Angélica Ochoa-Avilés

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• MD, PhD
• Professor at University of Cuenca

Objectives To determine if subpopulations of students benefit equally from school-based physical activity interventions in terms of cardiorespiratory fitness and physical activity. To examine if physical activity intensity mediates improvements in cardiorespiratory fitness. Design Pooled analysis of individual participant data from controlled tria...

Background Nature relatedness can be associated with health-related outcomes. This study aims to evaluate the associations of nature relatedness with physical activity and sedentary behavior. Methods A cross-sectional study involving 9–12 year old children living in Cuenca, Ecuador, was conducted between October 2018 and March 2019. Questionnaires...

Background: Physical activity (PA) surveillance, policy, and research efforts need to be periodically appraised to gain insight into national and global capacities for PA promotion. The aim of this paper was to assess the status and trends in PA surveillance, policy, and research in 164 countries. Methods: We used data from the Global Observator...

Qualitative research with children has gained recognition in recent years. Nevertheless, special considerations should be analyzed before conducting focus groups with children from developing countries where methodological guidelines are scarce. This article provides methodological guidelines for conducting focus groups with children from developin...

Daily adherence to WHO recommended physical activity guidelines has multiple health benefits in children and adolescents. Limited data from low and middle-income countries are available regarding adherence to WHO physical activity recommendations. This study aims to objectively measure physical activity intensities and explore associations with soc...

Política pública enfocada en la promoción de entornos alimentarios saludables para la prevención del sobrepeso y obesidad en niñas, niños y adolescentes en Ecuador

Background The response to the global call for more data on children’s and adolescents’ diets and nutrition is limited by the lack of straightforward practical indicators to track their diet quality. On the basis of a food group score compiled from 10 food groups (FGS-10), the minimum dietary diversity for women, calculated as FGS-10 ≥ 5, is a vali...

Con el objetivo de describir las tasas de incidencia por cada 100 000 habitantes de los casos de enfermedades transmitidas por alimentos (ETA) durante el periodo 2015-2020 en Ecuador se realizó un análisis secundario de los registros de vigilancia epidemiológica y de las proyecciones poblacionales del Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censos. Se...

Estado de las políticas enfocadas en promover entornos alimentarios saludables para niñas, niños y adolescentes ecuatorianos 2023

Estado de las estrategias enfocadas en la promoción de la actividad física en niñas, niños y adolescentes ecuatorianos.

There is no evidence evaluating the IL10 epigenetic upregulation among mestizo children in a high‐altitude Andean city in Latin America. Objective To identify polymorphisms and methylation profiles in the IL10 gene associated with asthma in children aged 5 to 11. Methods A case–control study was conducted with asthmatic and non‐asthmatic children...

El objetivo de esta actualización de postura es describir los principales escenarios en los que se presentan los conflictos de intereses (CDI), así como los lineamientos para orientar la conducta de la Sociedad Latinoamericana de Nutrición (SLAN) y sus miembros, en el marco de las relaciones con actores comerciales. El contenido del presente docume...

Summary Background Underweight and obesity are associated with adverse health outcomes throughout the life course. We estimated the individual and combined prevalence of underweight or thinness and obesity, and their changes, from 1990 to 2022 for adults and school-aged children and adolescents in 200 countries and territories. Methods We used data...

Indoor environmental quality has been associated with the health and wellbeing of building occupants; nevertheless, there is limited evidence in this regard for Latin American schools. This research aimed to characterize indoor environmental quality in public and private preschools in an Andean city in Ecuador. Data collection comprised onsite moni...

Background: National physical activity (PA) policy processes are only beginning to be studied in Latin America, and little attention has focused at the subnational level. This study examined national–subnational relations in the policy process (agenda setting, policy formulation, adoption, implementation, and evaluation) in selected Latin American...

Introduction. The intake of energy-dense unhealthy food at school could influence the overall energy intake of children. Objective: To characterize the patterns of buying a snack at school and to analyze the association of these patterns with the source of the school snack (brought from home or bought at school) and screen time. Materials and metho...

La inadecuada alimentación, la malnutrición materno-infantil, y la obesidad, figuran entre los principales factores de riesgo de muerte y de años perdidos por enfermedad, discapacidad o muerte prematura (1). América Latina es una región que afronta importantes retos, la inseguridad alimentaria moderada a severa afecta al 37,5% de la población, 42,5...

