In the light of the changing pattern of the consumption of dietary supplements among adults in other countries during the COVID-19 pandemic, we aim to assess the prevalence of the consumption of dietary supplements with respect to the purpose of consumption and sociodemographic factors among adults in Lithuania. This study included two samples of adults from Lithuania: 870 in 2019 and 1600 in 2021. Anonymous original questionnaires were used to collect the data about the consumption of dietary supplements before and during the pandemic. The consumption of dietary supplements was prevalent among 67.2% and 78.1% of the samples, respectively. Although the majority (73.7%) of the respondents indicated that the pandemic had no effect on their use of dietary supplements, every fourth respondent’s (24.6%) consumption increased. In 2021, the consumption was more prevalent among females, respondents with university education, urban citizens, employed respondents, respondents without children, with higher income, and those who knew a person with COVID-19 (p < 0.05). During the pandemic, the strengthening of the immune system and the body were the leading reasons for consumption (49.0% and 43.5%, respectively). The consumption of dietary supplements appropriate for these purposes increased among 63.3% and 66.9% of respondents, respectively. To conclude, the consumption of dietary supplements among adults in Lithuania increased during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background and Objectives: Epicardial adipose tissue (EAT) is shown to be an important factor in the development of coronary artery disease, but numerous pathophysiological mechanisms of its action are still only partially understood. There is a lack of studies on its association with different grades of essential hypertension (EH). Therefore, we aimed to evaluate the association between size of EAT depots and the risk of EH taking into account its grade. Materials and Methods: Non-obese adult patients with various cardiovascular diseases were investigated: 157 of them had essential hypertension and 101 did not. Hypertensive patients were assigned to three groups according to the grade of hypertension. EAT volume and thickness on ventricular free walls (6 locations) and grooves (5 locations) were measured using cardiac magnetic resonance imaging and compared between groups. A regression model for the prediction of EH was constructed. Results: In general, thickness (in all locations) and volume of EAT depots was greater among hypertensive patients than in normotensive (NORM) group. Mean EAT thickness in all 11 locations and EAT volume were lower in NORM than in grade 1 hypertension group; similarly, EAT volume was lower in grade 1 than in grade 2 hypertension group. EAT accumulation did not differ between grade 2 and severe hypertension groups. EAT volume, dyslipidaemia status, body mass index, and age were independent predictors for EH in regression model. Conclusions: EAT accumulation is larger among hypertensive than normotensive individuals. Measurement of EAT depots could be beneficial for identification of hypertensive patients and prediction of hypertension severity.

The accumulation of biofilm by Streptococcus mutans bacteria on hard tooth tissues leads to dental caries, which remains one of the most prevalent oral diseases. Hence, the development of new antibiofilm agents is of critical importance. The current study reports the results from testing the effectiveness of octyl gallate (C8-OG) against: (1) S. mutans biofilm formation on solid surfaces (polystyrene, glass), (2) acidogenicity, (3) and the expression of biofilm-related genes. The amount of biofilm formed by S. mutans bacteria was evaluated using the colorimetric method and optical profilometry. The pH of the biofilm growth medium was measured with microelectrode. A quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) was used to assess the expression of genes encoding glucan binding protein B (gbpB), glucosyltransferases B, -C, -D (gtfB, -C, -D), and the F-ATPase β subunit of the F1 protein (atpD). The results show that C8-OG significantly diminished biofilm formation by exposed S. mutans on solid surfaces and suppressed acidogenicity in a dose-dependent manner, compared to unexposed bacteria (p < 0.05). The C8-OG concentration of 100.24 µM inhibited S. mutans biofilm development on solid surfaces by 100% and prevented a decrease in pH levels by 99%. In addition, the RT-qPCR data demonstrate that the biofilm-producing bacteria treated with C8-OG underwent a significant reduction in gene expression in the case of the four genes under study (gbpB, gtfC, gtfD, and atpD), and there was a slight decrease in expression of the gtfB gene. However, C8-OG treatments did not produce significant expression change compared to the control for the planktonic cells, although there was a significant increase for the atpD gene. Therefore, C8-OG might be a potent antibiofilm and/or anticaries agent for oral formulations that aim to reduce the prevalence of dental caries.

The probability of future Coronavirus Disease (COVID)-19 waves remains high, thus COVID-19 surveillance and forecasting remains important. Online search engines harvest vast amounts of data from the general population in real time and make these data publicly accessible via such tools as Google Trends (GT). Therefore, the aim of this study was to review the literature about possible use of GT for COVID-19 surveillance and prediction of its outbreaks. In November 2021, we collected and reviewed articles about the possible use of GT for COVID-19 surveillance. We resulted in 54 publications that were used in this review. The majority of the studies (83.3%) included in this review showed positive results of the possible use of GT for forecasting COVID-19 outbreaks. Most of the studies were performed in English-speaking countries (61.1%). The most frequently used keyword was “coronavirus” (53.7%), followed by “COVID-19” (31.5%) and “COVID” (20.4%). Many authors have made analyses in multiple countries (46.3%) and obtained the same results for the majority of them, thus showing the robustness of the chosen methods. Various methods including long short-term memory (3.7%), random forest regression (3.7%), Adaboost algorithm (1.9%), autoregressive integrated moving average, neural network autoregression (1.9%), and vector error correction modeling (1.9%) were used for the analysis. It was seen that most of the publications with positive results (72.2%) were using data from the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Later, the search volumes reduced even though the incidence peaked. In most countries, the use of GT data showed to be beneficial for forecasting and surveillance of COVID-19 spread.

: We examined inequalities in cervical cancer survival in Lithuania by education and place of residence. : The study is based on the linked dataset that includes all records of the 2001 population Census, all records from Lithuanian Cancer Registry (cancer incidence) and all death and emigration records from Statistics Lithuania for the period between 6 April 2001 and 31 December 2009. The study group includes cervical cancers registered in the Cancer Registry from 1 January 2002 to 31 December 2006. Analysis was restricted to women who were 25-64 years old at the Census date (in total 1 866 cases). : During the study period there were 671 deaths corresponding to an overall 5-year survival proportion 64.13% (95% CI 61.86-66.31). Place of residence and education of cervical cancer patients had strong impact on survival; 5-year survival was higher in women living in urban areas than in rural (68.61 and 55.93%) and survival decreased with decreasing education: from 79.77% in highest education group to 64.85 and 50.48% in groups with secondary and lower than secondary education. The effect of place of residence declined when stage of disease was included in the model and became not significant in final model with education adjustment. The effect of education declined after inclusion of stage and other variables, however, remained significant. : We found that women with higher education experienced higher survival following a cervical cancer diagnosis, and stage of disease at the time of diagnosis explains only the part of observed differences.