Noel Barengo

• MD, PhD, MPH
• Professor (Associate) at FIU Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine

Introduction Limited information is available on the association between depressive symptoms and waist circumference (WC) in individuals with normal weight. This study aimed to analyze the association between depressive symptoms and WC among individuals aged 18 years or older with normal weight in the Peruvian population between 2019 and 2021. Met...

This cross-sectional study used secondary data from the USA 2020 National Health Interview Survey database. The goal of this study is to outline the impact physical activity has on cognition and mental ability. The reason we chose to pursue this research was a result of the exponentially growing weight of economic and emotional burden caused by cog...

Background Preventing childhood obesity and associated comorbidities is often hampered by disproportionate disparity in healthcare provision in minority ethnic populations. This study contextualized factors influencing childhood obesity and related comorbidity from the perspectives and experiences of parents of ethnic minority populations. Methods...

Preventing childhood obesity and associated comorbidities is often hampered by disproportionate disparity in healthcare provision in minority ethnic populations. This study contextualised lifestyle factors influencing childhood obesity and related comorbidity from the perspectives and experiences of parents of ethnic minority children with obesity...

Introduction: Lack of physical activity (PA) is associated with obesity, diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, and cancer. Parenting practices influence PA in young children. However, there is little evidence available for adolescents. We examined whether parenting practices were associated with out-of-school PA (OSPA) in US adolescents...

INTRODUCTION: The dynamical behavior of epidemic curves is an oscillation between a very low and very high number of incident cases throughout the time. These oscillations are commonly called waves of the epidemic curve. The concept of epidemic waves lacks a consensual definition and a simple methodology that can be used for many diseases. OBJECTIV...

This article points out deficiencies in present-day definitions of public health surveillance, which include data collection, analysis, interpretation and dissemination, but not public health action. Controlling a public health problem of concern requires a public health response that goes beyond information dissemination. It is undesirable to have...

Introducción: La relación entre la composición corporal y el fenotipo delgado metabólicamente obeso (DMO), caracterizado por problemas metabólicos en personas con un IMC normal, ha sido poco estudiada en población latina. A pesar de que el IMC se utiliza ampliamente para evaluar las asociaciones entre sobrepeso, obesidad y la salud metabólica, pres...

Background Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are a global health threat, significantly impacting Latin America. Cardiometabolic abnormalities (CAs), encompassing lipid profile, fasting plasma glucose, and blood pressure, contribute to CVD prevalence. Despite high CA incidence, research in Latin America has primarily focused on traditional adiposity in...

Suicide is an important public health problem, fundamentally affecting the younger population and responding to multiple biological, psychological, and social causes. The objective of this study was to characterize changes in suicide mortality, suicide methods, and years of potential life lost from 2005 to 2019 in Paraguay. This observational, desc...

Suicide is an important public health problem, fundamentally affecting the younger population and responding to multiple biological, psychological, and social causes. The objective of this study was to characterize changes suicide mortality, suicide methods and years of potential life lost during 2005 and 2019 in Paraguay. This observational, descr...

Determining the locations where adolescents tend to accumulate greater amounts of physical activity may assist policymakers to address the built environment design and promote PA. This study evaluated the association between the availability of recreational facilities and average minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) per day of U...

Healthcare disparities disproportionately affect underserved and marginalized communities due to social determinants of health (SDoH), contributing to significant differences in health outcomes and life expectancy within different communities in Florida. This observational study aimed to understand the impact of SDoH, such as race/ethnicity, income...

Objective: To estimate the contributions of the effects of age, period, and birth cohort on the trend in the mortality rate due to Diabetes Mellitus (DM) in Colombia during the years 1983-2022. Methods: Analytical observational study, with pooled cross-sectional data, using mortality records and population projections from the National Department o...

Objetivo: Analizar la tendencia temporal de complicaciones diabéticas en pacientes con diabetes tipo I(DM1) y II(DM2) en un hospital de referencia en Antioquia durante período prepandémico, pandémico y pospandémico (2018-2023). Métodos: Estudio observacional analítico transversal repetido de historias clínicas de DM1 y DM2 en un hospital de Antioqu...

The escalating prevalence of overall and abdominal obesity, particularly affecting Latin America, underscores the urgent need for accessible and cost-effective predictive methods to address the growing disease burden. This study assessed skinfold thicknesses’ predictive capacity for overall and abdominal obesity in Peruvian adults aged 30 or older...

Glucagon is a hormone released from the alpha cells of the pancreas. It has a major role in carbohydrate metabolism. It has a major role in increasing blood glucose levels and is helpful in glycogenolysis, gluconeogenesis, and amino acid catabolism. Its role in lipid metabolism is in the form of lipolysis and beta-oxidation of fatty acids. It also...

