EUROLD: preliminary results of the ecological study on suicide and its associated socioeconomic variables in people over 85 in Europe.

The present study aims to compare the suicide rates in people over 85 years of age in relation to overall suicide rates in different European countries. In addition, the study aims to perform a preliminary analysis of which socioeconomic factors could explain higher suicide rates in this age group in Europe. An analysis of the Eurostat database has been made. In this pilot phase, certain socioeconomic variables representative of people over 85 years of age were chosen based on criteria of suitability, according to the bibliography available for other regions and availability of the information provided. The conditional suicide rate in this age group with respect to the overall suicide rate in each country has been calculated. Furthermore, Spearman correlations between the suicide rates in this age group and the chosen socioeconomic factors were performed. Conditional suicide rates in people over 85 years of age show a marked difference between southern and northern European countries. In the correlational analysis, suicide in this age group was associated with different economic ratios, the old-age dependency ratio, and the self-perceived health ratio. After performing a multivariate regression, the model that best explained the differences between the European countries included the variables "old-age dependency ratio" and "economic impossibility to buy new clothes ratio." Different socioeconomic factors, specifically poverty and economic inequality, added to the old-age dependency ratio, could explain huge differences between the suicide rates in people over 85 years of age in the different European countries.

El Grado en Medicina. Una visión por parte de los alumnos / The Medicine degree. A vision from students

El Grado en Medicina es uno de los grados más demandados por parte de los alumnos, como así lo demuestra su elevada nota de corte. Esto hace que los aspirantes se vean sometidos a una gran presión. Por eso y por la necesidad de evaluar habilidades sociales y emocionales indispensables para la práctica médica, nos planteamos si el método actual es el mejor y si la introducción de una prueba específica para Medicina ayudaría a definir mejor el perfil de estudiantes, más allá de la excelencia académica. La visión de los alumnos sobre el Grado en Medicina es, en general, muy positiva, sin olvidar que existen muchos aspectos que mejorar, especialmente en metodologías que aseguren una mayor motivación por parte del estudiantado y una mayor adherencia a los estudios. Por ello, desde el Consejo Estatal de Estudiantes de Medicina (CEEM) abogamos por la introducción de estrategias educativas alternativas que nos aparten del mero estudio pasivo, como son el aprendizaje basado en problemas, el aumento de peso en los planes de estudio de las prácticas clínicas, así como darle mayor importancia a aspectos no científicos del ámbito profesional como la bioética o las habilidades comunicativas. Además, consideramos esencial la evaluación de esta clase de competencias mediante la introducción de ECOE (evaluación clínica objetiva estructurada), debido a que es un método más fiable a la hora de evaluar competencias no teóricas

The Medicine degree is one of the most demanded by students as demonstrated by the high cut-off mark. This hard requirement normally puts the aspiring students under a lot of pressure. Due to this and to the need of evaluating social and emotional skills (which are essential for the practice of Medicine), makes us consider whether this would be the best method of gaining access to university, or would introducing a specific medical test help to define student profiles in a much better way, not only considering academic excellence. Students' vision of the Medicine degree is, overall, very positive but we are aware that there are many aspects that can still improve: the insertion of methodologies that can guarantee a higher motivation of the students and more engaging study dynamics. Due to this, CEEM (Consejo Estatal de Estudiantes de Medicina) defends the introduction of educational strategies that stimulate students and puts aside mere lecturing or passive study methods, such as: problem based learning curriculum, promoting clinical practices, strengthen the teaching of bioethics and communication skills. Moreover, we firmly believe that the evaluation should be assessed through OSCEs (Objective Structured Clinical Evaluation) as it is the most reliable method to assess non-theoretical competences