[Accumulated years of potential productive life lost due industrial accidents in Petróleos Mexicanos]. / Años acumulados de vida productiva potencial perdidos por accidentes de trabajo en Petróleos Mexicanos.

OBJECTIVE: There are different indicators to give priority to health problems within the area of occupational health; we propose the calculation of accumulated years of potential productive life lost (AYPPLL) to estimate the loss of material and human resources due to work accidents. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A total of 8 638 work accidents were analyzed using this method. Independent variables were: sex, age, place and type of accident, subject's income and work conditions. The dependent variable was permanent disability. RESULTS: Subjects who had some kind of permanent damage were 19.5%; the total number of AYPPLL was 5611, with an average of 3.2 YPPLL per accident. Variables associated with the highest AYPPLL were the sociodemographic variables, male sex, lowest income levels, temporary work contracts and injuries of the hand and wrist. CONCLUSIONS: The AYPPLL method was found to be a valuable indicator of the safety and hygiene of the worksite and a useful tool for planning and evaluating work accident programs.

[The prevalence of elevated arterial pressure and risk factors in adolescents in the Federal District of Mexico]. / Prevalencia de tensión arterial elevada y factores de riesgo en adolescentes en el Distrito Federal.

To develop studies on blood pressure (BP) of young population, such as adolescents, is important, because it is an early way to obtain information about the factors that could influence or modify the levels of BP. A group of 1,146 junior high school students from Mexico City was studied, by means of a questionnaire to identify risk factors, which were classified as: 1. inherent factors, 2. acquired risks and 3. family background. A significant association was observed related to inherent factors in scholars, mainly at monarch age with an odds ratio of 2.45; and confidence intervals of (1.05-5.63) for systolic blood pressure (SBP) and 8.81 (4.44-17.54) for diastolic blood pressure (DBP). In relation to acquired risks, there was a positive association with the use of contraceptives. As for family background there was as important association, in the following order: obesity, diabetes and hypertension. Therefore, it may be said that since early ages there are risk factors for BP; although some of them were not significantly, they can not be excluded as risk factors because there is a possibility that a longer latency period may be needed for them to act as such.

[Influence of work status of mothers on the weight of full-term newborns]. / Influencia de la situación laboral de la madre en el peso del recién nacido a término.

Birth weight is considered as the most important indicator of growth and intrauterine development as well as the nutritional status of the newborn. Several reports have demonstrated the influence of both biological and social variables on low birth weight, among which being discussed is the influence of the mothers work activities. Two hundred and thirty-two newborns were studied at the Regional Hospital "20 de Noviembre" of the Institute de Seguridad y Servicios Sociales para los Trabajadores del Estado (ISSSTE) and selected based on inclusion and exclusion criteria which homogenized the sample and allowed to associate the work status of the mother with the low birth weight of the child. The somatometric data of the newborns was obtained from official registrars from the Perinatology Ward and directly from the mothers who were interviewed. The results did not significant statistical differences in the weight of the newborns of those mothers who do work than in those who don't. It was concluded that for this sample, the favorable socioeconomic fund established by a double family income apparently compensates any disadvantages which the work activity could have on the newborns' weight.

[Life style, family history and personal pathology in relation to arterial hypertension in students of the Medical Faculty of UNAM]. / Estilo de vida y antecedentes familiares y personales patológicos relacionados con hipertension arterial en estudiantes de la Facultad de Medicina de la U.N.A.M.

Arterial hypertension (HA) is a public health problem, 15 to 30% of adults in our country suffer it. There are different facts that influence its outcome. Among young people the main factors are: alcoholism, smoking tobacco, overweight, diabetes, family history, sedentarism and psychological aspects. The main object of this study, was to detect the risk factor for the development of HA in the students of the University. For this search 489 sophomore students class at the Medical School of the University of Mexico (UNAM), between 17 and 24 years old, were studied. Our results showed that positive family history was more prevalent among females. Among males life-style factors were more significant, the main factor was sedentarism, whereas lesser factor was overweight. The prevalence of HA was higher for diastolic hypertension than for systolic. We concluded there are many risk factors that influence the development of HA, which are distributed in a different way according to gender preventive measures are recommended.

[Normal values of arterial pressure in adolescent students in the Federal District, Mexico]. / Valores normales de tensión arterial en escolares adolescentes en el Distrito Federal, México.

The studies of blood pressure (BP) in the adolescence are important because the growth and development, as well as the exposure to risk factors that begins in this period gives a good opportunity to make research on the behavior of BP and its modification in adulthood. We carried out a transversal study. Our sample was made by random conglomerates, multistage; we studied 1,123 children from 12 to 15 years on Mexico City. The behavior of the BP cifers for the males was that as age increases they increase at an average of 3 mmHg per year, in females we did not find this. When we compared the percentilar values by age and sex with studies carried out in the US, we had similar results.

[Percentile curves of arterial tension in school children from Mexico City]. / Curvas percentilares de tensión arterial en escolares de la Ciudad de México.

Hypertensive heart disease has an important place among the cardiovascular diseases. There are evidences that the behavior of arterial tension (AT) in children can predict the possible appearance of arterial hypertension (AH) in the adult. The foreign percentile curves, when applied to our population, show either under or overestimation of the cases. This is the reason for the need of having our own percentile tables. In this study we found different mean values for systolic and diastolic arterial tension (SAT and DAT) between the sexes, being these higher for the males, but these differences had no statistical significance. We present percentile tables for AT per sex against age, weight, height and corpulence index (CI). According to WHO, when a child has three measurement over the 95 percentile he should be considered AH. The tables for height, weight, and CI should be used only under special circumstances.