The post-menopausal stage in women's life is associated with the enhancement of inflammation that may be reduced using soy isoflavones or soy protein. The present study aimed to summarize the effect of soy isoflavones plus soy protein on circulating interleukin-6 (IL-6) and tumour necrosis factorα (TNFα) in post-menopausal women.The English-language articles were identified from the databases such as Cochrane Library, clinicaltrials.gov, Web of Science, PubMed, and Scopus until December 2020.The mean change from baseline and its standard deviation (SD) for intervention and comparison groups were used to calculate the effect size. The statistical heterogeneity of the intervention effects was computing by Cochran's Q test and I 2 statistic. Nine and seven studies were selected for systematic review and meta-analysis, respectively. The results of our meta-analysis indicated a non-significant effect on the serum concentrations of IL-6 and TNFα (weighted mean differences [WMD] = 0.07 pg/mL; 95% confidence interval [CI] = −0.03, 0.17 pg/mL; P = 0.190; WMD =0.05 pg/mL; 95% CI = −0.01, 0.12 pg/mL; P = 0.092; respectively). In subgroup analysis, soy isoflavones plus soy protein could increase the serum concentration of IL-6 in studies with soy isoflavones dose ≤87 mg/days, cross-over design, weak quality, and studies on participants who had health risk factors or diseases. The serum concentration of TNFα increased in studies with cross-over design, intervention duration ≤56 days, and body mass index (BMI) >27, and in studies that were conducted on at-risk or sick participants. In conclusion, our meta-analysis did not confirm any significant effect on serum concentration of IL-6 and TNFα among post-menopausal women.

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Background: Household food insecurity (HFI) which has still been one of the major global public health issues is related to adverse health outcomes in individuals. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the prevalence of HFI and its associated factors in Iranian patients with esophageal and gastric cancers. Methods: The data of this cross-sectional study was obtained from 315 patients with esophageal and gastric cancers who were selected from a gastrointestinal cancer-based cohort study conducted in Firoozgar hospital, in Tehran. Food insecurity (FI) was measured using the Iranian version of the HFI questionnaire that was completed by a trained interviewer. The multivariable logistic regression model was used to determine the independent association of each factor with HFI. A P value lower than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: The mean±SD of participants’ age was 63.2±12.6 years and 65.4% were men. Most of the patients (75.8%) suffered from gastric cancer and 24.2% from esophageal cancer. The overall prevalence of FI among participants’ households was 35.2%. There was an independent significant association between wealth index (WI) and HFI after the use of the multivariable logistic regression model, in such a way that the odds of FI in the poorest, poor, moderate, and rich patients’ households were respectively, 6.41, 5.05, 2.74 and 2.04 times higher compared with the richest households. Conclusion: More than a third of participants’ households struggled with FI, which was found to have a higher prevalence in loweconomic households. Therefore, health policymakers should intervene in food-insecure households by developing, establishing, and implementing strategies and control programs to improve affordable food access.

Some studies proposed the anti‐inflammatory effect of soy protein and soy isoflavones by changing the serum adiponectin and resistin levels. The purpose of this research was to determine the impact of soy isoflavones and soy protein on blood adiponectin and resistin levels in adults. Scopus, PubMed, Cochrane Library, ISI Web of Science, and http://ClinicalTrials.gov databases were searched until April 2022. The effect size was computed by the mean changes from the beginning for intervention and comparison groups and their standard deviation. In the case of significant heterogeneity, DerSimonian and Laird random‐effects model was used. Six and five clinical trials were selected for the systematic review and meta‐analysis, respectively. The overall estimate indicated that soy isoflavones in combination with soy protein did not significantly change serum adiponectin level (weighted mean differences (WMD) = 0.36 μg/ml; 95% confidence interval (CI): −0.26, 0.99; p = .25), but significantly increased serum resistin level (WMD = 0.64 ng/ml, 95% CI: 0.25, 1.04; p = .001). In combination with soy protein, soy isoflavones nonsignificantly increased serum adiponectin levels, but significantly increased resistin levels. New intervention studies with a high dose of soy isoflavones and soy protein in different parts of the world and an updated meta‐analysis are needed to confirm the results of our study.

Background: Since the onset of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the world, healthcare workers have been exposed to this virus due to their important roles and responsibilities in the care and treatment of patients with COVID-19. In this regard, doing risk assessments in healthcare centres helps significantly to control and reduce COVID-19. Therefore, this study aimed to assess COVID-19 risk and its association with clinical symptoms among healthcare workers in Neyshabur. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted among 483 healthcare workers of Neyshabur medical centres in 2020. In order to collect the data, a checklist consisting of three sections of demographic variables, risk assessment and clinical symptoms was used. Statistical analyses were performed by using the STATA software version 14. The significance level was set at P<0.05. Results: The mean ± standard deviation age of the study population was 34.2 ± 8.4 years. Out of 483 participants, 55 (11.4%) were identified as high-risk exposure category, 52 (10.8%) as medium-risk category and 77 (15.9%) as low-risk category. According to multiple logistic regression models, it was observed that cough (odds ratio (OR)=2.2; P=0.001), running nose (OR=3.3; P<0.001), suffocation (OR=3.2; P<0.001), shivering (OR=3.4; P=0.001), nausea (OR=3.3; P=0.001), vomiting (OR=7.2; P=0.025), diarrhoea (OR=3.0; P=0.001), muscular pain (OR=2.1; P=0.005), joint pain (OR=2.2; P=0.005) and fatigue (OR=2.1; P=0.003) were significantly associated with risk assessment. Conclusions: The findings showed that more than one-fifth of studied healthcare workers were at high or medium-risk exposure of COVID-19. Cough and fatigue had the most frequencies in healthcare workers with high or medium-risk exposure, and also, vomiting and shivering had a stronger association with risk assessment status.