to healthcare is critical to prevent illnesses and deaths from COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 cases in health systems that have deteriorated during the pandemic. This study aims to map the existing literature on healthcare access after the appearance of COVID-19 using an ontological framework. This will help us to formalize, standardize, visualize and assess the barriers to and drivers of access to healthcare, and how to continue working towards a more accessible health system. A total of 131 articles are included and considered for mapping in the framework. The results were also compared to the World Health Organization guidelines on maintaining essential health services to determine the overlapping and nonoverlapping areas. We showed the benefits of using ontology to promote a systematic approach to address healthcare problems of access during COVID-19 or other pandemics and set public policies. This systematic approach will provide feedback to study the existing guidelines to make them more effective, learn about the existing gaps in research, and the relationship between the two of them. These results set the foundation for the discussion of future public health policies and research in relevant areas where we might pay attention.

Factors affecting the behavior of children with ASD during the first outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

AIM AND METHODS: Cross-sectional data from 118 Chilean children with ASD collected during the pandemic outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020 were evaluated to analyze predictors of behavioral problem impairment. RESULTS: Forty-five percent of parents stated that their children's behavioral difficulties increased in intensity or frequency. The adjusted predictors were having a family member hospitalized with COVID-19 (OR = 4.11; 95% CI = 1.53-11.1) and parents' mental health disorders during the pandemic (OR = 2.43; 95% CI = 1.01-5.83). CONCLUSION: Potentially modifiable psychosocial factors affecting children's behavior should be considered in a possible second outbreak.