The physical condition was evaluated and the normative reference values were obtained using the Alpha-Fit Battery. The main objective of this study was to establish the percentiles, their respective curves and differences between the sexes for the tests, thus providing an instrument that facilitates the evaluation of physical condition. With a samp...

Purpose National physical activity (PA) policy processes are only beginning to be documented, and the interaction between the actors involved in these processes remains understudied. This study was designed to gain further insights into the policy process (agenda setting, policy formulation, adoption, implementation, evaluation) and the interaction...

Purpose Physical inactivity among children is considered a multidimensional problem. This study examines the relationships between parents' perceptions of the neighborhood environment with physical activity (PA) and active school commuting among urban children from Cuenca-Ecuador. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted between October 2018...

Purpose Physical inactivity among children and adolescents is a public health concern. PA promotion (PAP) policies should rely on the best evidence. This study aimed to contrast PAP policies among children and adolescents in Ecuador with the best available evidence. Methods We undertook a comprehensive analysis that included the following procedur...

Asthma symptoms can be controlled through proper self-management, medication adherence, and avoidance of triggers, thus avoiding high costs for multiple hospitalizations, emergency or outpatient visits. This article seeks to develop a conceptual framework of the factors that influence asthma self-management in a pediatric population living in the A...

This book offers a historical description of science communication and addresses the gaps in the literature with the correspondent counterproposals to address these issues to promote audiences' engagement with science. Denisse Vásquez-Guevara offers practical guidelines to develop and implement effective science communication. Contributors present...

Optimal growth and development in childhood and adolescence is crucial for lifelong health and well-being1–6 . Here we used data from 2,325 population-based studies, with measurements of height and weight from 71 million participants, to report the height and body-mass index (BMI) of children and adolescents aged 5–19 years on the basis of rural an...

Introducción: El flúor en agua potable ha demostrado ser efectivo contra las caries, sin embargo, una alta exposición a fluoruros es una de las principales causas de fluorosis dental en niños. Objetivo: El objetivo de este estudio fue determinar la concentración de flúor en agua de consumo para conocer si constituye un factor de riesgo para la fluo...

Evidence on what people eat globally is limited in scope and rigour, especially as it relates to children and adolescents. This impairs target setting and investment in evidence-based actions to support healthy sustainable diets. Here we quantified global, regional and national dietary patterns among children and adults, by age group, sex, educatio...

Introducción: La fluorosis dental representa un importante problema de salud pública en la población infantil de países en vías de desarrollo. Objetivo: Determinar la asociación entre hábitos de higiene dental y fluorosis dental moderada a severa en niños de la zona rural del cantón Cuenca. Metodos: Se ejecutó un estudio de casos (n=109) y controle...

Cardiovascular diseases have their origins in childhood. At least 20% of children and adolescents in Latin America are overweight or obese. However, little is known regarding the cardiovascular risk of young children living in the region. This paper aims to identify associations between socio-demographics, adiposity, and dietary intake with cardiom...

To increase physical activity levels in children, knowledge on how school playgrounds can be optimally designed is important. Until now, the contribution of playground variety and greening to children’s physical activity level during recess remains unclear. This study examined the associations of school playground variety and greening with energy e...

Introduction Asthma is a growing health problem in children in marginalised urban settings in low-income and middle-income countries. Asthma attacks are an important cause of emergency care attendance and long-term morbidity. We designed a prospective study, the Asthma Attacks study, to identify factors associated with recurrence of asthma attacks...

Social factors such as intelligence, attitude, self-esteem (latent variables) are variables that provide relevant information to facilitate the generation of behavioral patterns or models for experts in the social area. However, such information cannot be measured directly, since they are not quantifiable. There are underlying characteristics (obse...

BACKGROUND: Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a common functional-digestive disorder in health personnel, with significant repercussions on life quality, work, healthcare system and society. The aim of this study was to determine the frequency of reported IBS and its subtypes in the nursing staffs' medical records of a public hospital, in Cuenca -...

Background Asthma affects up to 33% of children in Latin American settings. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on access to and use of health services. We aimed to evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on asthma exacerbations, medical facility visits, and use of asthma medications in children. Methods We used data fr...