The relative distribution of proportions of cardiovascular health (CVH) categories within racial groups has been examined. However, little scientific evidence exists on the gap trend in racial/ethnic disparities in mean CVH score among non-Hispanic (NH) Whites and Blacks. This study examined the trend(s) in the gap(s) in predicted CVH scores betwee...

Suicide is an important public health problem, fundamentally affecting the younger population and responding to multiple biological, psychological, and social causes. The objective of this study was to characterize changes suicide mortality, suicide methods and years of potential life lost during 2005 and 2019 in Paraguay. This observational, descr...

Background: Colorectal cancer is one of the most common malignancies diagnosed in the United States, with 126,240 new cases diagnosed in 2020. Past studies have shown that disparities may exist between certain patient populations, but it is unknown how they are affected over time as treatments evolve. The purpose of this study was to determine whet...

Background: While there may be an association between race, tumor size, and survival in patients with cervical squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), evidence on the effect of race on the association between tumor size at diagnosis and survival is limited. Our study evaluated whether race modifies the association between tumor size and 10-year survival in...

Background Prior evidence of region-level differences in health outcomes and specialized healthcare services in the US poses questions of whether there are differences in utilization of healthcare that may account for regional variations in healthcare outcomes. This study aimed to examine regional differences in healthcare utilization for individua...

Predictions of hospital beds occupancy depends on hospital admission rates and the length of stay (LoS) according to bed type (general ward -GW- and intensive care unit -ICU- beds). The objective of this study was to describe the LoS of COVID-19 hospital patients in Colombia during 2020–2021. Accelerated failure time models were used to estimate th...

Background The prevalence of type 2 diabetes (T2D) continues to increase in the Americas. Identifying people at risk for T2D is critical to the prevention of T2D complications, especially cardiovascular disease. This study gauges the ability to implement large population-based organized screening campaigns in 19 Latin American and Caribbean countri...

Background: Diabetes is one of the leading causes of death and disability worldwide, and affects people regardless of country, age group, or sex. Using the most recent evidentiary and analytical framework from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD), we produced location-specific, age-specific, and sex-specific estimat...

To examine factors associated with abdominal obesity among normal-weight individuals from the Demographic and Health Survey of Peru (2018–2021). Cross-sectional analytical study. The outcome variable was abdominal obesity defined according to JIS criteria. Crude (cPR) and adjusted prevalence ratios (aPR) were estimated for the association between s...

Background: Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS) causes the most deaths in the United States and accounts for the highest amount of healthcare spending. Cardiovascular Health (CVH) metrics have been widely used in primary prevention, but their benefits in secondary prevention on total healthcare expenditures related to ACS are largely unknown. This study...

Purpose of Review Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is one of the leading causes of death and disability in the world. The majority of diabetes deaths (> 80%) occur in low- and middle-income countries, which are predominant in Latin America. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to compare the clinical practice guideline (CPG) for the pharmacolog...

Background Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS) causes the most deaths in the United States and accounts for the highest amount of healthcare spending. Cardiovascular Health (CVH) metrics have been widely used in primary prevention, but their benefits in secondary prevention on total healthcare expenditures related to ACS are largely unknown. This study a...

Purpose To estimate the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) according to glycemic status, and its relationship with sociodemographic and clinical factors in a population at risk of developing type 2 diabetes (T2D). Methods Cross-sectional study, using cluster sampling. Data were collected from 1135 participants over 30 years of age, at risk of...

Socioeconomic disparities play an important role in the development of severe clinical outcomes including deaths from COVID-19. However, the current scientific evidence in regard the association between measures of poverty and COVID-19 mortality in hospitalized patients is scant. The objective of this study was to investigate whether there is an as...

Background: Asians and Pacific Islanders (API) exhibit increased incidence of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). However, they are often excluded when the disease is studied. Risk-factors and incidence are well-researched while cancer-specific mortality trends remain unclear. We aimed to determine whether insurance status modifies the association bet...

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...

Purpose E-cigarettes are the most common type of electronic nicotine delivery system in the United States. E-cigarettes contain numerous toxic compounds that has been shown to induce severe structural damage to the airways. The objective of this study is to assess if there is an association between e-cigarette use and respiratory symptoms in adults...

Introduction and objective: Limited data exists analyzing disparities in diagnosis regarding primary bone neoplasms (PBN). The objective of our study was to determine if there is an association between race/ethnicity and advanced stage of diagnosis of PBN. Methods: This population-based retrospective cohort study included patient demographic and...

