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Background Oil spills are known to affect human health through exposure to inherent hazardous chemicals. The aim of the study was to examine the associations between direct contact with the oil (DCO) and health indicators among the adult residents in the 25 coastal counties or parishes most directly affected by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill (DHOS) in the Gulf of Mexico.Methods Data were based on the Gulf States Population Survey (GSPS). The GSPS collected survey data from a random sample of households, with the majority of the interviews conducted in the 25 coastal counties or parishes that were most directly affected by the spill. After identifying the confounding variables, associations of DCO with poor quality of life (QoL), poor self-rated health (SRH), psychiatric disorders, asthma, and cardiovascular disease among the adult residents after DHOS were analyzed using logistic regressions.Results The mean age of a total of 5,167 adult residents at the time of questionnaire completion was 53.93 (SD=16.29), ranging from 18 to 95 years. Controlling for confounding variables, DCO was associated with higher odds of poor mental QoL (adjusted odds ratio [aOR]: 1.284; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.045-1.578; p=.018), poor SRMH (aOR=1.278; 95%CI: 1.021-1.601; p=.033), anxiety (aOR=1.680; 95%CI: 1.395-2.024; p<.001), depression (aOR=1.182; 95%CI: 0.977-1.430; p=.086), and suicidality (aOR=1.920; 95%CI: 1.411-2.614; p<.001) after DHOS.Conclusions In conclusion, the prevalence of co-occurring poor SRHs, co-existing poor QoL, and concurrent psychiatric disorders was high in adult residents after DHOS. Similarly, DCO was associated with poor mental QoL, poor SRMH, and psychiatric disorders. The empirical findings of this research present managerial implications in the field of environmental health.

Emerging public health challenges require attention to self and society, beyond the classroom and exposure to the health system. The sensitisation of the future public health community is crucial to cover the last mile of the marginalized population. However, in general, public health education focuses on the health system and sciences and lacks a central focus on community-based internships. This short essay is an amalgamation of immersive field experiences of two young public health students with a renowned non-governmental organization called Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) in Gujarat, India. It argues that immersive internships can help students rise above the need of advancing job prospects and revisit their very purpose of learning by realizing their accountability as future members of the PH community. This perspective of a developing country like India would be immensely valuable to the global community elsewhere too.

The use of thorough clinical trials, open scientific debate, and the building of trust in public institutions have been key factors in the acceptance of vaccines in the past. The Covid-19 vaccination programmes were implemented under emergency legislation, limiting safety assessments and traditional vaccine protocols. Transparency and potential conflicts of interest were issues, with serious side effects neglected. This has fed public distrust, nurturing vaccine hesitancy. Studies on the possible relations between Covid-19 vaccines and an increase in all-cause mortality rates have not merited official concern. This Opinion argues that in order to negate a growing public perception of a causal relationship between Covid-19 vaccinations and serious adverse effects, raw data should be released, further research promoted, and open debate permitted without exclusion.

Over a long career in the psychiatric profession spanning six decades, Thomas Szasz has forcefully argued that mental illnesses are mythical since all medical diseases are located in the body and, thus, have somatic causes. This has been accompanied by a scathing and coruscating critique of the whole mental health profession, particularly those psychologists, psychiatrists and psychotherapists who collude in and exploit the alleged mythology of counterfeit mental disorders and often (unwittingly or deliberately) justify coercion, oppression and pharmacological manipulation of so-called ‘mental patients’ in the name of ‘treatments’. Although there has been a measure of support for this approach in recent years – especially the emphasis on the social context of mental illness and the complexity of mind/body dualism – the main thesis has tended to be misunderstood and undervalued. However, recent critiques of the scientific materialist paradigm within philosophy of mind and consciousness studies can help to illuminate the key arguments in this sphere and provide a foundation for work in the mental health field. After examining the main tenets of Szasz’s thesis, the work of neo-idealist philosophers and scientists such as Kastrup, Hoffman and McGilchrist will be utilised to present an alternative re-imagining of the central problems. The neo-idealist concept of consciousness as an ultimate primitive combined with the work of McGilchrist on the ways in which the divided brain serves to shape reality can be utilised to produce a perspective on mental health and illness supported by a solid foundation in neuroscience and philosophy of mind.