Background: Nature relatedness can be associated with health-related outcomes. This study aims to evaluate the associations of nature relatedness with physical activity and sedentary behavior. Methods: A cross-sectional study involving 9–12 year old children living in Cuenca, Ecuador, was conducted between October 2018 and March 2019. Questionnair...

From 1985 to 2016, the prevalence of underweight decreased, and that of obesity and severe obesity increased, in most regions, with significant variation in the magnitude of these changes across regions. We investigated how much change in mean body mass index (BMI) explains changes in the prevalence of underweight, obesity, and severe obesity in di...

Background Allergic diseases are under-investigated and overlooked health conditions in developing countries. We measured the prevalence of food allergy (FA), airborne allergic disease, and allergic sensitisation among adolescents living in 2 socio-demographically disparate regions in Ecuador. We investigated which risk factors are associated with...

Background Comparable global data on health and nutrition of school-aged children and adolescents are scarce. We aimed to estimate age trajectories and time trends in mean height and mean body-mass index (BMI), which measures weight gain beyond what is expected from height gain, for school-aged children and adolescents. Methods For this pooled ana...

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0234633.].

Objetivo: Evaluar la evidencia existente sobre inocuidad alimentaria en el cantón Cuenca, Ecuador. Materiales y métodos: Se realizó una revisión sistemática de los estudios en inocuidad alimentaria (microorganismos, contaminantes y adulterantes) durante el período 1981-2017. Resultados: Inicialmente se identificaron 640 estudios. Luego del análisis...

Background Limited data are available on prevalence and associated risk factors for atopy and allergic diseases from high-altitude urban settings in Latin America. Objective To estimate the prevalence of atopy, asthma, rhinitis, and eczema, and associations with relevant risk factors in preschool children in the Andean city of Cuenca. Methods A c...

Snakebite envenoming is a neglected disease of public health concern. Most snakebite accidents occur in developing countries. In Ecuador, 17 viper species are responsible for 99% of official accidents, and ten species are in critical conservation states. This report analyzes the snakebite incident cases and mortality rates in Ecuador between 2014 a...

High blood cholesterol is typically considered a feature of wealthy western countries1,2. However, dietary and behavioural determinants of blood cholesterol are changing rapidly throughout the world³ and countries are using lipid-lowering medications at varying rates. These changes can have distinct effects on the levels of high-density lipoprotein...

Body-mass index (BMI) has increased steadily in most countries in parallel with a rise in the proportion of the population who live in cities1,2. This has led to a widely reported view that urbanization is one of the most important drivers of the global rise in obesity3–6. Here we use 2,009 population-based studies, with measurements of height and...

Este reporte es un resumen de la información gubernamental y académica disponible sobre la evaluación y promoción de: actividad física, juego activo, condición física, recreación y la práctica de deportes en niños y adolescentes del Ecuador. Esta información se presenta a través de indicadores calificados con números, mostrando así de manera sencil...

Investigación cualitativa. Se analizaron los conocimientos y prácticas de alimentación sostenible en niños de 8 a 12 años de zonas urbanas y rurales de los Andes y Amazonía ecuatoriana.

International initiatives like the Active Healthy Kids Global Alliance (AHKGA) have emerged to support monitoring and surveillance of physical activity, physical fitness, sedentary behavior and its social and environmental influences among children and adolescents. The standardized methodology proposed by AHKGA focuses on the development of a Repor...

Background: The Global Matrix 3.0 brings together the Report Card grades for 10 physical activity indicators for children and youth from 49 countries. This study describes and compares the Global Matrix 3.0 findings among 10 countries with high Human Development Index. Methods: Report Cards on physical activity indicators were developed by each...

Background In Ecuador, adolescents’ food intake does not comply with guidelines for a healthy diet. Together with abdominal obesity adolescent’s inadequate diets are risk factors for non-communicable diseases. We report the effectiveness of a school-based intervention on the dietary intake and waist circumference among Ecuadorian adolescents. Metho...

El desarrollo de metodologías para la definición de conglomerados de muestreo en las ciudades representa un reto para los estudios en el área de salud y entorno urbano. El presente artículo proponeuna adaptación de la metodología IPEN para la definición de conglomerados de muestreo basada en la caminabilidad y estatus socioeconómico. Esta propuesta...

Comer fuera de casa está relacionado a conductas alimenticias no saludables ricas en grasas y azúcares, y con menos nutrientes. La finalidad de este estudio fue comparar la calidad dietética y niveles de procesamiento de alimentos entre consumidores frecuentes y no frecuentes fuera de casa. Se realizó un estudio transversal en 779 adolescentes de A...

