Perceived organizational support and empowerment behaviors in female breast cancer survivors reinstated to work
Elsa María Vásquez-Trespalacios, Valentina Gómez-Jaramillo, Susana Palacio-Orozco, and Sara Atehortua-Salazar
Objective: to evaluate the perceived organizational support and empowerment behaviors in women survivors of breast cancer, active at work, in an oncology reference center.
Methods: this was a descriptive study in which data on sociodemographic, occupational, and clinical characteristics, treatment sequelae, empowerment behaviors, and perception of organizational support were collected.
Results: nearly 90% of the women kept their job prior to diagnosis. Sixty-nine percent reported that their income stayed the same. Most of the participating women perceived low organizational support, and this changed according to the presence of some treatment sequelae. Forty-nine point six percent of the participants had fully adopted empowering behaviors that varied significantly according to age, the presence of sequelae, perceived organizational support, and the time of returning to work.
Conclusion: treatment sequelae influence perceived organizational support and the adoption of empowering behaviors.
Keywords: breast cancer, perceived organizationalj support, empowerment, reintegration to work
Policies for global health in times of pandemics: the Pan-American experience
María-Antonieta Moreno-Reynosa and Eduardo Missoni
This article describes the contributions of three analytical frameworks of global health — diplomacy for global health, social determinants of health, and health in all policies — to pandemic scenarios such as the 2009 influenza and SARS-CoV-2. These three frameworks can guide the definition of global and national policies in response to pandemics, taking advantage of the Pan-American experience. Also, we propose future directions for the governance of national and global authorities, whose management corresponds to the World Health Organization, in collaboration with the new geopolitical configurations of cooperation, whose current challenge is the success of the COVAX mechanism.
Keywords: COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, global health, H1N1, COVAX, pandemics
Health literacy and COVID-19 in low-, middle-, and upper-middle-income countries: a systematic review
Luz Arenas-Monreal, Itxchel G. Galvan-Estrada, Leonel Dorantes-Pacheco, Margarita Márquez-Serrano, Monserrat Medrano-Vázquez, Rosario Valdez-Santiago, and Maricela Piña-Pozas
Objective: to analyze Health Literacy (HL) publications in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic in low-, medium-, and upper-middle-income countries.
Methods: a systematic review was carried out of literature published in the PubMed, Scopus, Portal VHL and Europe PMC databases between 2019 and 2021, following the Cochrane and PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta- analyses) guides, and was written according to the preferred reporting elements for systematic reviews. Methodological quality was checked using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT), to critically appraise the quality of the included studies.
Results: one thousand, three hundred and ninety-seven articles were reviewed, and after applying the eligibility criteria, 92 studies were selected for analysis. Three main themes were identified: difficulties and obstacles, impacts on HL during the pandemic, and challenges. Social determinants of health such as education, gender, territory, and socioeconomic level hinder HL; furthermore, another of the difficulties is the absence in various countries of health communication plans, programs, and guides. The infodemic was a difficulty and a challenge in this pandemic. One of the challenges for HL is inequality and poverty. In the included studies, HL measurements were found in the general population, in students and health professionals, as well as health communication actions and the dissemination of information to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and to counteract the infodemic.
Conclusions: the living conditions of the population, as well as the sociocultural, economic, and political context of the countries included in this systematic review, have a decisive influence on people’s HL.
Keywords: health literacy, COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, developing countries, low and middle-income countries (LMIC)
