Investigation of Addiction Potential and Its Related Health Profile in Medical Students.

Background: Substance use among medical students is a concern due to its relationship with students' health and the nature of the medical profession. Therefore, this study aimed to assess addiction potential and its relationship with health in medical students. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 200 medical students who were selected through convenience sampling. Students' demographic information, including age, gender, marital status, place of residence, educational level, and substance abuse in first-degree relatives (FDRs), as well as information obtained from the Duke Health Profile and Iranian Addiction Potential Scale (IAPS), were collected in person or online and analyzed using SPSS software (v. 26). Findings: The mean age of the participants was 23.27±2.4 years and 57.5% of the participants were female. The results indicated a statistically significant relationship between addiction potential score and gender, family history of substance use, and educational level, but not with age, marital status, or place of residence. Moreover, a significant negative correlation was observed between addiction potential and physical, mental, social, and general health scores. Conclusion: This study demonstrated that paying special attention to the health of medical students and planning to improve their health indicators can effectively reduce addiction potential.

Predicting childhood overweight status by accelerated weight gain from neonatal period to infancy.

Background: The increased prevalence of obesity in early childhood is a public health problem. Childhood obesity may affect cardiorespiratory fitness and can induce obesity and its comorbidities in adulthood. We aimed to assess childhood overweight status by accelerated weight gain during infancy. Materials and Methods: This is a historical cohort that was conducted on 637 7-year-old students of Guilan province, north of Iran. Data were collected, including demographic characteristics, weight at 4, 6, 12, and 18 months, and clinical examination. The ROC curve was designated based on the standardized z-scores, and the most appropriate cutoff point by sensitivity and specificity was noted for predicting obesity at 7 years. Rapid weight gain (RWG) was also assessed. Results: Among participants, 334 (53.3%) were female. In this study, the mean and standard deviation of RWG in 0-4 months, 0-6 months, 0-12 months, and 0-18 months were 3.50 ± 0.89, 4.64 ± 1.02, 6.54 ± 1.21, and 8.00 ± 1.46 kg, respectively. The highest AUC was dedicated to 0-18 months (0.7 ± 0.05) and the suitable cut-off for RWG in this interval was 8.55 kg with 65.5% and 72.0% sensitivity and specificity, respectively. Conclusion: Although in the previous investigations, the changes in the first 3 years of life had a significant role in further complications, regarding our results, it seems that even earlier consideration of excess weight gain may be necessary.

Frequency of Smoking, Alcohol Consumption, and Substance Use in Relation to General Health Indicators in Guilan University of Medical Sciences.

Background: The risk of substance use is increasing among university students, especially medical students. This study aimed to investigate the frequency of smoking, alcohol consumption, and substance use and its relationship with general health indicators among the students of Guilan University of Medical Sciences (GUMS) in 2020. The differences in the frequency of substance use were also investigated from 2005. Methods: This was a cross-sectional analytical study conducted on 406 students of GUMS, Iran, in 2020. The data were collected through three online questionnaires including a demographic questionnaire, the Alcohol, Smoking, and Substance Involvement Screening Test (ASSIST), and the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ). The data were entered into SPSS software version 22 and analyzed using Chi-square, Fisher's Exact tests, and logistic regression at a significance level of 0.05. Findings: In this study, 53.9% of the participants were female, 46.1% were male, and 54.4% of them experienced using substances in their lifetime. The highest prevalence of use was in consumers of tobacco (46.8%), alcoholic beverages (34.7%), and cannabinoid compounds (19%). Besides, 48.5% of the participants were suspected of having some degree of psychiatric disorders, among which depression (11.6%) and anxiety (8.4%) were the most common. Moreover, substance use during students' lifetime had a statistically significant association with anxiety, depression, and mental health. Conclusion: The results of this study showed the prevalence of smoking, alcohol consumption, and substance use among the students of GUMS is worrying. The relationship between consumption and consumer's health indicators highlights the necessity of intervention and purposeful planning by policymakers in this field.

The relationship between blood pressure, anthropometric indices and metabolic profile in adolescents: a cross sectional study.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the relationship between blood pressure, anthropometric indices and metabolic profile in adolescents. METHODS: The present cross sectional study was conducted in 1005, 12-y-old junior students referred to 15 urban health centers of Rasht. Samples were recruited randomly and data were collected in a form which consisted of demographic characteristics, history of disease in samples and their immediate families, birth weight, physical examination and clinical examination including height, weight, blood pressure and body mass index. Also, metabolic profiles including fasting blood sugar (FBS), blood sugar (BS), cholesterol, and triglyceride (TG), low density lipoprotein (LDL), high-density lipoprotein (HDL) and insulin levels were measured. Data were analyzed in SPSS software, by descriptive and analytic statistics and p value 0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: Eight hundred fifty nine adolescents consisting of 550 (64 %) boys and 309 (34 %) girls participated in this study; 11.4 % (84/739 cases) of the participants had hypertension. The strongest correlation was seen between systolic blood pressure and weight, waist or hip circumferences and insulin levels. Also, FBS had very weak correlation with blood pressure. CONCLUSIONS: Thus, weight, waist and hip circumferences, insulin levels, high TG and low HDL have been indicated as the strongest correlating factors for high blood pressure.Thus, these factors should be investigated in high risk children and followed in hypertensive child to monitor cardiometabolic risk factors.

Congenital hypothyroidism: etiology and growth-development outcome.

One of the most preventable causes of mental and growth retardation is congenital hypothyroidism (CH). This study tries to investigate growth and mental outcome of patients with CH. Since November 2006 and November 2007 in Guilan province, north of Iran, all neonates who were diagnosed with CH, evaluated for etiology of CH by laboratory follow up, thyroid sonography or scan. Growth and development of patients with CH were compared with healthy children in same age, geographical area, social and economical classes in four years old. Demographic characteristics including height, weight, and head circumference at birth, follow up time (four years old) and IQ (Good enough test) were recorded in questionnaires. Among 28904 screened neonates, 37 patients with CH were diagnosed. Incidence of CH was 1:781 in live births, 20 (54%) in female neonates and 17 (46%) in male neonates. The incidences of permanent and transient hypothyroidism were 43.2% (16 cases) and 56. 8% (21 cases) respectively. The incidence of permanent and transient hypothyroidism were 16 (43.2%) and 21 (56, 8%), respectively. In permanent CH, 11 cases (%.68.2) had dyshormonogenesis and 5 cases (%.31.2) had thyroid dysgenesis. Significant statistical difference was only in family history of thyroid disease (34, 3% Positive family history in CH vs. 13.2% in control group, P-value 0.03). All other demographic characteristics and IQ had no statistical difference. Patients with CH diagnosed through neonatal screening and treated had normal growth as general population that indicates effective screening program and treatment in this area (3.2%).