RESUMO
Background: There is an increasing concern for addressing suicide among adolescents in Latin America. Recent mental health policies encourage the development and implementation of preventive interventions for suicide. Such initiatives, however, have been scarcely developed, even in countries with solid mental health services such as Chile. The use of information and communications technology (ICT) might contribute to create accessible, engaging, and innovative platforms to promote well-being and support for adolescents with mental health needs and suicide risk. Objective: To evaluate a program based on ICT to prevent suicide and enhance mental health among adolescents in Chile. METHOD: A cluster randomized controlled trial (RCT) will be conducted including 428 high-school students aged 18-14 years in two regions of Chile. Study procedures will take place as follows: (1) design of the intervention model and creation of prototype; (2) selection and randomization of the participating public schools; (3) implementation of the 3-month intervention and evaluation at baseline, post-intervention period, and a 2-month follow-up. Suicidal ideation at the 2-month follow up is the primary outcome in this study. Secondary outcomes include negative psychological outcomes (e.g., stigma, depression, anxiety) as well as a number of protective psychological and social factors. Indicators regarding the study implementation will be also gathered. DISCUSSION: Here we describe a novel program based on technological devices and aimed to target youth suicide in Chile. This is the first clinical trial of such a program in Latin America, and to our knowledge, the first of its kind in any middle income country. Trial Registration: gov Identifier: NCT03514004.
RESUMO
Institutions involved in training health professionals are permanently concerned with improving the quality of their graduates and their skills for meeting healthcare demands. Research has been conducted in the field of health education and related areas with the purpose of identifying the incidence of high-school GPAs, learning styles and demographic factors on pre-university performance of students. It has been widely assumed that performance at this stage is one of the best predictors of subsequent academic performance. In the year 2000 the School of Medicine of the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba introduced an Entrance Examination as part of a comprehensive curricular reform. Therefore, the study of the predictors of performance in the entrance examination can be a valuable contribution to pedagogical decision making. Our aim is to assess the predictive capacity of a series of indicators associated to the population of candidates attempting entrance to medical studies. The survey comprises the period 2006-2008. The variables under study are: sociodemographic characteristics, high-school specialization, and high-school grade point average (GPA). ANOVA was applied to measurable variables, whereas attribute variables were submitted to categorical data and multiple correspondence analyses. We conclude that predictors are associated to sociocultural factors related to family environment, mainly educational level of the mother, and to a high-school GPA value between 8 and 9 points.