Las exposiciones orales como herramienta para mejorar el clima de aprendizaje

En el marco de un proyecto de investigación-acción sobre las actitudes de los profesores y su influencia en el clima de aprendizaje, llevamos a cabo un procedimiento para mejorar dicho clima durante la realización de exposiciones orales, de trabajos realizados en pequeños grupos. Concluida la exposición tanto los alumnos que habían expuesto como sus compañeros realizaban una valoración crítica. Todos los comentarios fueron recogidos por escrito y se utilizaron para elaborar un documentoguía para la realización de exposiciones orales. Participaron 106 estudiantes de la Universidad Europea de Madrid. Se diseñó un cuestionario para conocer la valoración de los estudiantes sobre la actividad, que fue cumplimentado por 87 alumnos. Aunque la mayoría de los participantes había realizado exposiciones orales previamente, el 39,1% se mostraba “en desacuerdo” o “totalmente en desacuerdo” en haber recibido pautas para hacer correctamente una presentación y exposición oral. El 92% de ellos consideraron importante para mejorar sus exposiciones el recibir formación al respecto. El 89,6% estaban “de acuerdo” o “totalmente de acuerdo” en que la actitud del profesor durante la actividad fue adecuada. El 65,5% consideraron que la actividad favoreció un clima de colaboración y compañerismo.

Toward a comprehensive care of HIV patients: Finding a strategy to detect depression in a Spanish HIV cohort

Depression is a common but frequently undiagnosed feature in individuals with HIV infection. To find a strategy to detect depression in a non-specialized clinical setting, the overall performance of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and the depression identification questions proposed by the European AIDS Clinical Society (EACS) guidelines were assessed in a descriptive cross-sectional study of 113 patients with HIV infection. The clinician asked the two screening questions that were proposed under the EACS guidelines and requested patients to complete the HADS. A psychiatrist or psychologist administered semi-structured clinical interviews to yield psychiatric diagnoses of depression (gold standard). A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis for the HADS-Depression (HADS-D) subscale indicated that the best sensitivity and specificity were obtained between the cut-off points of 5 and 8, and the ROC curve for the HADS-Total (HADS-T) indicated that the best cut-off points were between 12 and 14. There were no statistically significant differences in the correlations of the EACS (considering positive responses to one [A] or both questions [B]), the HADS-D ≥ 8 or the HADS-T ≥ 12 with the gold standard. The study concludes that both approaches (the two EACS questions and the HADS-D subscale) are appropriate depression-screening methods in HIV population. We believe that using the EACS-B and the HADS-D subscale in a two-step approach allows for rapid, assumable and accurate clinical diagnosis in non-psychiatric hospital settings.

Influence of depression in a sample of people with hallux valgus

Hallux valgus (HV) is a highly-prevalent forefoot deformity associated with progressive subluxation and osteoarthritis of the first metatarsophalangeal joint; it is believed to be associated with depression. The aim of the present study was to determine the association of patients with varying degrees of HV involvement to depression using the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). The sample consisted of 102 participants (mean age: 45.1±1.6), who attended an outpatient centre where self-report data were recorded. The degree of HV deformity was determined in both feet, and the scores on the BDI were compared. A total of 38.24% of the sample had depression, with an average BDI score of 10.55±12.36 points. There was a statistically-significant association between the degree and presence of HV in both feet (P=0.0001). People with a greater degree of HV deformity in any foot also have a significant increase in depression based on BDI scores, regardless of sex.