The aim of the present study was two-fold: Firstly, to estimate the prevalence of psychological distress among international students at a Hungarian university two years after the COVID-19 outbreak; and secondly, to identify its demographic and socioeconomic factors, with special regard to the students’ food-security status. A cross-sectional study using a self-administered questionnaire was carried out from 27 March to 3 July 2022 among international students at the University of Debrecen. The questionnaire included information on demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, food-security status (six-item United States Department of Agriculture Food Security Survey Module (USDA-FSSM)), and psychological distress (Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21)). Bivariate analysis was conducted to examine the potential associations between demographic/socioeconomic factors and psychological distress. Additionally, multiple logistic regression was employed to further analyze these associations. Of 398 participants, 42.2%, 48.7%, and 29.4% reported mild to extremely severe depression, anxiety, and stress, respectively. The ages 18–24 (AOR = 2.619; 95% CI: 1.206–5.689) and 25–29 (AOR = 2.663; 95% CI: 1.159–6.119), reporting a low perception of health status (AOR = 1.726; 95% CI: 1.081–2.755), and being food insecure (AOR = 1.984; 95% CI: 1.274–3.090) were significantly associated with depressive symptoms. Being female (AOR = 1.674; 95% CI: 1.090–2.571), reporting a low perception of health status (AOR = 1.736; 95% CI: 1.098–2.744), and being food insecure (AOR = 2.047; 95% CI: 1.327–3.157) were significantly associated with anxiety symptoms. Furthermore, being female (AOR = 1.702; 95% CI: 1.026–2.824)), living with roommates (AOR = 1.977; 95% CI: 1.075–3.635), reporting a low perception of health status (AOR = 2.840; 95% CI: 1.678–4.807), and being food insecure (AOR = 2.295; 95% CI:1.398–3.767) were significantly associated with symptoms of stress. Psychosocial programs combined with strategies to alleviate food insecurity are required to enhance international students’ mental health and well-being.

Chronic disease management is challenging in conflict settings, with fragmented health care systems and unstable access to health care. In Northwest Syria,

Background/Objectives: Despite the availability of highly effective medications, hypertension is among the most important risk factors for mortality. Because medication adherence is challenging worldwide, enhancing it to improve the prognosis of hypertension is useful. The aim of this study was to describe the prevalence of antihypertensive medication nonadherence among individuals aged 18–64 years in a deprived Hungarian population and its determinant factors, and to quantify the impact of antihypertensive medication nonadherence on premature mortality. Methods: We used data from a cohort of hypertensive individuals aged 18–64 years linked to the Health Insurance Fund’s medication purchasing data. The antihypertensive treatment adherence appropriateness (ATAP) was computed as the ratio of the observed time when a patient was properly treated to their observed survival time. ATAP was dichotomized by an observed mean of 0.872. Using adjusted odds ratios (AORs) from multivariate logistic regression models with 95% confidence intervals (CIs), we analyzed the factors influencing the mortality risk in 4962 participants over seven years of follow-up. Results: A total of 493 deaths occurred. An extremely high mortality risk was observed among patients with inappropriate adherence (AOR = 56.2, 95%CI: 41.9–75.4), which could be attributed partly to residual confounding. Significant protective factors were female sex and high education attainment. However, older age and all investigated comorbidities (diabetes mellitus, ischemic heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and cancer) were significantly associated with an increased risk of a lethal outcome. Similarly, smoking was also a risk factor. Conclusions: Our investigation revealed the following: (1) in the studied group of patients aged 18–64 years from an extremely disadvantaged Hungarian population, 87.2% of the person-time was covered by the appropriate redemption of medications; (2) nonadherence to medication was more common among younger adults, men, Roma people, current smokers, and COPD patients, whereas the likelihood of appropriate adherence was higher among patients with diabetes mellitus; (3) medication nonadherence was an extremely strong risk factor for a lethal outcome of HTN during the 7-year follow-up period; and (4) methods by which nonadherent patient behavior can be detected should be applied rigorously, and the detected nonadherence should be considered a signal for intervention to improve the prognosis of HTN.