Social media are responsible for aggravating mental health problems. This systematic study summarizes the effects of social network usage on mental health. Fifty papers were shortlisted from google scholar databases, and after the application of various inclusion and exclusion criteria, 16 papers were chosen and all papers were evaluated for quality. Eight papers were cross-sectional studies, three were longitudinal studies, two were qualitative studies, and others were systematic reviews. Findings were classified into two outcomes of mental health: anxiety and depression. Social media activity such as time spent to have a positive effect on the mental health domain. However, due to the cross-sectional design and methodological limitations of sampling, there are considerable differences. The structure of social media influences on mental health needs to be further analyzed through qualitative research and vertical cohort studies.

Context: Childhood obesity has risen dramatically in the last four decades. Childhood obesity is likely to continue through adulthood and increases the risk of non-communicable diseases later in life. Aims: This study assessed the knowledge, attitude, and perception of the secondary school students in Ikeja local government, Lagos state towards the risk factors of overweight and obesity. Methods and Materials: This descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out using a structured questionnaire administered on consenting participants. The completed questionnaires collected from the participants was then analyzed. Statistical Analysis Used: Data were analyzed using SPSS version 22.0. Results: The prevalence of overweight and obesity were 6.6% and 1.4%. Overall knowledge (<50%) of students regarding the risk factors of overweight and obesity was very low. Majority of the students (97.4%) do daily exercise, 48.4% spend at least 30 minutes doing exercise daily. However, 62.0% watching television, 18.7% play video games, and 35.8% sleep for more than 8 hours daily. Participants also showed negative perception towards the effects of overweight and obesity. There was a significant association between age, gender, class, and body mass with knowledge, attitude, and perception of respondents towards risk factors and effects of overweight and obesity ( P < 0.05). Conclusions: Despite the low prevalence of overweight and obesity, low knowledge, poor attitude and negative perception regarding risk factors of overweight and obesity, the majority of the students perceived regular exercise as an important means of reducing overweight and obesity.

Obesity and diabetes both mediate their effects through insulin resistance and frequently co-exist. Insulin resistance is one of the key factors in the development of the metabolic syndrome. Adult females tend to develop obesity more frequently than males. One of the factors causing this difference is the pattern of changes that occur as females age from pre-menopausal to the post-menopausal stage, causing a change in the pattern of accumulation of fats. Several studies have explored and described the association between obesity and metabolic syndrome and their effect on type II diabetes. We conducted our literature search using PubMed and Google Scholar as our primary databases. We selected a total of 49 articles for review after applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria and removing the duplicate articles. We chose the full-text articles that were published in the English language only. The selected studies were randomized controlled trials and review papers. The reviewed articles showed that visceral fat, central obesity, and fasting blood sugar of post-menopausal is higher than in pre-menopausal women and needs adequate management. More studies are needed in the future to explore the patterns of the metabolic changes in obese females to provide early and better management of diabetes and prevent related complications.

The process of inflammation occurs due to inflammatory mediators, including prostaglandins, cytokines, and tumor necrosis factor (TNF). All these mediators activate the process of tumorigenesis and dysplasia, leading to colitis-associated cancer. Several drugs used to decrease these mediators will help in the treatment of acute attacks and also help in prolonged remissions of the disease by using nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), steroids, and biological factors. Reducing these inflammatory mediators also have a role in chemoprevention and prevent progression to colorectal carcinoma. The most researched drugs in this process of chemoprevention are NSAIDs as it has both cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) inhibitory and non-inhibitory effects. These drugs should be taken for a long time and in large doses to reach this effect, which puts the patient at risk for various side effects. Researchers will need to do more research in the future to find the lowest effective dose that can reach the chemopreventive effect. We used database Pubmed as the main source for data search and extracted articles exploring the relationship between NSAIDs and their role in chemoprevention of colorectal carcinoma in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients. We chose 23 studies which included seven review articles. We found that inflammatory mediators have a key role in colitis-associated cancer.

Background and objective: Children in the developing world are vulnerable to iron deficiency (ID) and iron deficiency anemia (IDA) because they grow fast and consume diets low in iron. Thus, this study assessed anemia in children aged 6 - 12 years in rural Nigeria, using hematological indices and serum ferritin as diagnostic tools. Materials and methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out in two primary schools in Kumin Masara Kataf village in Kaduna state, Nigeria. School children aged 6 - 12 years were enrolled. Personal information and laboratory data were collected. Hemoglobin and serum ferritin concentration was estimated to determine anemia and iron status. Data analysis was done using IBM-SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA, version-25.0. Results: A total of 191 school-age children aged 6 - 12 years were enrolled in the study. The overall serum ferritin was 16.51±5.20 mg/L, but the children aged 6 - 9 years had significantly (p<0.05) higher serum ferritin (17.23±5.57 mg/L), compared to children aged 10-12 years (15.62±4.62). The mean hemoglobin concentration and serum ferritin were significantly (p<0.05) more elevated among males (11.17±2.53g/dl and 19.01±5.06 mg/L, respectively) than females (10.18±2.46 g/dl and 14.03±4.02 mg/L respectively).The overall rate of anemia was 51.3%, while IDA was 70.4% (69/98). Iron deficiency was present in 47.3% (44/93) children. Also, anemia was significantly (p<0.001) more prevalent among females (66.7%), than males (35.8%), and a higher proportion of females (87.5%) than males (26.2%) were iron deficient (p<0.05), but more males (44.1%) had IDA, p<0.05. Conclusion: This study found a high prevalence of IDA and ID among rural school children in Nigeria. It is recommended that healthcare providers focus more on preventing IDA right before childhood. IMC J Med Sci. 2023. 17(1): 006. DOI: https://doi.org/10.55010/imcjms.17.006 *Correspondence: Andrew Nuhu Yashim, Haematology and Blood Transfusion Department, National Hospital, Abuja, Nigeria. Email: yashimnuhuandrew@gmail.com