Technological advancement has brought commendable changes in medicine, advancing diagnosis, treatment, and interventions. Telemedicine has been adopted by various subspecialties including ophthalmology. Over the years, teleophthalmology has been implemented in various countries, and continuous progress is being made in this area. In underserved populations, due to socioeconomic factors, there is little or no access to healthcare facilities, and people are at higher risk of eye diseases and vision impairment. Transportation is the major hurdle for these people in obtaining access to eye care in the main hospitals. There is a dire need for accessible eye care for such populations, and teleophthalmology is the ray of hope for providing eye care facilities to underserved people. Numerous studies have reported the advantages of teleophthalmology for rural populations such as being cost-effective, timesaving, reliable, efficient, and satisfactory for patients. Although it is being practiced in urban populations, for rural populations, its benefits amplify. However, there are certain obstacles as well, such as the cost of equipment, lack of steady electricity and internet supply in rural areas, and the attitude of people in certain regions toward acceptance of teleophthalmology. In this review, we have discussed in detail eye health in rural populations, teleophthalmology, and its effectiveness in rural populations of different countries.

Colorectal cancer is one of the most common cancers in Europe and the world. Cancer treatments have side effects and cause significant deterioration of the patient’s nutritional status. Patient malnutrition may worsen the health condition and prevent the deliberate effects of the therapy. The aim of this review was to describe the available data about clinical nutrition in colorectal cancer patients. A large proportion of colorectal cancer patients suffer from malnutrition, which negatively affects the survival prognosis, quality of life, and oncological therapy. Therefore, monitoring nutritional status during the treatment is essential and can be used to arrange proper nutritional therapy to enhance patient responses, prevent side effects, and shorten recovery time. The principles of nutrition during anticancer therapy should mainly consider light and low-fat foods, the exclusion of lactose and gluten-containing foods in certain cases, or the introduction of special dietary products such as oral nutrition supplements and it should be tailored to patients’ individual needs.

Despite numerous studies evaluating the risk of breast cancer among oral contraception users, the effect of oral contraceptive on developing breast cancer remains inconclusive. Therefore, we conducted a systematic review of literature with meta-analysis in order to quantitative estimate this association. The bibliographic database MEDLINE and EMBASE, and reference lists of identified articles were searched, with no language restrictions, from the start of publication to August 2010. We performed a reanalysis and overall estimate of 79 case-control studies conducted between 1960–2010, including a total of 72,030 incidents, histologically confirmed cases of breast cancer and 123,650 population/hospital controls. A decrease was observed in cancer risk in OC users before age 25 years (0.91, 0.83–1.00). However, the use of OCs before the first full-term pregnancy had a significant increased risk of breast cancer (OR, 1.14, 1.01–1.28, p = 0.04), as did OC use longer than 5 years (1.09, 1.01–1.18, p = 0.02). Pooled crude odds ratios of breast cancer in ever-users of oral contraceptives was 1.01 [95% confidence interval (CI), 0.95–1.07], compared with never-users. There was no significant increase in risk among premenopausal women (1.06, 0.92–1.22), postmenopausal women (0.99, 0.89–1.10), or nulliparous women (1.02, 0.82–1.26). Oral contraceptives do not appear to increase the risk of breast cancer among users. However, OC use before a first full-term pregnancy or using them longer than 5 years can modify the development of the breast cancer.

To perform a meta-analysis of case-control studies that addressed the association between oral contraceptive pills (OC) use and breast cancer (BrCa), PubMED (MEDLINE), Embase, and the Cochrane Library were searched to identify case-control studies of OC and BrCa published between 2009 and 2020. We used the DerSimonian–Laird method to compute pooled odds ratios (ORs) and confidence intervals (CIs), and the Mantel–Haenszel test to assess the association between OC use and cancer. Forty-two studies were identified that met the inclusion criteria and we included a total of 110,580 women (30,778 into the BrCa group and 79,802 into the control group, of which 15,722 and 38,334 were using OC, respectively). The conducted meta-analysis showed that the use of OC was associated with a significantly increased risk of BrCa in general, OR = 1.15, 95% CI: 1.01 to 1.31, p = 0.0358. Regarding other risk factors for BrCa, we found that increased risk was associated significantly with early menarche, nulliparous, non-breastfeeding, older age at first parity, postmenopause, obesity, smoking, and family history of BrCa. Despite our conclusion that birth control pills increase the cancer risk being supported by extensive previous studies and meta-analyzes, further confirmation is required.

The aim of the report was to evaluate the impact of soy protein containing isoflavones and soy isoflavones extract on lipid profile in postmenopausal women, as compared with placebo or protein of milk, casein or isolated soy protein with or without trace isoflavone content. We used the following databases: MEDLINE (PubMed), EMBASE and the Cochrane Library. Quantitative data synthesis was performed by applying a random-effects model. Subgroup analysis and meta-regression were performed to assess the modifiers of treatment response. In total, in the analysis studies, 2305 postmenopausal women took part. Changes in the lipid profile showed statistically significant decreases of total cholesterol by −0.12 (95% CI: −0.21, −0.03) mmol/L, −4.64 (95% CI: −8.12, −1.16) mg/dL, p = 0.01 and increased HDL-cholesterol by 0.03 (95% CI: 0.00, 0.06) mmol/L, 1.15 (95% CI: 0.00, 1.93) mg/dL, p = 0.05, as well as in LDL-cholesterol −0.05 (95% CI: −0.11, 0.01) mmol/L, −1.93 (95% CI: −4.25, 0.39) mg/dL, p = 0.08 and triacylglycerols −0.07 (95% CI: −0.14, 0.00) mmol/L, −6.123 (95% CI: −12.25, 0.00) mg/dL, p = 0.06. Our results suggests that soy and its isoflavones can be effective in correction changes in lipid metabolism in postmenopausal women and may favorably influence in preventing cardiovascular events.

The aim of the report was to determine the effects of soy isoflavones on lumbar spine, femoral neck, and total hip bone mineral density (BMD) in menopausal women. MEDLINE (PubMed), EMBASE, and Cochrane Library databases were searched for articles published in English during 1995–2019. Studies were identified and reviewed for inclusion and exclusion eligibility. Weighted mean differences (WMD) were calculated for each study and were pooled by using the random effects model. Eighteen randomized controlled trials were selected for meta-analysis. Different types of soy phytoestrogens, i.e., genistein extracts, soy isoflavones extracts, soy protein isolate, and foods containing diverse amounts of isoflavones were used in the studies. The analysis showed that daily intake of 106 (range, 40–300) mg of isoflavones for 6–24 months moderately but statistically significantly positively affects BMD, compared with controls: lumbar spine WMD = 1.63 (95% CI: 0.51 to 2.75)%, p = 0004; femoral neck WMD = 1.87 (95% CI: 0.14 to 3.60)%, p = 0.034; and total hip WMD = 0.39 (95% CI: 0.08 to 0.69)%, p = 0.013. Subgroups analyses indicated that the varying effects of isoflavones on BMD across the trials might be associated with intervention duration, racial diversity (Caucasian, Asian), time after menopause, form of supplements (especially genistein), and dose of isoflavones. Our review and meta-analysis suggest that soy isoflavones are effective in slowing down bone loss after menopause.