ARTICLES IN PRESS | YEAR-2023 | VOLUME-4

Masters’ Athletics has shown a significant and remarkable role for people’s happiness, physically and psychologically. World Masters Athletics (WMA) Championships started in 1975, and two terms of Veterans and Masters were used. Author Konoike was the president of Asia Masters Athletics (AMA) from 1998 to 2013, and established the International Masters Athletics Federation (IMAF) associated with continuing various competition games and research until now. During World competitions in 2000, he emphasized adequate official terms for Masters instead of Veterans. Japan Sports Masters (JSPO) has been established including lots of sports and “Masters” has become a standard common word for sports.

Cognizance of the implication of Covid-19 pandemic on health and well-being resulted in an upsurge in use of several dietary and herbal supplements (DHS) for the prevention and/or prophylaxis against the new disease.
Objectives: To evaluate the pattern of DHS consumption among Nigerians with Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD) for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19.
Design: Cross-sectional questionnaire survey. Setting: Adolescents, and adults residing in Nigeria.
Participants: Participants with NCD (n = 165) from a larger study (n=645) were recruited from different geo-political zones and various ethnic groups.
Primary and Secondary Outcomes: Prevalence and determinants of the use of different DHS for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 in Nigeria, and sources of information for DHS use.
Results: Hypertension was the most prevalent NCD (63.6%) in the study and both breast cancer and anxiety disorder were the least (0.6%). Overall, 75.2% of the respondents had less than 8 hours of sleep daily and almost all did not smoke cigarette at all. The proportion of male and female hypertensives who believed that dietary supplements are necessary during infectious disease outbreak such as Covid-19 was moderately high (55.2%), higher among asthmatics (65.0%), diabetes (68.4%), those with kidney disease (100.0%) and ulcer (83.3%). All or almost all the respondents with hypertension (96.2%), asthma (95.0%), diabetes (100.0%) and kidney disease (100.0%), consumed supplements more during Covid-19 pandemic in Nigeria. The proportion of those who consumed supplements more during the pandemic in Nigeria was higher among male (56.4%) than among the female (43.6%) hypertensives, though the difference was not statistically significant (χ²=2.93, P-value=0.09). Vitamin C was the commonest vitamin taken by respondents with ulcer (83.3%), kidney disease (83.3%), diabetes (57.9%), asthma (50.0%), hypertension (48.6%) and the two respondents with breast cancer (1, 100.0%) and anxiety disorder (1, 100.0%) respectively. Calcium and zinc were the commonest minerals taken by respondents with ulcer (50.0%, 16.7%), diabetes (10.5%, 5.3%), asthma (30.0%, 10.0%) and hypertension (13.3%, 11.4%) respectively. High proportions (83.3%, 80.0%) of those with kidney disease and with asthma consumed DHS to maintain good health. Health workers were the dominant source of information for most on the use of supplements during Covid-19 pandemic in Nigeria.
Conclusions: The findings showed widespread use of DHS for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 among persons with NCD. The use of DHS in this study was mainly guided by health workers with a marginal role of social media and Mass media. These findings call for a more robust consolidative tactic towards DHS to ensure its proper and safe use.

Research on the meaning of life has shown that the value and worth of each individual’s life hold significant importance, and this is closely associated with the concept of “eudaimonia” from ancient Greek philosophy. More recently, the Japanese word “ikigai” has gained attention as a similar concept, referring to one’s sense of well-being, reason for living, or purpose in life. Through various studies, it has been discovered that ikigai is closely related to factors such as happiness, anxiety, depression, stress, and employment status. In fact, it has been identified as a key predictor of both psychological well-being and physical health. As such, the research on ikigai has important implications for preventative medicine and positive psychology, as it can help individuals lead more fulfilling, successful, and responsible lives on a daily basis.

Non-Hodgkin lymphomas represent the third leading cause of cancer in the pediatric age group. Primary renal lymphoma is an uncommon presentation. We describe the diagnosis and treatment of a 6-year-old boy who presented with bilateral renal involvement, abdominal pain, vomiting, and weight loss. Initial investigations were consistent with presumed non-oliguric end-stage renal disease and anemia. Subsequent imaging demonstrated enlarged kidneys bilaterally. Histology revealed a Burkitt lymphoma that was highly responsive to chemotherapy, including the anti-CD20 monoclonal agent rituximab. Specific treatment was introduced with corticosteroids, vincristine, cyclophosphamide, and rituximab, resulting in the resolution of acute renal failure within 72 hours and complete response at the second induction with ANHL 1131 protocol.