Eroticism in later life is, on the whole, a taboo subject, and the stigma attached to expressions of sexual intent by older people is widespread in most cultures. However, sexuality and eroticism have an important role to play in maintaining healthy ageing. Sexuality is an essential aspect of our biology, and its effects have repercussions in systems and organs other than the sexual. In this paper, I review the importance of developing a sexual-erotic element in later life, an element that is intimately coupled with the phenomenon of hormesis. In hormesis, there is a biological benefit following exposure to a mild stimulus or challenge, whereas exposure to a higher dose of the same stimulus becomes detrimental. Innovative sexual stimulation can be seen as a hormetic opportunity to initiate beneficial effects on the entire ageing human organism. The intention is to show that health benefits may be obtained not only through physical (exercise), nutritional, mental, or pharmacological challenges, but also through sexual stimulation of the appropriate magnitude and quality. By enhancing erotic stimulation, it may be possible to experience many other benefits spanning several domains such as the endocrine, immune, circulatory, and neurological. In addition, within an increasingly information-rich world, sexuality may play a part in improving adaptation to various cognitive external stimuli originating from our technological ecosystem.

Globally, international and internal labour migration are common phenomena. In LMICs, labour migration, particularly international migration, typically means the men migrate while their wives/partners remain at home to take care of their family. Little attention has been paid to the impact of men’s migration on non-migrating partner’s health. Therefore, we undertook a systematic review to explore the impact of men's migration on the health of women who remain behind in LMICs. We searched five databases, CINAHL, Google Scholar, PsycINFO, PubMed and Scopus, for publications from 2005 to 2022. Thirty-three peer-reviewed publications were included in the review out of which 15 explored mental health, 13 looked at sexual and reproductive health, ten at physical health, five at health-care accessibility and four studies focused on other health related issues. Findings suggest that women who remained behind or ‘left-behind’ women had increased access to healthcare due to better financial positions (via remittances). Remittances led to improved food and housing security, a critical wider determinant of health. However, some studies reported that in the longer term, the physical health of women who remain behind was negatively impacted. Almost all studies on mental health reported higher depressive symptoms among migrant wives compared to women co-habiting with their spouses. Left-behind women feared contracting sexually transmitted infections from their migrant partners. Our findings also showed that several marriage, family, finance and individual factors could affect the health of women who remain behind. National and local policies should include support groups and counselling services at the local health centre for women who remain behind. We recommend further studies on the areas presented above as well as unexplored areas such as vulnerability to violence and impact of remittance on health and nutrition.

Topical steroids have been used to treat a variety of dermatological conditions and are among the most commonly prescribed drugs in dermatology. These are Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved medications for treating diseases such as eczema, vitiligo, atopic dermatitis, discoid lupus erythematosus, and more. The mechanism of action of topical corticosteroids consists of anti-inflammatory, anti-mitotic, and immunosuppressive effects. Patients on topical corticosteroid treatments must be monitored carefully, as there is a potential for adverse effects, especially in treatments lasting longer than several weeks. While properly prescribed and monitored topical corticosteroid usage is considered safe, there have been growing concerns surrounding topical corticosteroid abuse, phobia, and withdrawal. Current research has focused on new therapeutic strategies and management protocols to improve long-term patient outcomes and mitigate the adverse effects of these drugs. In this narrative review, we describe the recent findings of clinical manifestations, patient perspectives in the literature, current knowledge, and misinformation and abuse pertaining to topical steroids.

Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) became a worldwide pandemic with a high hospitalisation rate in March 2020. COVID-19 infection and sarcopenia concentrate on the same pathway that increases the risk of sarcopenia. The resulting sarcopenia can cause severity of the disease, lower treatment efficiency, and physical disabilities for surviving COVID-19 patients. This review provides a practical overview of the importance, metabolism, mechanism, and link of COVID-19 with sarcopenia. In addition, all the concerns and treatments that healthcare experts need to consider from the hospital to the patients' homes with their timeline are explained. Nevertheless, sarcopenia is not limited to the hospital and can continue developing long after COVID-19 recovery. This situation makes continuous follow-up, sarcopenia monitoring, and interventions necessary until the removal of risks, even after recovery. Otherwise, a higher prevalence of sarcopenia and, as a result, higher morbidity, mortality, dependency, and disabilities in surviving COVID-19 patients can be expected.