We aimed to determine the prevalence of depression, anxiety, and stress in university students in Paraguay during the COVID-19 pandemic. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 293 students from four universities in Paraguay in 2021. The DASS-21 mental health scale was used to measure the outcomes (depression, anxiety, and stress) and evaluate their association with socio-educational variables. A total of 77.1% of the participants were women and 136 (46.4%) were between 21 and 25 years old. The prevalence of depression, anxiety, and stress was 74.7%, 87.4%, and 57%, respectively. We found that being a woman and studying at a public university was positively associated with depression, anxiety, and stress. Receiving COVID-19 training increases the prevalence of mental health problems. In conclusion, high levels of anxiety, depression, and stress were found in university students durin...

We aimed to determine the prevalence of depression, anxiety, and stress in university students in Paraguay during the COVID-19 pandemic. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 293 students from four universities in Paraguay in 2021. The DASS-21 mental health scale was used to measure the outcomes (depression, anxiety, and stress) and evaluate their association with socio-educational variables. A total of 77.1% of the participants were women and 136 (46.4%) were between 21 and 25 years old. The prevalence of depression, anxiety, and stress was 74.7%, 87.4%, and 57%, respectively. We found that being a woman and studying at a public university was positively associated with depression, anxiety, and stress. Receiving COVID-19 training increases the prevalence of mental health problems. In conclusion, high levels of anxiety, depression, and stress were found in university students durin...

La principal preocupación fue el regresar a casa y contagiar a su familia (22% muy de acuerdo), seguido por el sentir el maltrato porque no le dan la cantidad necesaria de equipos de protección personal (13% muy de acuerdo) y percibir agotamiento mental por todas las actividades que realizaba (12% muy de acuerdo). En el análisis multivariado, a mayor edad hubo una menor percepción de repercusión mental (RPa: 0,98; IC95%: 0,97-0,99; valor p=0,012); además, los que tuvieron una mayor percepción de repercusiones en la esfera mental también tuvieron más ansiedad en nivel bajo (RPa: 1,84; IC95%: 1,14-2,98; valor p=0,013) y estrés post traumático (RPa: 2,28; IC95%: 1,61-3,22; valor p<0,001), ajustado por la depresión y el estrés. A pesar de ser un análisis exploratorio, se encontró importantes asociaciones en la esfera mental; lo que debería seguir investigándose en estudios m...

Introduction: COVID-19 has generated great repercussions for the population globally; millions of deaths have been reported worldwide. The idea of death is especially exacerbated when there are close to death experiences that remind us how close we are to fatality. This is why it is important to measure fatalistic ideas of those who have not yet been infected. Objective: To revalidate a scale that measures fatalistic perception prior to COVID-19 infection in a population of 13 Latin American countries. Methodology: We conducted an instrumental study. We used a previously validated scale in Peru, with seven items divided into two factors and with five possible Likert-type responses (from strongly disagree to strongly agree). It was administered to a large population in 13 Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America; for each of the seven questions, 886 people were surveyed. With these res...

“Introducción el advenimiento de la pandemia de la COVID-19 ha obligado a los estudiantes a poder adaptarse a los nuevos medios de educación. El cierre de los centros educativos ha generado una migración masiva a la virtualidad y, en muchos casos, ni las instituciones ni los educandos se encontraban preparados para esta modalidad. Objetivo validar una escala que mida las repercusiones académicas a consecuencia de las medidas tomadas por la pandemia entre los universitarios de 13 países de Latinoamérica. Metodología estudio de tipo instrumental, analítico y de corte transversal. El muestreo fue no probabilístico y por conveniencia. Se realizaron evaluaciones de forma y fondo. La evaluación de fondo fue realizada por medio de juicio de expertos y se realizó un pequeño piloto para poder evaluar la forma de los ítems. Resultados en el análisis de fondo, el ítem 1 es el más ...

“Introduction: The pandemic has caused fear, especially due to the daily disseminated news; however, there is not an instrument to measure this fear in multiple realities. Objective: To validate a scale for Latin American perception of fear and concern transmitted by the media during the pandemic. Methodology: This is an instrumental study. The survey was based on an instrument which was pre-validated in Peru and submitted to 15 experts in almost 10 countries. Subsequently, thousands of people were surveyed in 13 Latin American countries, whose answers were used for descriptive statistics for validation. Results: Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) generated two re-specifications, where four items were eliminated from the original scale. With these changes, the global goodness of fit (absolute and incremental) were satisfactory (CFI ¼ 0.978; TLI ¼ 0.964; GFI ¼ 0.976; AGFI ¼ 0.949; R...

“Introduction: The pandemic has caused fear, especially due to the daily disseminated news; however, there is not an instrument to measure this fear in multiple realities. Objective: To validate a scale for Latin American perception of fear and concern transmitted by the media during the pandemic. Methodology: This is an instrumental study. The survey was based on an instrument which was pre-validated in Peru and submitted to 15 experts in almost 10 countries. Subsequently, thousands of people were surveyed in 13 Latin American countries, whose answers were used for descriptive statistics for validation. Results: Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) generated two re-specifications, where four items were eliminated from the original scale. With these changes, the global goodness of fit (absolute and incremental) were satisfactory (CFI ¼ 0.978; TLI ¼ 0.964; GFI ¼ 0.976; AGFI ¼ 0.949; R...