Objective: To assess gastric pathology in a sample of Iraqi patients in relation to clinico-endoscopic findings, including age, gender, clinical presentation, and endoscopic findings.
Background: Gastric disorders are among the most common problems encountered in clinical practice. The definitive diagnosis is based on histopathological confirmation and is one of the foundations for proper treatment planning.
Materials and Methods: A retrospective study including analysis of 200 cases of gastric biopsies with different clinical presentations and different endoscopic findings collected from the Medical Consultant Office at Al-Nahrain University/ College of Medicine in Baghdad from January 2017 to September 2022. Assessment of histopathological diagnosis in relation to clinical and endoscopic features was done for all enrolled cases.
Results: The majority of cases in this study were female (64%). The most common clinical presentation was epigastric pain (49.5%). Regarding age, 24% of cases were within the age group of 20-29 years, and the most common endoscopic finding was gastropathy (59%). The most common histopathological findings were chronic atrophic gastritis (45%) and chronic superficial gastritis (34.5%) in association with H. pylori (87.5%). The most common polyp type in the present study was hyperplastic polyp (3.5%), whereas fundic polyp was 0.5%. Adenocarcinoma was the most common type of malignancy (4.5%), and diffuse type adenocarcinoma was the most common one.
Conclusion: H. pylori infected more than three-quarters of patients in the recent study with female predominance. Most cases were between 20-29 years, and epigastric pain was the most common clinical presentation. Chronic gastritis was the most common histopathological finding. Adenocarcinoma was the most common malignancy encountered in the present study.

Objectives: Somalia has some of the worst infant, child and maternal mortality ratios in the world and was unable to achieve its Millennium Development Goals of health and nutrition. This study aimed to examine whether the project achieved its intended outcome in fragile Somalia.
Design: The study adopted a quantitative and analysis method.
Setting: Data collection involved household surveys and anthropometric measurements. A pre-and post-intervention data collection and analysis was conducted aimed at comparing the performance of the priority indicators, determining if the change was significant with a 95% confidence interval.
Participants: It was with caregivers, mainly women of reproductive age (15-49 years) and children 0-59 months as the main participants.
Main Outcome Measures: The focus was on Baseline compare to end line, End line Puntland Vs Somaliland and Key indicators to National Targets. Descriptive and inferential statistical analysis of the household questionnaires was conducted using SPSS data analysis software. Cross-tabulation using the McNemar’s Chi-square test was used to compare key outcomes.
Results: From baseline to end line, there was statistically significant improvement breastfeeding practices, mothers practice for health timing and spacing of pregnancy, mothers practicing the recommended child birth practices care for children under five when sick and a reduction in the utilization of pregnancy care services and practice of vaccination of children. Comparison of Key indicators to National Targets revealed that the project achieved more in appropriate treatment of childhood illnesses, delivery practices, contractive use, infant and young child feeding, but fell short in the immunization services and ANC services.
Conclusions: The health and nutrition care system in Somalia remains weak, poorly resourced and inequitably distributed with the root causes being multipronged. However, the results from this study show that if interventions are appropriately funded, there will always be improvement in the key health and nutrition indicators.

Anxiety is one of the most common psychological problems in older people and older people staying in geriatric centers are more vulnerable. This study aims to explore Anxiety and associated factors of older people staying in care facilities in Nepal.
This is a descriptive cross-sectional study. A total of 216 older people were recruited from geriatric centers of Kathmandu Valley, Nepal. Anxiety was assessed using Beck Anxiety Scale. Statistical software SPSS23.0 was used for data entry and analysis.
The mean of Anxiety was 13.23±6.84. The prevalence of anxiety disorder in the study population was 8.8 %, where 5.6 % of respondents had mild and 3.2% had moderate Anxiety. Results show gender, marital status, religion, type of previous family, chronic illness, stress, and type of living facilities were statistically significantly associated with anxiety. The difference was statistically significant (p<0.05). Depression and anxiety were also significantly positively correlated (r=0.232, p< 0.01).
Elderly people living in care facilities had slightly low levels of anxiety. Government and residential care facilities should be aware to provide appropriate support, care, and early psychological care during the intervention for the elderly so that it will help not to increase anxiety and other problems.

