Little is known about the ongoing monkeypox (mpox) outbreak, and the clinical features of mpox in patients worldwide have not been rigorously analysed. Thus, we aimed to investigate the clinical features associated with mpox infection and understand the pathophysiology and characteristics of the disease. For this systematic review and meta-analysis, we searched PubMed/MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, Google Scholar, and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews for articles published till 16 September 2022. We used a random effects model to calculate the pooled prevalence and 95% confidence interval (CI). We used the I 2 statistic to assess heterogeneity, Egger's test to assess publication bias, 95% prediction interval to determine the level of uncertainty, and the Newcastle-

Background Although previous studies have provided data on early pandemic periods of alcohol and substance use in adolescents, more adequate studies are needed to predict the trends of alcohol and substance use during recent periods, including the mid-pandemic period. This study investigated the changes in alcohol and substance use, except tobacco use, throughout the pre-, early-, and mid-pandemic periods in adolescents using a nationwide serial cross-sectional survey from South Korea. Methods Data on 1,109,776 Korean adolescents aged 13–18 years from 2005 to 2021 were obtained in a survey operated by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency. We evaluated adolescents’ alcohol and substance consumption prevalence and compared the slope of alcohol and substance prevalence before and during the COVID-19 pandemic to see the trend changes. We define the pre-COVID-19 period as consisting of four groups of consecutive years (2005–2008, 2009–2012, 2013–2015, and 2016–2019). The COVID-19 pandemic period is composed of 2020 (early-pandemic era) and 2021 (mid-pandemic era). Results More than a million adolescents successfully met the inclusion criteria. The weighted prevalence of current alcohol use was 26.8% [95% confidence interval (CI) 26.4–27.1] from 2005 to 2008 and 10.5% (95% CI 10.1–11.0) in 2020 and 2021. The weighted prevalence of substance use was 1.1% (95% CI 1.1–1.2) from 2005 to 2008 and 0.7% (95% CI 0.6–0.7) between 2020 and 2021. From 2005 to 2021, the overall trend of use of both alcohol and drugs was found to decrease, but the decline has slowed since COVID-19 epidemic (current alcohol use: β diff 0.167; 95% CI 0.150–0.184; substance use: β diff 0.152; 95% CI 0.110–0.194). The changes in the slope of current alcohol and substance use showed a consistent slowdown with regard to sex, grade, residence area, and smoking status from 2005 to 2021. Conclusion The overall prevalence of alcohol consumption and substance use among over one million Korean adolescents from the early and mid-stage (2020–2021) of the COVID-19 pandemic showed a slower decline than expected given the increase during the prepandemic period (2005–2019). Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12519-023-00715-9.

Currently, many cases of mpox patients living with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) have been reported. Immunocompromised mpox patients, including those living with HIV are noted for an increased risk for severe symptoms; however, existing studies did not focus on the statistical comparison of mpox outcomes associated with HIV. Thus, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to evaluate and compare the clinical manifestations of mpox in people living with HIV (PLWH) and people without HIV. In this systematic review and meta-analysis, PubMed/MEDLINE, Embase, and Google Scholar were searched up to March 7, 2023. A random effects model was used to calculate the pooled prevalence along with the 95% confidence intervals (CI), and the odds ratio and its corresponding 95% CIs were calculated to elucidate the significance of each clinical feature for mpox patients with and without HIV. In this study, we included 99 published papers with 2413 patients with mpox (median age, 35.5 years; PLWH n = 1151) from 27 countries across six continents. The odds ratio of the mpox outcomes with PLWH in

Background Although smoking is classified as a risk factor for severe COVID-19 outcomes, there is a scarcity of studies on prevalence of smoking during the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, this study aims to analyze the trends of prevalence of smoking in adolescents over the COVID-19 pandemic period. Methods The present study used data from middle to high school adolescents between 2005 and 2021 who participated in the Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-based Survey (KYRBS). We evaluated the smoking prevalence (ever or daily) by year groups and estimated the slope in smoking prevalence before and during the pandemic. Results A total of 1,137,823 adolescents participated in the study [mean age, 15.04 years [95% confidence interval (CI) 15.03–15.06]; and male, 52.4% (95% CI 51.7–53.1)]. The prevalence of ever smokers was 27.7% (95% CI 27.3–28.1) between 2005 and 2008 but decreased to 9.8% (95% CI 9.3–10.3) in 2021. A consistent trend was found in daily smokers, as the estimates decreased from 5.4% (95% CI 5.2–5.6) between 2005 and 2008 to 2.3% (95% CI 2.1–2.5) in 2021. However, the downward slope in the overall prevalence of ever smokers and daily smokers became less pronounced in the COVID-19 pandemic period than in the pre-pandemic period. In the subgroup with substance use, the decreasing slope in daily smokers was significantly more pronounced during the pandemic than during the pre-pandemic period. Conclusions The proportion of ever smokers and daily smokers showed a less pronounced decreasing trend during the pandemic. The findings of our study provide an overall understanding of the pandemic’s impact on smoking prevalence in adolescents. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12519-022-00673-8.