Food consumption in the Canary Islands: nutritional implications of food imports and local production.

BACKGROUND: The composition of the average diet for the Canary Islands' population has been the subject of concern for the region's authorities and nutrition specialists. In this study, the composition of the average diet in the Canary Islands is estimated. METHOD: The approach is based on secondary data on local production and external trade. The breakdown of the total volume of apparent food consumption into specific product categories marketed to the consumers is achieved by applying hypotheses about losses in the distribution process. The estimation of food intake is obtained by making assumptions about the rates of food wastage in the final stage of consumption. This consumption is expressed not only in terms of edible weight and the market value associated with different food groups according to their local or imported origin, but also in terms of their energy and nutrient content. RESULTS: The results obtained suggest a high-calorie diet, close to three thousand kilocalories per person per day, with an average cost of around eight euros per person per day. Imported products, with a lower average cost per unit of energy, provide most of the carbohydrates and fats. CONCLUSION: This study provides a complementary approach to survey-based evidence and also offers the possibility of evaluating the contributions of local or imported food to the diet.

[A method for ascertaining the seasonal pattern of hospital emergency department visits]. / Un método de obtención del patrón estacional de frecuentación de un servicio de urgencias hospitalario.

A suitable method is set forth in this study for isolating and describing high frequency seasonal variations which may occur in some sets of time series in the healthcare setting. If the simultaneous presence of seasonal variations within a day, a week and a year is not taken into account, the estimates of seasonal behaviours may be noticeably distorted and the decisions made by those in charge of managing healthcare services based thereupon might be erroneous. The proposed procedure, based upon taking simultaneous periodic changes jointly into consideration is applied to an hourly series of patients visiting an hospital emergency room in Tenerife. The results obtained indicate that the most frequent visits take place in February and March, Mondays being the days on which the greatest demand occurs and the early morning hours of the day showing the minimum demands. A long-term growth is also observed. And, above all, the proposed method is shown to provide some advantages over other approaches in which each one of the seasonal variations is estimated as if the others do not exist.

Un método de obtención del patrón estacional de frecuentación de un servicio de urgencias hospitalario / A method for ascertaining the seasonal pattern of hospital emergency department visits

En este trabajo se propone un método apropiado para aislar ydescribir las variaciones estacionales de alta frecuencia que puedenestar presentes en determinadas series horarias del ámbito sanitario.Si no se tiene en cuenta la presencia simultánea de variaciones estacionalesde periodo diario, semanal y anual los comportamientosestacionales estimados podrían quedar notablemente distorsionadosy las decisiones adoptadas por los gestores de los servicios de saluda partir de aquéllos podrían ser erróneas. El procedimiento propuesto,basado en la consideración conjunta de variaciones periódicassimultáneas, se aplica a una serie horaria de visitas registradas en unservicio de urgencias hospitalarias en Tenerife. Los resultados obtenidosindican que las visitas más frecuentes corresponden a losmeses de febrero y marzo, los lunes son los días de mayor demanday dentro del día las horas de la madrugada registran demandas mínimas.Además, se observa un cierto crecimiento a largo plazo. Y,sobre todo, se pone de manifiesto que el método propuesto resultaventajoso frente a otras aproximaciones en las que cada una de lasvariaciones estacionales se estima como si las demás no estuvieran presentes

A suitable method is set forth in this study for isolating and describinghigh frequency seasonal variations which may occur in somesets of time series in the healthcare setting. If the simultaneous presenceof seasonal variations within a day, a week and a year is nottaken into account, the estimates of seasonal behaviours may be noticeablydistorted and the decisions made by those in charge of managinghealthcare services based thereupon might be erroneous. Theproposed procedure, based upon taking simultaneous periodic changesjointly into consideration is applied to an hourly series of patientsvisiting an hospital emergency room in Tenerife. The results obtainedindicate that the most frequent visits take place in February andMarch, Mondays being the days on which the greatest demandoccurs and the early morning hours of the day showing the minimumdemands. A long-term growth is also observed. And, above all, theproposed method is shown to provide some advantages over otherapproaches in which each one of the seasonal variations is estimatedas if the others do not exist