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Objective: To assess the prevalence of excessive use of social media and associated factors, as well as possible health consequences in high school students in southern Brazil. Methods: This is a population-based cross-sectional study, conducted with high school students in the city of Rio Grande, RS. All students who were attending high school at the Federal Institute of Rio Grande do Sul, campus Rio Grande, were eligible for this research in the second semester of 2019. In total, 513 students participated in the study. The dependent variable was excessive use of social media, defined as more than five hours per day. Descriptive and bivariate analyses were carried out and the Poisson regression was used to verify associations, with robust adjustment of variance. Results: The prevalence of students who reported excessive use of social media was 35.9%. The groups that were most susceptible to excessive use of social media had the following profile: female, black/brown skin, aged between 18 and 20 years old, attending the first year of high school. Excessive use of social media was shown to be associated with smoking, risk of depression, anxiety and stress, high risk of suicide and drug use. Conclusions: More than a third of students used social media excessively. This behavior was associated with negative health outcomes.

The aim was to assess the presence of socioeconomic inequalities in the management of back pain among Brazilians. Cross-sectional study with data from the National Health Survey (2019). The management of back pain care was assessed using five outcomes: regular exercise; physiotherapy; use of medications or injections; integrative and complementary practice; regular follow-up with a health professional. The magnitude of inequalities of each outcome in relation to exposures (education and income) was estimated using two indices: slope index of inequality (SII) and concentration index (CIX). Of the 90,846 interviewees, 19,206 individuals (21.1%) reported some chronic back problem. The most prevalent outcomes were use of medications and injections (45.3%), physical exercise (26.3%) and regular follow-up with a health professional (24.7%). The existence of inequalities in the management of back pain in the Brazilian population was evident. The adjusted analysis showed that the richest and most educated performed two to three times more physical exercise, physiotherapy, integrative and complementary practices (ICPS) and regular follow-up with a health professional than the poorest and least educated. Absolute (SII) and relative (CIX) inequalities were significant for all outcomes.

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This article aims to investigate the association between remote work and Back Pain during the COVID-19 pandemic, and to analyze this relationship according to the body mass index. Population-based, cross-sectional study carried in two cities in southern Brazil, in individuals aged 18 years and over. Data were collected through household interviews from October to January 2020/21. Outcomes: back pain (cervical, thoracic, lumbar/acute, chronic) and pain intensity. Exposure variable: remote work. For the analyses, Poisson regression with robust adjustment for variance was used, stratified by BMI (eutrophic vs overweight/obese), and restricted to those who had worked in the past month. 1,016 had worked during the pandemic, average 42 years old (SD = 14), varying from 18 to 93 years. Remote work was performed by 7.7% of the individuals. Prevalence of back pain: 25.6% (95%CI: 19.5 to 31.7%). Overweight/obese remote workers felt pain acute cervical pain PR = 2.82 (95%CI: 1.15 to 6.92); chronic low back PR = 1.85 (95%CI: 1.04 to 3.29); acute thoracic PR = 1.81(95%CI: 3.76 to 8.68) compared to those who did not work. About one in four remote workers reported back pain during of the COVID-19 pandemic. BMI proved to be an important moderator between outcomes and exposure variable.