We have recently read the article by Chaung et al1 describing a case of SARS‐CoV‐2 and HCoV‐HKU1 coinfection. The HCoV‐HKU1 is also a member of the Betacoronavirus. In addition to other coronaviruses in different regions of the world, there is an increasing number of reports of coinfections in SARS‐CoV‐2/COVID‐19. Then, we would like to take the opportunity to discuss some of them,1-10 as there are not yet reviews on this emerging issue of COVID‐19. Currently, the evidence suggests that the coinfection rates between SARS‐CoV‐2 and other respiratory pathogens would be higher than initially expected, which represents a challenge for the diagnosis and treatment.

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic contributed to the spread of abundant misinformation by the media, which caused fear and concern. Objective: To determine the association between the pathologies of the mental sphere and the perceptions of fear and exaggeration transmitted by the media with respect to COVID-19 in Latin America. Methodology: The present study has an analytical cross-sectional design that is based on a validated survey to measure fear and exaggeration transmitted by the media and other sources (Cronbach’s α: 0.90). We surveyed more than 6,000 people, originally from 12 Latin American countries, who associated this perceived exaggeration with stress, depression, and anxiety (measured through DASS-21, Cronbach’s α: 0.96). Results: Social networks (40%) or television (34%) were perceived as the sources that exaggerate the magnitude of the events. In addition, televisi...

“Introducción El sector económico fue uno de los más afectados durante la pandemia de COVID-19, debido a las medidas impuestas por los gobiernos para reducir la propagación de este nuevo virus. En consecuencia, varios sectores laborales tuvieron que pasar por un proceso de adaptación virtual, resultando en la inestabilidad o pérdida de empleos. El objetivo fue revalidar una escala ultra corta para la medición de la seguridad percibida para conservar el trabajo en Latinoamérica. Métodos Se realizó un estudio de validación de una escala corta que mide la seguridad percibida por el trabajador acerca de poder perder o mantener su trabajo en un corto tiempo. Resultados Los cuatro ítems se mantuvieron en la escala revalidada, también estuvieron en un único factor. Los índices de bondad de ajuste confirmaron dicho factor único: χ2 : 7,06; df: 2; p = 0,29; junto a los índices...

“Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic contributed to the spread of abundant misinformation by the media, which caused fear and concern. Objective: To determine the association between the pathologies of the mental sphere and the perceptions of fear and exaggeration transmitted by the media with respect to COVID-19 in Latin America. Methodology: The present study has an analytical cross-sectional design that is based on a validated survey to measure fear and exaggeration transmitted by the media and other sources (Cronbach's α: 0.90). We surveyed more than 6,000 people, originally from 12 Latin American countries, who associated this perceived exaggeration with stress, depression, and anxiety (measured through DASS-21, Cronbach's α: 0.96). Results: Social networks (40%) or television (34%) were perceived as the sources that exaggerate the magnitude of the events. In addition, televisio...

Introducción: Conocer una enfermedad es crucial para poder combatirla, especialmente en una región en la que el COVID-19 causó tantas muertes, como es América Latina. Objetivo: Determinar la asociación entre conocimientos básicos de COVID-19 y nivel educativo según país de residencia en América Latina. Metodología: Se trata de un estudio transversal analítico. El nivel básico de conocimientos se midió a través de nueve preguntas cerradas (escala validada en Perú). El puntaje obtenido se analizó mediante la realización de una tabla cruzada contra género, edad, nivel educativo y país de residencia. Resultados: De un total de 9.222 encuestados, casi todos conocían los síntomas comunes (99%), modos de transmisión (93%) y sabían reconocer cuál no era un síntoma específico (93%). A través del modelo multivariado, encontramos que no hubo asociación con el género ( p...

“Introducción: Conocer una enfermedad es crucial para poder combatirla, especialmente en una región en la que el COVID-19 causó tantas muertes, como es América Latina. Objetivo: Determinar la asociación entre conocimientos básicos de COVID-19 y nivel educativo según país de residencia en América Latina. Metodología: Se trata de un estudio transversal analítico. El nivel básico de conocimientos se midió a través de nueve preguntas cerradas (escala validada en Perú). El puntaje obtenido se analizó mediante la realización de una tabla cruzada contra género, edad, nivel educativo y país de residencia. Resultados: De un total de 9.222 encuestados, casi todos conocían los síntomas comunes (99%), modos de transmisión (93%) y sabían reconocer cuál no era un síntoma específico (93%). A través del modelo multivariado, encontramos que no hubo asociación con el género ...

Objetivos: Identificar el uso de fuentes de información, así como, tecnologías de la información y comunicación (TIC) según el tipo de universidad en siete países de América Latina.Métodos:Estudio transversal en estudiantes de medicina de siete países de América Latina. Se midió el uso de fuentes y tecnologías de información y comunicación con el autoreporte sobre el uso de buscadores científicos (SciELO, PubMed, Google Scholar) y TIC (laptop, smartphone, wifi). Las variables secundarias fueron el país y el tipo de universidad de procedencia (pública/privada) de los estudiantes de medicina. Resultados: De 4463 encuestados, SciELO fue usado por el 83.3% y el 55.0% en una universidad pública y privada, respectivamente. Mientras que PubMed fue reportado por el 79.9% y 59.2% de estudiantes de universidad pública y privada, respectivamente. Las universidades privadas tuvie...