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(1) Background: health care workers, particularly nurses, have been regularly assaulted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Purpose: to evaluate the prevalence and location of assaults against nursing personnel in Latin America, and to determine predictor factors for aggression against nurses. (2) Methods: A cross-sectional online survey was answered by 374 nurses working in health care during the COVID-19 pandemic. The aggression against nurses was estimated using the Victimization Scale. (3) Results: A total of 288 nurses were included in this study. The victimization scale showed that 52.1% of nurses have suffered aggression by the general population during the COVID-19 pandemic. Males were more likely to be attacked than females (p < 0.05). Additionally, males were attacked more frequently on public transport (x2 = 6.72, p = 0.01). The home neighborhood and markets were other locations with a higher risk of being assaulted (OR: 3.39, CI: 1.53-7.50). (4) Conclusions: Our results indicate that nurses in Latin America who work during the COVID-19 pandemic and social isolation have been frequently assaulted by the general public. Males are more frequently attacked than females and the main places of aggression are public transportation, their home neighborhood and supermarkets. Implications for nursing practice: it is necessary to create and implement protocols and guidelines to support nursing personnel during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study was retrospectively registered at the Juarez Autonomous University of Tabasco (103/CIPDACS/2020) on the (08/2020).

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INTRODUCTION: Alexithymia is the difficulty in identifying and describing feelings. Several studies have suggested that chronic pain can be linked to alexithymia. The aims of this study were to determine the presence of alexithymia in a sample of Mexican individuals who attended public health services, to assess if alexithymia is higher in medically ill individuals with pain than in those without pain, and to determine which alexithymia dimensions are more affected by the presence of pain. METHODS: Demographic and clinical features were evaluated in 250 Mexican outpatients of the General Hospital of Comalcalco, Tabasco. Pain was evaluated using the Visual Analogue Scale for Pain Assessment (VAS-P) and alexithymia was evaluated using the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20). RESULTS: 38.8% of the sample was identified with probable/definite alexithymia and up to 61.2% of individuals were currently experiencing pain. Individuals with pain exhibited higher scores in the TAS-20 dimensions: difficulty describing feelings (p = 0.02), difficulty identifying feelings (p < 0.001) and higher total TAS-20 score (p < 0.001). Also, Probable/definite alexithymia was more frequently reported in individuals with pain (49% vs. 21.6%, p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Our results show that a large proportion of individuals who attend public health services in a Mexican population present pain. We also identified that pain could be associated with alexithymia, in particular with a difficulty in describing and identifying feelings. An early identification and treatment of alexithymia could help in reducing the clinical burden of chronic pain in Mexican outpatients.

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Diabetes mellitus is a serious public health problem worldwide. Type 1 diabetes mellitus is a metabolic disease which prevails in childhood; it is characterized by the persistence of high levels of glucose in the blood as a consequence of a deficit in the secretion or in the action of insulin. Type 1 diabetes mellitus has a chronic evolution and impacts the quality of life of patients. In order to describe the predictors of quality of life of patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus in Latin American countries, a systematic search was carried out in PubMed, Redalyc, SciELO, Scopus and Web of Science databases with the terms "SF-36", "WHOQOL" and "diabetes". A total of 2168 articles were identified, out of which only five were included in the qualitative analysis. It was found that comorbidities and complications decrease the quality of life of patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus, and factors such as adequate therapeutic adherence, good metabolic control, psychosocial and emotional well-being have a positive impact on the quality of life of these patients. Comorbidities and complications in patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus are the main predictors of poor quality of life.

La diabetes mellitus es un grave problema de salud pública en todo el mundo. Es una enfermedad metabólica de predominio en la infancia y se caracteriza por la persistencia de una glucemia elevada como consecuencia de un déficit en la secreción o en la acción de la insulina. Es de evolución crónica e impacta en la calidad de vida de los pacientes. Con el fin de describir los predictores de la calidad de vida de los pacientes con diabetes mellitus tipo 1 en los países latinoamericanos se realizó una búsqueda sistematizada en las bases de datos PubMed, Redalyc, SciELO, Scopus y Web of Science con los términos "SF-36", "WHOQOL" y "diabetes". Se identificaron 2168 artículos, de los cuales solo cinco fueron incluidos en el análisis cualitativo. Se encontró que la comorbilidad y las complicaciones disminuyen la calidad de vida de los pacientes con diabetes mellitus tipo 1, y que factores como la adecuada adherencia terapéutica, el buen control metabólico y el bienestar psicosocial y emocional impactan positivamente en la calidad de vida de estos pacientes. La comorbilidad y las complicaciones que presentan los pacientes con diabetes mellitus tipo 1 son los principales predictores de mala calidad de vida.