Predictions of hospital beds occupancy depends on hospital admission rates and the length of stay (LoS) according to bed type (hospital and intensive care unit beds). The objective of this study was to describe the LoS of COVID-19 hospital patients in Colombia during 2020-2021. Accelerated failure time models were used to estimate the LoS distribut...

Background Different socioeconomic aspects have been related to mortality from COVID-19. For this reason, the objective of this study was to analyze the association between the Multidimensional Poverty Measure at the municipal level (MPM) and the clinical outcome of mortality in the resident population of Colombia with a diagnosis of COVID-19. Met...

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a significant contributor to disability, especially among patients younger than 18 years old in the United States. While insurance is often needed to receive services, studies investigating whether TBI treatment adequacy is dependent on the insurance type are scant. Our objective was to determine whether private insu...

Introduction Diabetes has been associated with an increased risk of complications in patients with COVID-19. Most studies do not differentiate between patients with type 1 and type 2 diabetes, which correspond to two pathophysiological distinct diseases that could represent different degrees of clinical compromise. Objective To identify if there a...

Introduction The Florida International University (FIU) Green Family Neighborhood Health Education Learning Program (NeighborhoodHELP) in Miami-Dade County serves communities impacted by adverse social determinants of health. This study identified sociodemographic factors affecting control of diabetes and hypertension among NeighborhoodHELP patient...

Introduction Diabetes has been associated with an increased risk of complications in patients with COVID-19. Most studies do not differentiate between patients with type 1 and type 2 diabetes, which correspond to two pathophysiological distinct diseases that could represent different degrees of clinical compromise. Objective To identify if there a...

Background Studies in the United States have shown a genetic predisposition to hypertension in individuals of African descent. However, studies on the associations between ethnic groups and hypertension in Latin America are lacking and the limited results have been inconsistent. The objective of this study is to determine whether Afro-Colombian eth...

Purpose E-cigarettes are the most common type of electronic nicotine delivery system in the United States, rapidly gaining presence worldwide. E-cigarettes contain numerous toxic compounds that have been shown to induce mild to severe structural damage to the airways. The objective of this study is to assess if there is an association between e-cig...

Primary bone neoplasms (PBNs) represent less than 1% of diagnosed cancers each year. Significant treatment disparities exist between racial and ethnic groups. We investigated patients with PBNs to determine an association between race/ethnicity and procedure-type selection. A non-concurrent cohort study was conducted using the SEER database. Patien...

Background Providing optimal care for type 2 diabetes (DM2) patients remains a challenge for all healthcare systems. Patients often encounter various barriers in adhering to self-management programs due to lack of knowledge and understanding of self-care activities, lack of individualized and coordinated care, inconvenient and costly education sess...

Purpose of Review The objective of this review was to summarize the current scientific evidence of mobile health technology in the primary prevention of type 2 diabetes in patients with prediabetes derived from randomized clinical trials. Recent Findings Few randomized clinical trials are available using mobile health technologies in the preventio...

Purpose The purpose of this study was to describe the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) characteristics in a population at risk of developing type 2 diabetes in Barranquilla and Bogotá, Colombia. Methods A cross-sectional study with 1135 participants older than 30 years-of-age recruited in Bogotá D.C., and Barranquilla by cluster sampling in...

En América Latina, 13% de todas las muertes y 5,1% de los años de vida ajustados por discapacidad se deben a la hipertensión. El exceso de sodio en la dieta puede incrementar aproximadamente un 30% el riesgo de hipertensión. El objetivo fue determinar la concentración de sodio en orina de 24 de horas para estimar la ingesta de sal en trabajadores d...

Tobacco is a risk factor of head and neck cancer (HNC) and smoking cessation alone may reduce HNC risk by 70%. Soluble CD44 (solCD44), a cell surface receptor linked to cell proliferation and migration, and total protein (TP) levels can detect early HNC. This study aims to determine whether salivary solCD44 and TP levels in oral rinses change follo...

Aims To provide up-to-date estimates of undiagnosed diabetes mellitus (UDM) prevalence - both globally, and by region/country, for the year 2021. Methods: Data sources reporting diabetes prevalence were identified through a systematic search in the peer-reviewed and grey literature. The prevalence of undiagnosed diabetes was estimated from the data...

Background Nutritional habits low in fruits and vegetables and sedentary lifestyle are associated with a higher risk of developing Type 2 Diabetes (T2D). However, it is important to assess differences between urban and rural areas. This study aimed to analyze the associations between the risk of developing T2D and setting in the Colombian north coa...

Physical activity decreases the risk of long-term health consequences including cardiac diseases. According to the American Health Association (AHA), adults should perform at least 75 min of vigorous physical activity (PA) or 150 min of moderate PA per week to impact long-term health. Results of previous studies are varied and have yet to integrate...

