BackgroundTo evaluate personal and institutional factors related to depression and anxiety prevalence of students from 22 Brazilian medical schools.MethodsThe authors performed a multicenter study (August 2011 to August 2012), examining personal factors (age, sex, housing, tuition scholarship) and institutional factors (year of the medical training, school legal status, location and support service) in association with scores of Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and State Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI).ResultsOf 1,650 randomly selected students, 1,350 (81.8 %) completed the study. The depressive symptoms prevalence was 41 % (BDI > 9), state-anxiety 81.7 % and trait-anxiety in 85.6 % (STAI > 33). There was a positive relationship between levels of state (r = 0,591, p < 0.001) and trait (r = 0,718, p < 0.001) anxiety and depression scores. All three symptoms were positively associated with female sex and students from medical schools located in capital cities of both sexes. Tuition scholarship students had higher state-anxiety but not trait-anxiety or depression scores. Medical students with higher levels of depression and anxiety symptoms disagree more than their peers with the statements “I have adequate access to psychological support” and “There is a good support system for students who get stressed”.ConclusionsThe factors associated with the increase of medical students’ depression and anxiety symptoms were female sex, school location and tuition scholarship. It is interesting that tuition scholarship students showed state-anxiety, but not depression and trait-anxiety symptoms.

RESUMOIntrodução: Este estudo situa-se no escopo da educação permanente em saúde, ferramenta que tem sido fundamental para provocar mudanças nas práticas do trabalho em saúde. Neste cenário, a prática da atenção primária à saúde, em especial a saúde da família, tem sido utilizada para efetivar a organização dos serviços de saúde no Brasil. Objetivo: Analisar a contribuição de um curso de especialização em Saúde da Família, nas modalidades presencial e à distância, para a prática de profissionais de saúde no estado do Rio Grande do Sul. Métodos: Trata-se de um estudo qualitativo, realizado no contexto de um curso de especialização em Saúde da Família, ofertado por duas instituições em Porto Alegre, utilizando-se um questionário on-line e um grupo focal. Resultados: Os participantes do estudo foram 64 profissionais de saúde (médicos, enfermeiros e odontólogos) que já atuavam na atenção primária à saúde e integraram as turmas nas modalidades presencial e à distância. Foram realizados dois grupos focais (durante o início e ao final do curso), além de terem sido analisadas as percepções dos profissionais em relação à contribuição do curso na prática profissional. Conclusão: O curso provocou mudanças, tais como reorganização do processo de trabalho da equipe, implementação de atividades coletivas e acolhimento à demanda espontânea, além de maior compreensão do processo de trabalho.Palavras-chave: educação em saúde; atenção primária à saúde; saúde da família. ABSTRACTIntroduction: This study lies within the scope of health permanent education, a tool that has been essential in causing changes in health work practices. In this scenario, the practice of primary health care, especially family health, has been used to carry out the organization of health services in Brazil. Objective: To analyze the contribution of a specialization course in Family Health, in present and distant modes, to the practice of health professionals in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. Methods: This is a qualitative study conducted in the context of a specialization course in Family Health that is offered by two institutions in Porto Alegre, using an online questionnaire and a focal group. Results: Study participants were 64 health professionals (physicians, nurses and dentists) that were already working in primary health care and formed the classes in present and distant modes. Two focal groups were conducted (during the beginning and by the end of the course), and professionals' perceptions regarding the contribution of the course to the professional practice was analyzed. Conclusion: The course caused some changes, such as reorganization of teamwork process, implementation of collective activities and reception to spontaneous demand, as well as better understanding of the work process.

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School is configured as a social space that can essentially contribute to cognitive and emotional evolvement. Furthermore, it emerges as an important resource for Positive Psychology. This review aimed to evaluate studies that present interventions based on Positive Education. Databases searched were MEDLINE, LILACS, Psycinfo, SciELO, and Scopus, using the terms "Positive Education" and "Intervention". The study's analysis was descriptive, and the characteristics of the interventions were reported. Fourteen studies that met the proposed eligibility criteria were included. As a result, nine studies were focused on positive education in the children's and adolescents, three were directed to college students, and two exclusively meant for teachers and school leaders. The importance of stimulating the development of strength of character among students were apparent. Educação Positiva: Inovação em Intervenções Educacionais Baseadas na Psicologia PositivaRESUMO -A escola é um ambiente social que essencialmente pode contribuir para o desenvolvimento cognitivo e emocional dos sujeitos, surgindo como um importante recurso da Psicologia Positiva. A presente revisão objetivou avaliar estudos que apresentam intervenções baseadas em Eduação Positiva. As bases acessadas foram MEDLINE, LILACS, Psycinfo, SciELO e Scopus, por meio dos termos "Positive Education" e "Intervention". Os estudos foram analisados de forma descritiva e as características das intervenções foram descritas. Quatorze estudos satisfizeram os critérios de inclusão desta revisão. Como resultado, 9 estudos focalizaram a eduação positiva de crianças e adolescentes, 3 foram direcionados para estudantes universitários e 2 consideraram exclusivamente professores e líderes escolares. Evidenciou-se a importância de estimular o desenvolvimento da força de caráter entre os alunos.