Objective Given the public health importance of improving dietary behavior in chronic disease prevention in low- and middle-income countries it is crucial to understand the factors influencing dietary behavior in these settings. This study tested the validity of a conceptual framework linking individual and environmental factors to dietary behavior...

Background Adolescents with overweight and poor physical fitness have an increased likelihood of developing cardiovascular diseases during adulthood. In Ecuador, a health promotion program improved the muscular strength and speed-agility, and reduced the decline of the moderate-to-vigorous physical activity of adolescents after 28 months. We perfor...

Background: One of the global targets for non-communicable diseases is to halt, by 2025, the rise in the age-standardised adult prevalence of diabetes at its 2010 levels. We aimed to estimate worldwide trends in diabetes, how likely it is for countries to achieve the global target, and how changes in prevalence, together with population growth and...

Summary Background Underweight and severe and morbid obesity are associated with highly elevated risks of adverse health outcomes. We estimated trends in mean body-mass index (BMI), which characterises its population distribution, and in the prevalences of a complete set of BMI categories for adults in all countries. Methods We analysed, with use...

Antecedentes: La adolescencia es un periodo de crecimiento acelerado en donde se producen una serie de cambios físicos, lo que origina una mayor demanda de necesidades nutricionales, tanto de energía como de carbohidratos, proteínas, grasas, vitaminas y minerales. Estas características condicionan la posibilidad de producirse deficiencias nutricion...

Effective interventions on screen-time behaviours (television, video games and computer time) are needed to prevent non-communicable diseases in low- and middle-income countries. The present manuscript investigates the effect of a school-based health promotion intervention on screen-time behaviour among 12- to 15-year-old adolescents. We report the...

Background: Diabetes has been defined on the basis of different biomarkers, including fasting plasma glucose (FPG), 2-h plasma glucose in an oral glucose tolerance test (2hOGTT), and HbA1c. We assessed the effect of different diagnostic definitions on both the population prevalence of diabetes and the classification of previously undiagnosed indiv...

To report reach, fidelity, dose and barriers of a school-based intervention in Ecuador from the perspectives of the parents.

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are the leading cause of death worldwide. More than 80% of deaths from cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and diabetes occur in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Identifying and understanding the distribution of risk factors is key to developing effective population intervention programs to prevent NCDs. These pr...

Background: Effective lifestyle interventions are needed to prevent noncommunicable diseases in low- and middle-income countries. We analyzed the effects of a school-based health promotion intervention on physical fitness after 28 months and explored if the effect varied with important school characteristics. We also assessed effects on screen tim...

Background Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are amongst the leading causes of death worldwide. Risk factors of CVD develop during childhood and adolescence, and dietary quality has been linked to the development of CVD itself. This study examines the association between dietary patterns and cardiovascular risk in a group of urban and rural Ecuadorian...

Background: Physical inactivity levels are increasingly prevalent among Ecuadorian adolescents. School-based interventions can be potentially effective in promoting physical activity but must be informed by cultural-specific factors. Methods: Twelve focus groups were carried out with adolescents (n = 80) in rural and urban Ecuador to identify fa...

Physical fitness has been proposed as a marker for health during adolescence. Currently, little is known about physical fitness and its association with blood lipid profile in adolescents from low and middle-income countries. The aim of this study is therefore to assess physical fitness among urban and rural adolescents and its associations with bl...

The objective of this study was to identify factors influencing eating behavior of Ecuadorian adolescents - from the perspective of parents, school staff and adolescents - to develop a conceptual framework for adolescents' eating behavior. Twenty focus groups (N = 144 participants) were conducted separately with adolescents aged 11-15 y (n (focus g...

Poor to moderate validity of self-reported physical activity instruments is commonly observed in young people in low- and middle-income countries. However, the reasons for such low validity have not been examined in detail. We tested the validity of a self-administered daily physical activity record in adolescents and assessed if personal character...

The aim of this paper is to report the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors and socioeconomic differences in school-going Ecuadorian adolescents. A cross-sectional study was performed from January 2008 until April 2009 in 770 adolescents aged 10 to 16 years old, who attend secondary schools in an urban (Cuenca), and rural area (Nabón) in Ecuad...