Socioeconomic Determinants of Participation in Cancer Screening in Argentina: A Cross-Sectional Study

Low socioeconomic status is associated with late cancer diagnosis and mortality in Argentina. It is important that cancer screening services are accessible to the whole population so that cancer can be detected early. Our aim in this study was to investigate socioeconomic determinants for the disparities in the use of breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer screening services in Argentina, and to measure the country progress in reducing differences in cancer screening participation across socioeconomic levels. We performed a secondary analysis of cross-sectional data from the 2018 National Survey of Risk Factors of Argentina. The sample included data from 49,170 households. We also compared the results with data from the 2013 wave of the same survey in order to assess progress on cancer screening participation across income and education categories. Income, education, health insurance, disability, and marital status were associated with cancer screening underuse in Argentina. Comparison between 2013 and 2018 demonstrated that there has been some progress toward increasing cancer screening uptake, but this increase is not equitably distributed across the population. To further reduce disparities in cancer participation across socioeconomic levels, cancer screening programs in Argentina should reinforce strategies to become more accessible. It is important to proactively reach those populations that are underusers of cancer screening and ensure that barriers that stop people from accessing cancer screening are explored and adequately addressed.

Hematological Characteristics During the Third Trimester of Pregnancy in a Population of Low and High Socio-Economic Levels in Lubumbashi

Background: During pregnancy, many hematologic changes occur to meet the demands of the developing fetus. The objective of this study was to describe the hematological characteristics in the third trimester in a population of low and high socioeconomic levels in Lubumbashi, in relation to the WHO and China reference values. Methodology: A descriptive cross-sectional observational study was carried out in Lubumbashi, among pregnant women received during the third trimester antenatal consultations in apparent good health. A total of 128 pregnant women with a monofetal pregnancy of at least 27 weeks of amenorrhea in apparent good health were selected and divided into two groups of low and high socioeconomic levels. Blood was drawn and analyzed on the CYANHEMATO machine. Results: Hemoglobin (HB) averages were 9.63 ± 1.52 and 11.19 ± 1.07 g / dl respectively in the low and high socioeconomic levels population. The majority of patients in the two populations were in the reference range for red blood cell (RBC) count from 2.75 to 4.64 1012 / l. The average values of hematocrit (HCT), mean corpuscular volume (MCV) and mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH) in Lubumbashi were lower than in the China population : 28.39 ± 4.21 versus 32.47 ± 3.46% ; 67.34 ± 9.50 versus 74.38 ± 8.15 fl and 22.96 ± 3.56 versus 25.71 ± 3.23 pg for reference values of 36% ; 90.8 fl and 30.5 pg, respectively. As for the red blood cell distribution width (RDW), it was higher in the low socio-economic level population (16.86 ± 3.40%) than in the high socio-economic level population (14.90 ± 2.25%) with a difference highly significant (p <0.0001). Conclusion: The RBC and RDW were significantly increased in Lubumbashi, while HB. HCT, MCV and MCH were decreased. The mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC) did not present any particularity

Determining the Effect of Science Teaching Using Mobile Augmented Reality Application on the Secondary School Students’ Attitudes of toward Science and Technology and Academic Achievement

In this research, the effects of science education using mobile augmented reality (MAR) application on students’ attitudes toward science, technology, and their academic achievement were determined against two socioeconomic levels. The parallel pattern mixed method was used in the study. The research was carried out with 143 sixth-grade students from two schools with different socioeconomic levels in Turkey. The MAR application was used with the experimental groups. Quantitative data were collected through the “Science and Technology Attitude Scale” and “Systems Achievement Test.” According to the ANCOVA results, it was observed that the MAR application used in the processing of the lessons was effective in improving the academic achievement levels of the students but not in attitudes toward science and technology. Results showed that the socioeconomic situation played an active role on the academic achievement of students but did not play an effective role on science and technology attitudes. The results of this research are important in determining the differences between students at different socioeconomic levels experiencing technology-supported systems.

Incidencia de la segregación escolar por nivel socioeconómico en el rendimiento académico. Un estudio desde Perú

The objective of this research is to estimate the incidence of socioeconomic school segregation in the academic performance of students. For this purpose, data mining was carried out using the data of the Census Evaluation of Students (ECE) of the Ministry of Education of Peru, through Multilevel Models with three levels of analysis (region, school and student). The Hutchens' Square Root Index was used to estimate the magnitude of segregation in each school. The sample consisted of 502,521 2nd grade secondary students from 12,862 schools in the country. The results show that school segregation has a direct and measurable impact on performance in the three areas analyzed, and even helps to explain more than the average socioeconomic level of the school. Likewise, the concentration of students from families with lower socioeconomic levels in the school makes performance lower in the three areas; while the concentration of students from families with higher socioeconomic levels makes performance better, also in the three areas. This study provides solid evidence of how school socioeconomic segregation affects the efficiency of the educational system, as well as the equality of educational opportunities for all.

Prevalence and diagnosis experience of osteoporosis in postmenopausal women over 50: Focusing on socioeconomic factors

Osteoporosis is the most common disease of the musculoskeletal system in old age. Therefore, research on osteoporosis risk factors is actively being conducted. However, whether socioeconomic inequality is associated with the prevalence and diagnosis experience of osteoporosis remains largely unexplored. This study aims to investigate whether socioeconomic inequality can be a risk factor for osteoporosis in postmenopausal women. Cross-sectional data of 1,477 postmenopausal women aged over 50 obtained from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey V-2 were analyzed. Univariate analyses were performed to calculate the prevalence of osteoporosis and the rate of osteoporosis diagnosis experience according to the risk factor categories. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to identify the independent variables’ associations with osteoporosis prevalence and diagnosis experience. The prevalence of osteoporosis was 34.8%, while the diagnosis experience rate was 22.1%. The higher the age, the higher the probability of osteoporosis presence and diagnosis experience. The lowest household income level was associated with a 1.63 times higher risk of osteoporosis. On the contrary, this factor was not significant for diagnosis experience. These results were similar for the 50–59 and 60–69 age groups. Among postmenopausal women, those who are older and have low socioeconomic levels are at a high risk of developing osteoporosis. Moreover, the lower the socioeconomic level, the lower the awareness of osteoporosis. Therefore, there is a need to develop more proactive preventive measures in postmenopausal women with low socioeconomic levels.