From a syndemic perspective, chronic noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), adverse climate-environmental exposures, and social inequalities coexist within the same territories. To identify sex-specific spatiotemporal mortality patterns of climate-sensitive NCDs in Argentina and compare them with selected socioenvironmental indicators, an ecological time-series study (511 departments, 2000-2023) was conducted using emerging hotspot analysis of age-standardized mortality rates (ASMRs) for cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and chronic respiratory diseases (CRD). Additionally, cross-sectional associations between ASMRs for the most recent triennium (2021-2023) and climatic-environmental and sociodemographic variables (2022) were examined using multilevel Poisson regression models. Spatiotemporal patterns between 2000 and 2023 differed according to cause and sex. In women, northeastern Argentina concentrated increasing and persistent CVD hotspots in contexts characterized by high temperatures and poverty measured by unmet basic needs in 2022. In the northwest-central region, consecutive and increasing CRD hotspots were identified in areas spatially coincident with moderate PM2.5 concentrations, whereas the metropolitan region, characterized in 2022 by high PM2.5 pollution and urbanization, showed persistent hotspots in women and decreasing hotspots in men during 2000-2023. Direct associations (p<0.001) were observed between ASMRs and mean temperature, PM2.5 concentration, percentage of households with unmet basic needs, and urban housing. These findings suggest ecological associations and territorial overlap among syndemic components linked to NCDs, climate-environmental exposures, and social inequalities, providing relevant evidence to inform public health decision-making and generate hypotheses on the climate-environment-health nexus.
This article analyzes family violence in Mexico during the COVID-19 lockdown from a geographical perspective, using autocorrelation and regression models to identify sociodemographic and social disadvantage factors associated with its territorial distribution. The results show that family violence was not randomly distributed but rather concentrated in clusters of municipalities with high rates in the north, northwest and central-west regions of the country, and with low rates in the south and southeast. Some variables commonly associated with violence –such as insufficient income, economic dependency, income gaps, and educational lag– showed effects contrary to expectations, suggesting that, in the context of lockdown, poverty and inequality operated differently than in non-extraordinary periods. In contrast, urbanization, demographic feminization, and a higher proportion of female-headed households were associated with an increase in family violence. The findings confirm the multicausal nature of the phenomenon and highlight the importance of considering spatial dependence to understand its territorial distribution.
This article studies the impact of internet access and private transportation on food access and consumption quality during the COVID-19 lockdown in Mexico. We use data from the 2020 National Health and Nutrition Survey and the Latin American and Caribbean Food Security Scale to estimate ordinal probit models and treatment effect estimators. We analyze how digital connectivity and household mobility influence the likelihood of experiencing food insecurity and reducing healthy food consumption. The findings reveal that digital networks are associated with a lower probability of facing food insecurity, while private transportation shows favorable, but territorially heterogeneous, associations. Households with minors are also shown to be a particularly vulnerable group in this analysis. Evidence is provided on the complementary role of connectivity and mobility in mitigating food risks in contexts of exogenous economic shocks, highlighting that their relevance depends on territorial conditions and supply opportunities.
From parish records and population data, population growth and crude mortality rates were calculated in Valladolid-Morelia, Pátzcuaro, Uruapan and Zamora, Michoacán; as well as other data: the crude birth rate, the crude marriage rate and the general fertility rate for 1790 in the case of Valladolid and Uruapan. One of the biggest problems in the sources is the underreporting of infant mortality, especially in Valladolid-Morelia and Pátzcuaro. Life expectancy in Pátzcuaro in 1860 was calculated from a census and parish death records. The crude mortality rate was also calculated in some mortality crises to account for the magnitude of the impact of epidemics on societies of the old demographic regime, before the demographic transition.
This article analyzes the legal strategies deployed in socio-environmental conflicts by citizen organizations in the Santiago Metropolitan Region between 2010 and 2021. The study is based on an inventory of 92 socio-environmental conflicts, compiled through the triangulation of press, judicial, and digital sources and complemented by the identification and analysis of the associated legal actions. The results show that 51 of the 92 conflicts identified (55%) were judicialized. Although no significant differences are observed in the likelihood of judicialization according to the socioeconomic status of the territories, judicialization is more frequent in peri-urban and rural areas than in consolidated urban areas. The recurso de protección (constitutional protection action) is the most frequently used legal avenue, although a high proportion of these actions are rejected, whereas cases brought before the Second Environmental Court show more balanced outcomes. Furthermore, a substantial proportion of the conflicts involve prolonged legal trajectories spanning different legal avenues and judicial instances. These findings show that judicialization constitutes a heterogeneous and ambivalent strategy of collective action: while it provides opportunities to make conflicts visible, activate institutional mechanisms, and prolong disputes, its legal effectiveness varies, and its use is conditioned by the resources and capacities of the actors involved.