This article is focused on a game-based educative experience, developed with students of the 1 st year of the Medicine program of a federal public educational institution. The game was used as a privileged strategy to approach the students' communication, spontaneity and sensitiveness in the health education process. Through this game, it was possible to approach the theme "the students' mental health", where they could express their feelings as freshman students in the Medicine program. Such experience triggered learning opportunities for students and teachers, what, from Freire's perspective, is seen as a dialogic process of mutual formation with students. Its development favored the rethinking about the teaching practice in health, as well as subsidized the reorientation of the process of preventing and promoting mental health by means of proposals and supporting programs to students enrolled at the institution.

This article is contextualized in the Brazilian More Doctors Program (PMM). It was aimed at understanding the perception of distance education and its contributions to health practices in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. Through a qualitative approach and using a focus groups methodology, this study was conducted with the participation of PMM doctors and family health specialization course students of Universidade Federal de Ciências da Saúde de Porto Alegre. The results show that, although distance education is still a new topic for most of PMM professionals, it did not hinder the identification of potentialities in this teaching modality. It contributed to the education and qualification of these professionals’ daily practice, both in terms of their individual clinical performance and of teamwork.

This study evaluates the effectiveness of an 18-month-long course in Family Health. The course was offered in two modalities, distance education and face-to-face learning. Dependent variables were as follows: self-regulation of learning, procrastination, the perception of self-efficacy, and academic performance. The course was attended by 27 health professionals (i.e., physicians, nurses, and dentists) working in the Brazilian Unified Health System. The investigation followed a quasi-experimental design. Participants in the two modalities achieved similar academic performance; and globally no statistically significant differences were found regarding the study variables. Findings, notwithstanding their importance for professional training in health, are preliminary and further research is needed on the effectiveness of training modalities distance education and face-to-face learning (e.g., focus groups, interviews, online monitoring). The educational implications of this study are discussed and analyzed considering specificities and differences of each modality.

The Health and Education Ministries of Brazil launched the Health in School Program (Programa Saúde na Escola - PSE) in 2007. The purpose of the PSE is two-fold: articulate the actions of the education and health systems to identify risk factors and prevent them; and promote health education in the public elementary school system. In the health field, the self-regulation (SR) construct can contribute to the understanding of life habits which can affect the improvement of individuals' health. This research aims to present a program that promotes SR in health (SRH). This program (PSRH) includes topics on healthy eating and oral health from the PSE; it is grounded on the social cognitive framework and uses story tools to train 5th grade Brazilian students in SRH. The study consists of two phases. In Phase 1, teachers and health professionals participated in a training program on SRH, and in Phase 2, they will be expected to conduct an intervention in class to promote SRH. The participants were randomly assigned into three groups: the Condition I group followed the PSE program, the Condition II group followed the PSRH (i.e., PSE plus the SRH program), and the control group (CG) did not enroll in either of the health promotion programs. For the baseline of the study, the following measures and instruments were applied: Body Mass Index (BMI), Simplified Oral Hygiene Index (OHI-S), Previous Day Food Questionnaire (PFDQ), and Declarative Knowledge for Health Instrument. Data indicated that the majority are eutrophic children, but preliminary outcomes showed high percentages of children that are overweight, obese and severely obese. Moreover, participants in all groups reported high consumption of ultraprocessed foods (e.g., soft drinks, artificial juices, and candies). Oral health data from the CI and CII groups showed a prevalence of regular oral hygiene, while the CG presented good oral hygiene. The implementation of both PSE and PSRH are expected to help reduce health problems in school, as well as the public expenditures with children's health (e.g., Obesity and oral diseases).