A brief, systematic and structured cognitive behavioural intervention (CBI) decreases anxiety and depression symptoms and improves quality of life in patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) who are being treated with haemodialysis. These benefits are not achieved when anxiety and depression symptoms are identified but not treated psychologically. This CBI consisted of cognitive restructuring of the distorted thoughts (perfectionism, catastrophic thinking, negative self-labelling, and dichotomous thinking) that are correlated with depression and anxiety symptoms and that can be assessed by a validated questionnaire designed for patients with ESRD. The handbooks that were developed for this study are structured and systematic. They could be valuable in supporting the efforts and participation of non-specialized health professionals in CBI such as nurses, physicians, social workers, and psychologists, raising the possibility of further application in a variety of clinical populations. Both the therapy and the client workbooks are available in Spanish upon request.

ObjectiveTo evaluate the association between habitual frequency of food intake of certain food groups during the COVID-19 pandemic and manifestations of COVID-19 symptoms in adult outpatients with suspected SARS-CoV-2 infection.DesignWe included 236 patients who attended an outpatient clinic for suspected COVID-19 evaluation. Severity of symptoms, habitual food intake frequency, demographics and Bristol chart scores were obtained before diagnostic confirmation with real-time reverse transcriptase PCR using nasopharyngeal swab.ResultsThe results of the COVID-19 diagnostic tests were positive for 103 patients (44%) and negative for 133 patients (56%). In the SARS-CoV-2-positive group, symptom severity scores had significant negative correlations with habitual intake frequency of specific food groups. Multivariate binary logistic regression analysis adjusted for age, sex and occupation confirmed that SARS-CoV-2-positive patients showed a significant negative association between having higher symptom severity and the habitual intake frequency of ‘legumes’ and ‘grains, bread and cereals’.ConclusionsIncrease in habitual frequency of intake of ‘legumes’, and ‘grains, bread and cereals’ food groups decreased overall symptom severity in patients with COVID-19. This study provides a framework for designing a protective diet during the COVID-19 pandemic and also establishes a hypothesis of using a diet-based intervention in the management of SARS-CoV-2 infection, which may be explored in future studies.

Pharmacoepidemiological research about antibiotics is supported by the World Health Organization (WHO), but data regarding antibiotic prevalence based on actual prescriptions and dosing patterns are insufficient. The aims were: (i) To estimate the prevalence and prescribed daily dose (PDD) of antibiotics in outpatients from Mexico City and (ii) to compare the PDD against the defined daily dose (DDD), as established by the WHO. The study included 685 prescriptions of antibiotics selected randomly from five geographical zones of Mexico City. Drug, dose, frequency, and duration of treatment were obtained from each prescription. PDD values of each antibiotic drug were calculated as the average of the daily doses. Sub-use and overuse were determined by the ratio PDD/DDD for each prescription. The most prescribed antibiotics to outpatients from Mexico City included six pharmacological groups: quinolones (28%), penicillins (23%), cephalosporins (17%), macrolides (10%), lincosamides (9%), and sulfonamides (4%). Both overuse and sub-use were high (55% and 63%, respectively). In conclusion, most of the antibiotics with a high prevalence of prescription also had a high rate of either sub-use or overuse, with prescribed doses that significantly differ with their corresponding DDD. The dosing variation has important clinical implications since it denotes low prescription control.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused many changes in the education sector worldwide, and school curricula have had to adapt to a non-face-to-face modality. However, international studies have concluded that this modality has affected the academic performance of students. The present study aimed to compare the academic performance of a sample of college students from before the start of quarantine with their current performance, and to test whether various demographic factors influenced these changes in conjunction with alcohol consumption. With a non-experimental, comparative and longitudinal design, we applied an ad hoc questionnaire, in conjunction with the AUDIT questionnaire, in a sample of college students (n = 341), and we also obtained data of academic average and failed subjects. The demographic factors that influenced academic performance were sex (p < 0.01), age (p < 0.01) and alcohol consumption (p = 0.001). Most students showed an improvement in their academic average during the quarantine period. Women without failed subjects and low-risk alcohol consumption obtained a better average in this period. In conclusion sex, age and alcohol consumption level were factors associated with academic performance during the quarantine period due to the COVID-19 pandemic; and women had a higher academic average than men did.