The impact of excessive exposure to electronic devices (ED) on youth health remains understudied. There is a pressing need to develop recommendations for the safe use of stationary and mobile ED aimed at minimizing health risks. In this work, we assess the effect of ED on the physical growth and development of high-school and university students and provide recommendations for preventing the negative impact of prolonged screen time on health. The study recruited 460 high-school and 598 university students. Standard anthropometric measurements were taken. The psychological and emotional state of the participants was evaluated using the Test Anxiety Inventory by Spielberg (modified by Khanin). To estimate daily and weekly exposure to ED the participants were asked to fill out standardized questionnaires. In high school students, the average screen time was 7 h a day; in university students, 8.5 to 10 h a day. Only 60% of the participants, regardless of their place of residence or the type of educational institution they were attending, were physically healthy. We conclude that prolonged and frequent exposure to ED is one of the factors that can interfere with normal physical growth and development in youth. Regular daily use of stationary ED increases the risk of developing body weight deficit by 24% and gaining excess body weight by 10%. We recommend that students should eliminate computers, laptops and stationary ED from their daily activities for at least one day at the weekend and reduce total screen time to 3 hours a day.

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Nowadays, the aging of the population is one of the most important social problems, which in many ways changes the economic, industrial and social relations of the modern world. There are five groups of risk factors for aging: the genetic factor, the way of life, work, the environment, the level of medicine. In different countries, in different cities of the same country, the distribution of the share of influence of aging risk factors on the human body is different. Depending on which of the five groups of risk factors are assumed to be a priority in the region under study, this aspect should be addressed by the organizational, medical, financial and preventive activities of the necessary structures of the region. In this paper, an attempt was made to identify the priority group of aging factors of the human body, characteristic of the Voronezh region. In doing so, we carry out a comparative analysis of the priority group of aging factors in the human body, with a distinction between urban and rural populations. The conducted research is especially important for the Voronezh region since it is one of the ten most unfavorable subjects of Russia in terms of demographic aging. So in Voronezh in 2016 the proportion of elderly people (60 years and older) accounts for 17%. In our work, the degree of aging of the population was determined using the method of determining the biological age developed by Voitenko V.P. The essence of the work was to determine the degree of aging of each participant in the study using the Voitenko V.P. method, taking into account his level of health, lifestyle, financial support. All respondents were divided into two groups. The first group includes elderly people who live in the city; the second group was the rural population. In conclusion of the work, a comparative analysis of the two groups was made in terms of the degree of aging of the population, highlighting the priority risk factor characteristic of the Voronezh region.

Introduction: Urban population is exposed to a combined effect of physical risk factors. A large number of young people in­ crease their noise exposure by listening to audio files using headphones. Objective: To study health effects of using headphones in schoolchildren and students. Materials and methods: In 2019–2020, a questionnaire-based survey of 800 secondary school children and students (345 boys and 455 girls aged 13–20 years) was conducted in the cities of Moscow, Voronezh, and Izhevsk. The inclusion criteria were young age (a pupil/student), a signed informed consent, and no experience (for controls) or a year or more of experience in using headphones with portable electronic devices (for cases). The questionnaire data were analyzed using the statistical analysis software Statistica 10.0 to estimate contingency coefficients and relative risks and to build regression models. Results: We established that listening to audio files at full volume, using headphones in public transport, and having no headphones-free day a week posed significant health risks for young people: the relative risk of hearing impairment attributed to an every-day use of headphones at maximum volume was 3.20 (95 % confidence interval, 2.40–5.21). Conclusions: We established risk factors affecting wellbeing and hearing loss in young people. Since these factors manageable, they should be considered in health education of schoolchildren and students.