[Dietary habits and consumption patterns in a health district]. / Hábitos alimentarios y patrones de consumo en una zona de salud.

OBJECTIVE: To describe nutritional habits in a Health District by defining the patterns of food consumption. DESIGN: A descriptive, crossover study. SETTING: Health District of Molina de Segura, Murcia. METHOD: A community survey by interview of 1,071 people (95% confidence; accuracy to 3%), selected from the Municipal Roll by simple randomised sampling, was performed. The statistical methods were: Chi-squared and Student's tests, ANOVA, Pearson's linear correlation, factorial and discriminatory analysis. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: 17.3%, especially men, never took milk products (p < 0.0005). 12.5%, mainly young people, consumed more than 3 eggs a week (p < 0.02). 85% ate fruit daily; 70%, green and root vegetables; and 78%, olive oil. 12.6% had pulses more than 3 days a week. Only 6.5% had potatoes or pasta daily. Among men and young people there was a "bar culture", along with a "fast food" pattern. CONCLUSIONS: The abandoned Mediterranean diet must be promoted. Measures should be taken to moderate young people's and men's alcohol consumption. "Fast food" and "bar culture" patterns are the most deeply rooted. The nutritional education of the chronically ill should also be emphasised.

[Tobacco: risk factor in a health district]. / El tabaco: factor de riesgo en una zona de salud.

OBJECTIVE: To find the prevalence of tobacco dependency in our community and to identify tobacco consumption in our chronic patients. DESIGN: A crossover study. A descriptive analysis of the data. SETTING: A Health District. Mixed population, both urban and rural. PARTICIPANTS: A Health Survey which included 1,071 individuals (95% Confidence and 3% precision), selected by means of simple random sampling from the Municipal Census. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: A 32.3% prevalence of tobacco dependency, greater among men (50.7%) than women (15.7%). Among the young, there is a marked tendency for the number of smokers to level out between the sexes. 15.6% of smokers consume more than 24 cigarettes per day. Between 15 and 20% of patients suffering hypertension, diabetes, hypercholesterolaemia and the effects of ischaemic cardiopathy, along with 25% of those who had suffered a CVA and almost 40% of chronic bronchitics, continue to smoke. CONCLUSIONS: Advice against smoking must be directed towards younger and younger age groups, including both men and women. The high prevalence of people still smoking among the chronically ill should cause us to reflect on our advice against tobacco to such patients.

[Social assessment of anxiety in primary health care]. / Valoración social de la ansiedad en atención primaria de salud.

OBJECTIVE: Identification of the social profile of our anxious patients, and analysis of the usefulness of Bell's questionnaire for our area of work. DESIGN: A retrospective observation study of a crossover type. SETTING: Primary Care. PARTICIPANTS: 55 patients who consulted their Family Doctor and were diagnosed as suffering from Anxiety. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: We confirmed the diagnosis with the DSM-III-R and then analysed the level of Anxiety with the Hamilton Scale. The social evaluation was done by means of Bell's profile. As test statistics we used the lineal correlation Coefficient, the Student's t and Xi2 tests and Variance Analysis. 65% of diagnoses were Generalised Anxiety. The Hamilton mean was 20.9 points (S = 9.2). Overall social adaptation was unsatisfactory, with the worst results being for the emotional aspects. We observed a higher level of Anxiety as age increased (p = 0.021), related to a worse adaptation to Health (p = 0.014). Dissatisfaction with work and the working environment took the form of professional adaptation being poorer as their work situation deteriorated (p = 0.006). Anxiety levels were higher among the unemployed. Social adaptation was less among people with higher Anxiety levels (p = 0.04), above all as a consequence of worse adaptation to Health (p = 0.002) and worse emotional (p = 0.00001) adaptation. CONCLUSIONS: 1) We must introduce social aspects into analysis of patients with Anxiety. 2) Bell's profile enables us to identify those social aspects which can be tackled when caring for our patients. Its fundamental use is in individual application.