Background Smoking is a cause of many postoperative complications, including delayed wound healing, tissue necrosis, and reconstructive flap loss. However, there is a paucity of evidence-based guidelines for smoking cessation in patients undergoing implant-based breast surgery. Objective The objective of this study was to determine if smoking is as...

We examined the effect of varying multimodal pain management (MMPM) combinations on oral morphine milligram equivalents (OMME) and length of stay (LOS) after total knee arthroplasty (TKA). Five groups were compared based on the combination of multimodal analgesics ranging from no MMPM to full MMPM with acetaminophen, gabapentinoids, and celecoxib....

Objective: The aim of this study is to evaluate the association between a marker of dietary intake, the carbohydrate-to-fiber (CF) ratio, and moderate-to-severe depressive symptoms. Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) database from 2013-2016. Participants: Individuals 18 years and...

Electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) are growing in use and many of the health implications with these devices remain unknown. This study aims to assess, using a survey representative of the USA general population, if an association exists between a history of ENDS use and a history of stroke. This cross-sectional study was a secondary data...

Objective: To determine if there is an association between self-reported health literacy and rates of prostate cancer screening through PSA testing. Methods: This secondary data analysis utilized information from the 2016 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS). The primary exposure was self-reported health literacy, and the primary o...

Aims /hypothesis To determine the best cut-off threshold value of the Finnish Diabetes Risk Score (FINDRISC) for the detection of diabetes and non-diabetic hyperglycaemia in people 35 years or older at primary health care settings in Europe. Methods Cross-sectional study in 11,444 adults from primary health care centres using community and opportu...

Scientific evidence regarding the combined effect of both aerobic leisure time physical activity (LTPA) and muscle strengthening activities on all-cause, CVD or cancer mortality in older adults is scant. The aim of the study was to investigate the associations between recommended physical activity and mortality in older adults ≥65 years-of-age. Thi...

Purpose Studies have demonstrated a disparity in sexual minority adolescents and substance use, possibly due to factors contributing to minority stress. The objective of this study is to investigate the association between self-identifying as lesbian, gay, or bisexual and illicit substance use compared to those who identify as heterosexual among hi...

Introduction: Total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is common but complex operation. A paucity of literature exists on differences between Hispanics and non-Hispanics with TKA. Our study aims to investigate the association between Hispanic ethnicity and complications in obese patients undergoing TKA. Methods: This is a retrospective cohort study using t...

Alcohol misuse affects 15 million people in the United States. Compared to White men, Latino men have disproportionately higher rates of both alcohol misuse and negative alcohol-related consequences (e.g. drunk driving, liver disease, alcohol dependence, HIV/AIDS). This cross sectional study examined how cultural stressors [immigration stress and n...

Background Multiple myeloma (MM) accounts for 10% of all hematological malignancies. As recent advances in MM treatment continue to improve survival rates, socioeconomic barriers need to be identified to ensure equal treatment. This study evaluates the association between insurance status and survival in patients with MM. Methods This study analyz...

One-third of Americans with diabetes will develop diabetic retinopathy (DR), the leading cause of blindness in working-age Americans. Social determinants of health (SDOHs) are conditions in a person’s environment that may impact health. The objective of this study was to determine whether there is an association between SDOHs and DR in patients wit...

Low level of physical activity is a risk factor for chronic non-communicable diseases. Specifically, people at risk of Type 2 Diabetes (T2D) have shown to benefit from being physically active. The objective of this study was to explore what factors were associated with low physical activity in people at high risk of T2D living in Bogota and Barranq...

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), principally ischemic heart disease (IHD) and stroke, are the leading cause of global mortality and a major contributor to disability. This paper reviews the magnitude of total CVD burden, including 13 underlying causes of cardiovascular death and 9 related risk factors, using estimates from the Global Burden of Disea...

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), principally ischemic heart disease (IHD) and stroke, are the leading cause of global mortality and a major contributor to disability. This paper reviews the magnitude of total CVD burden, including 13 underlying causes of cardiovascular death and 9 related risk factors, using estimates from the Global Burden of Disea...

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), principally ischemic heart disease (IHD) and stroke, are the leading cause of global mortality and a major contributor to disability. This paper reviews the magnitude of total CVD burden, including 13 underlying causes of cardiovascular death and 9 related risk factors, using estimates from the Global Burden of Disea...

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), principally ischemic heart disease (IHD) and stroke, are the leading cause of global mortality and a major contributor to disability. This paper reviews the magnitude of total CVD burden, including 13 underlying causes of cardiovascular death and 9 related risk factors, using estimates from the Global Burden of Disea...