Objective: During the COVID-19 pandemic, screening mammography utilization declined nationally by nearly 65% compared to pre-pandemic volumes. This study assessed the impact of online screening mammography self-scheduling platform optimization on patient scheduling, rescheduling and cancellation rates during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Methods: A retrospective review of online SM scheduling utilization between October 1, 2019, and December 31, 2022 was performed. The electronic health record (EHR) was queried to extract the total number of SMs performed, online scheduling, rescheduling and cancellation rates during the busiest screening mammography months of October through December in 2019 and 2022.
Results: October to December online SM scheduling patient activity rose from 57 to 1481 patients when comparing 2019 and 2022 performance, representing a 26-fold increase in online platform utilization after EHR-tethered scheduling integration (p=0.013). This resulted in a concurrent 16x fold reduction in patient access specialist SM scheduling engagement. Concurrently, SM scheduling automation resulted in increases in appointment rescheduling and cancellation rates, from 14% to 22% (p=0.005) and 18% to 38% (p=0.000), respectively.
Discussion: Optimization of our online self-scheduling platform with EHR integration resulted in a 26-fold increase in online self-scheduling patient utilization and a 16x fold reduction in DI-PAS hands on SM scheduling engagement. The rates of OSS patient appointment rescheduling and cancellation also increased but the overall net gain in self-scheduling automation should not deter continued use and implementation of this program.

Background: With the proposal that people with undetectable serum viral loads of HIV cannot transmit, there is a large gap, either due to viral discordance or transcytosis, that would be explaining the persistent 4 to 7 percent vertical transmission of HIV to infants by Kenyan mothers.
Therefore, we looked for factors that predispose mothers with HIV to transmit the disease to their children so that policy can be generated for their screening to be conducted if they fit the specified criteria that identifies them as a high-risk group.
Methods: Through access to the National Database providing HIV treatment services country wide, we looked for the presence of the available factors from MTCT cases and assessed their association with increased risk of vertical transmission. The factors assessed were mother’s blood plasma viral load (BPVL), geographic location of the mother and child (associated with specific higher and lower socioeconomic status), gender of the baby being born, time age after birth with confirmation of Mother to Child Transmission (MTCT), method of feeding chosen by mothers, age of the mothers, and the regimen of Highly Active Anti Retro Viral treatment (HAART) that the mother and child had been given.
Results: Mixed breast feeding posed a much higher risk, mothers of a younger age posed a higher risk, residents of some areas were at higher risks, of note the town of Lamu in Kenya. The at birth stat administration of Niverapin with Zidovudin (NVP+AZT) to the baby was very effective against the transmission, in comparison to any of the other interventions, and having an UD BPVL led to a six-fold reduction the risk of MTCT.
Conclusion: There are factors that are associated with a higher risk of vertical transmission from pregnant and lactating UD BPVL mothers which warrant implementation of more stringent policy in their case to achieve Elimination of MTCT(EMTCT) in Kenya. Other factors that were not in the available records and the ones found to have an impact need to be investigated with more accuracy through a prospective study.

Since 2005, we have conducted a questionnaire survey on taste and olfaction, the salty taste test, and the olfactory test in Yakumo Town, Hokkaido, Japan. However, due to the COVID-19 epidemic, resident screening was canceled in 2020 and 2021. We investigated the potential impact of COVID-19 by comparing results from the salty taste test, olfactory tests, and questionnaire surveys. Data were analyzed for a total of 100 individuals, 42 males, and 58 females, who underwent screening in both 2019 and 2022. The questionnaire survey included items regarding the subjective presence or absence of dizziness, tinnitus, headache, taste, smell, and saliva secretion.
Furthermore, we obtained results from a salty taste test using the Solsave kit (manufactured by Advantech) and olfactory test results using the smell stick kit (manufactured by Daiichi Kogyo Co., Ltd.). Consequently, when comparing the results of the olfactory test between 2019 and 2022 for 42 males, a statistically significant difference (p = 0.004) emerged. The ability to understand odors was more challenging in 2022 compared to 2019. Specifically, distinguishing between the odors of perfume (p = 0.044), menthol (p = 0.032), mandarin orange (p = 0.032), and fried garlic (p = 0.019) proved to be difficult.
Similarly, in the comparison of 2019 and 2022 for 58 females, there was a statistically significant difference (p = 0.033) in olfactory test results, indicating that comprehending odors was more difficult in 2022 than in 2019. Particularly, distinguishing between the odors of perfume (p = 0.026), mandarin orange (p = 0.026), and condensed milk (p = 0.018) presented challenges. There was no statistically significant difference in the results of the salty taste test and questionnaire survey for both males and females. To determine whether the observed changes in olfactory sense are due to aging changes over the three years or the effects of COVID-19, ongoing investigation is crucial. It is necessary to continue assessing whether this diminished sense of smell will recover in the future.