Vol 29, No 7 (2022)

Currently, sufficient data are available on the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and its socio-economic consequences on human mental health and the mental ecology in general. The success of public health strategies to cope with pandemics is largely determined by psychological factors and the mental values prevailing in the community at large.

The present review systematized the psychological response features of various social, professional, and national representatives during the COVID-19 period within the framework of the main mental ecology provisions.

The review methodology was based on the World Health Organization documents and open sources of the Scopus and Web of Science databases on the population's mental health under COVID-19 pandemic conditions.

A significant increase in adaptive and anxiety-depressive disorders was noted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Among the specific mental phenomena associated with the pandemic, coronaphobia, COVID-19-stress syndrome, covid-dissidence manifestations with the involvement of conspiracy theories, and mythological thinking were identified. The negative infodemia impact on the mental ecology, as well as the adherence to anti-epidemic measures and readiness for vaccination, were also established. Negative trends were demonstrated in communities where the maximum infection and death risk were associated with low adherence to the epidemiological measures and refusal to vaccination.

It was revealed that belonging to certain social or professional groups largely determines a person's behavior in relation to a new coronavirus infection within the framework of accepted social norms. Based on the analysis of a large domestic and international data number on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic emergency on the human psyche, its significant adverse contribution to the overall mental ecology was noted. The necessity of developing special therapeutic and psycho-prophylactic programs aimed at coping with the stress pandemic impact and treatment of affective disorders, countering infodemia, and strengthening behavioral patterns to maintain mental health and personal well-being is substantiated.

BACKGROUND: The state of endoecological homeostasis of the oral cavity is ensured based on the colonization resistance of the microbiota as well as the protective reactions on the part of immune and epithelial cells, including the buccal epithelium.

AIM: To establish cytomorphological features of the buccal epithelium and the state of the microbiota that colonizes the biotopes of the oral cavity in individuals with periodontitis living in the Arctic Zone of the Russian Federation.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: A cross-sectional clinical and laboratory examination of 91 people permanently residing under the conditions of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation was conducted. Cytomorphological studies (index evaluation and detection of anomalies) of buccal epitheliocytes, molecular genetic studies (isolation of periodontopathogens by real-time PCR), and statistical analysis of the data obtained were conducted.

RESULTS: The results of the index evaluation in the group with periodontitis were unsatisfactory: cell differentiation index — 85%, p <0.001, keratinization index — 88%, p <0.001. The frequency of detection of cytogenetic disorders, indicators of apoptosis, and proliferative processes also prevailed in the group of patients with periodontitis: micronuclei — 88.0%, protrusions — 71.6%, proliferation rates — 89.5%, karyolysis — 10.4% and karyorrhexis — 26.8%. Most often (70.1%), the markers of P. gingivalis were detected, in 41.8% of cases — T. forsythia, associations of periodontopathogens — in 17.8%. Positive correlations of moderate and weak degree were identified between the presence of cells with cytomorphological disorders with the definition of P. gingivalis: cells with micronuclei (r=0.413; p <0.001), cells with protrusions (r=0.228; p=0.029), presence of binuclear cells (r=0.402; p <0.001), and indicators of apoptosis (r=0.283; p=0.006; r=0.383; p <0.001), as well as between all the studied cytomorphological disorders and the release of the periodontal pathogen T. forsythia. Direct correlations of the average degree were established between the isolation of periodontopathogens in associations and the presence of cells with protrusions and indicators of proliferation and apoptosis.

CONCLUSION: Inflammation of periodontal tissues occurs as a result of a shift in the endoecological balance through the combined action of periodontal pathogenic microbes that trigger a cascade of immune responses, leading to damage of the tissue microenvironment, primarily the buccal epithelial cells.

BACKGROUND: Domestic water filter systems have been actively used for tap water treatment by many countries of the world in recent years. It is already known that, according to their technical design, such domestic filters simultaneously remove harmful chemicals and biogenic chemical elements that are useful for the human body (such as Ca and Mg) from water. The use of individual post-treatment water systems can have an adverse effect on human health, especially in deficient biogeochemical provinces.

AIM: Hygienic assessment of the long-term dynamics of the daily consumption of post treated drinking tap water in Vladivostok on an adolescent population.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: A prospective research was conducted across 4 separate follow-up periods: February of 2012, 2015, 2017, and 2021. A total of 667 adolescents from Vladivostok of age 14–17 years were examined by interviewing using a specially designed questionnaire. The volume of daily consumption and the frequency of consumption per week of 3 types of water (tap drinking water, treated drinking water on individual filters, bottled drinking and mineral water) were recorded. The number of adolescents who did not consume tap drinking water that was post-treated on household devices was considered separately. Statistical processing of the received materials was performed using the "Data Analysis" package in Microsoft Excel 2019.

RESULTS: The share of post-treated drinking water in the structure of daily drinking water consumption of Vladivostok adolescent population was 7.6–15.8% over the years of observation. Meanwhile, the consumption of post-treated water increased by 4 times among boys and almost by 2.5 times among girls (p <0.001), and the rate of occurrence (per 100 persons) of boys and girls who did not consume post-treated tap water decreased by almost two times (p <0.001).

CONCLUSION: A pronounced long-term increase in the use of household filters for the post-treatment of physiologically inferior, low-mineralized tap drinking water should be recognized as a population risk factor for a possible deterioration of the health status of an adolescent population under the current conditions of the city of Vladivostok, which is located in the zone of a deficient biogeochemical province.

RATIONALE AND AIMS: The population of North Russia has a high prevalence of both cardiovascular and dental diseases. The Arkhangelsk region was included in the third phase of the multicenter study entitled “Epidemiology of cardiovascular diseases in Russian regions. Third study” (“ESSE-RF3’’). The ESSE-RF3 study studied the prevalence of cardiovascular diseases, their biological and behavioral risk factors, and the associations with regional economic, climatic, and geographical characteristics. The Arkhangelsk part of the study is unique as it involved an assessment of the oral health of the ESSE-RF3 study participants. The oral health study protocol is presented in this paper.

METHODS: A population-based study was performed from February 24 through June 30 in the year 2021 at the outpatient facility of the Northern State Medical University in Arkhangelsk. A representative sample of 1816 permanent residents of the Arkhangelsk region aged 35–74 years participated in the ESSE-RF3 study. Most of them (84.9–87.5%) agreed to take part in the oral phase of the study, which included the use of a questionnaire, the collection of oral and gingival crevicular fluid, assessment of dental and periodontal health status using a WHO (2013) methodology; oral hygiene and dental aesthetic index; an orthodontic assessment with periotestometry and a photo protocol. In addition, an in-depth orthodontic study was performed on a sub-sample of the participants aged 35–51 years (n=236) using teleroentgenography, cone-beam computed tomography, and biometrics of the plaster models.

EXPECTED RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: The study will assess the prevalence of a wide range of states and conditions related to oral health in a representative sample of the adult population of the Arkhangelsk region in the target age-group using validated international instruments to ensure comparability and reproducibility of the findings. More importantly, the study will assess the associations between various aspects of oral health and cardiovascular diseases, their risk factors as well as regional and behavioral characteristics studied by the main ESSE-RF3 study protocol.