Spatio-temporal trends in gastric cancer mortality in Spain: 1975-2008.

AIM OF THE STUDY: There has been a downward trend in gastric cancer mortality worldwide. In Spain, a marked spatial aggregation of areas with excess mortality due to this cause has long been reported. This paper sought to analyse the evolution of gastric cancer mortality risk in Spanish provinces and explore the possible attenuation of the geographical pattern. METHODS: We studied a series of gastric cancer mortality data by province, year of death, sex and age group using a conditional autoregressive (CAR) model that incorporated space, time and spatio-temporal interactions. RESULTS: Gastric cancer mortality risk decreased in all Spanish provinces in both males and females. Overall, decreasing trends were more pronounced during the first years of the study period, largely due to a sharper fall in gastric cancer mortality risk among the older population. Recent decades have witnessed a slowing in the rate of decrease, especially among the younger age groups. In most areas, risk declined at a similar rate, thus serving to maintain interprovincial differences and the persistence of the geographical pattern, though with some differences. The north and northwest provinces were the areas with higher mortality risks in both sexes and age groups over the entire study period. CONCLUDING STATEMENT: Despite the decline in gastric cancer mortality risk observed for the 50 Spanish provinces studied, geographical differences still persist in Spain, and the cluster of excess mortality in the north-west of the country remains in evidence.

A taxometric analysis of schizophrenia symptoms.

Specific disorders within the psychosis syndrome have been proposed although no definitive validation of subtypes has been achieved. If there are subtypes of psychosis, latent discontinuity between clinical descriptors should be found. We applied for the first time taxometric analysis on characteristic schizophrenia symptoms. The sample consisted of 660 inpatients with an acute psychotic episode. Computed scores of the clinical dimensions included in the three-syndrome model of schizophrenia symptomatology were used as clinical descriptors or latent variables to be analyzed. Two taxometric analyses were used (MAXCOV and MAMBAC). Discrepancies between observed covariance curves and between the estimated base rates of indicators did not support a taxonic conjecture within psychosis based on the severity of 'Psychosis', 'Negative' and 'Disorganization' dimensions scores, which were used as indicators. However, no appropriate solution could be reached because the three clinical indicators of schizophrenia symptomatology used in this study showed a lack of consistency. The lack of a taxonic structure with symptomatological domains of psychosis suggested the existence of a dimensional solution for schizophrenia symptomatology within psychoses.

A cohort study to estimate occupational mortality risks in Navarra.

BACKGROUND: Few studies on occupational mortality have been conducted in Spain. The objective of this work was to analyse inequalities on global mortality and on mortality due to specific causes according to occupation in a historical cohort of males from the province of Navarra, Spain. METHODS: The base population for this historical cohort comprised all employed men over age 34 from Navarra in the 1986 population register. Age-standardised point estimates and confidence intervals for occupational-specific mortality risks were computed. RESULTS: There exist differences in mortality risks with respect to the overall risk of Navarra in certain occupational activities for several major causes of mortality. Some of the results corroborate previous findings in other works, such as the significant high risk that presents in leather, clothing workers and shoemakers when analysing kidney, bladder and other urinary malignant tumours, while others present a certain degree of novelty. CONCLUSION: This work contributes to filling the gap in the lack of works on occupational mortality in Spain. It also complements the information that other monitoring systems may provide on occupational health.

Desarrollo y validación de un Cuestionario de Metas para Adolescentes / Development and validation of an Adolescents Goals Questionnaire

El objetivo principal de este estudio fue examinar las metas que persiguen los adolescentes. Para tal fin se desarrolló y validó el Cuestionario de Metas para Adolescentes (CMA) partiendo del Goal Setting Questionnaire de Carroll, Durkin, Hattie y Houghton (1997). La investigación se llevó a cabo con tres muestras de 143, 273 y 1.179 sujetos, respectivamente, entre 15 y 19 años, de ambos sexos y de centros públicos y concertados. Los análisis psicométricos revelaron que el CMA -en su versión última- tiene una consistencia interna satisfactoria y una estructura definida por seis factores: reconocimiento social, interpersonal, deportivo, emancipativo, educativo y sociopolítico. Además, se obtuvieron diferencias significativas en las variables ilustrativas sexo, edad y tipo de centro. Estos resultados permiten afirmar que el CMA es un instrumento prometedor para la investigación y, concretamente, para evaluar la importancia que los adolescentes otorgan a las metas (AU)

The main purpose of this study was to examine the goals orientation of adolescents. The Adolescents Goals Questionnaire (called CMA) was developed and validated starting from the «Goal Setting Questionnaire» of Carroll, Durkin, Hattie, and Houghton (1997). The study was conducted with three samples of n= 143, n= 273 and n= 1.179 students ranged from 15 to 19 years old, of both sexes and attending public and private schools. The psycometric analysis revealed a satisfactory internal consistency for the CMA and an structure of six factors: reputation, interpersonal, sporting, freedom, educational and sociopolitical. Moreover, statistically significant differences were found in the whole set of illustrative variables: sex, age and type of school. These results allow us to conclude that the CMA is a promising instrument for further research, and, in particular, for evaluating the importance that adolescents give to goals (AU)