<p>Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is a chronic microvascular complication of diabetes. Due to the dramatic increase in the number of diabetes cases, the prevalence of DR has also risen, making it the leading cause of blindness among the working-age population worldwide, despite the availability of screenings and modern therapeutic options. Risk factors for the development and progression of DR (duration of diabetes, hypertension, hyperglycemia, dyslipidemia, and genetic factors) have been investigated in numerous epidemiological studies and clinical researches, but the research results were not consistent. In recent years, there has been considerable interest in the study of dyslipidemia in diabetes as one of the factors that could influence the onset and progression of DR, as well as apolipoproteins as potentially better biomarkers for DR. The results of our research also point in that direction. Identifying the risk factors for DR is crucial for enabling adequate prevention and raising awareness among individuals with diabetes about the importance of taking appropriate measures to prevent this microvascular complication.</p>

<p><strong>Introduction. </strong>Long-term care is series of health and social care services provided at home or in an institutional environment to people with reduced functional capacity. Even though it is known that the quality of life (QoL) of elderly is on a lower level when compared to younger people, there is a small amount of information about QoL of long-term health care patients. The aim of our study was to determine the difference in QoL, depression, anxiety and stress of longterm health care users placed in and outside the institution.</p> <p><strong>Methods.</strong> This cross-sectional study included 100 long-term healthcare users, divided in two groups. First group consisted of 50 respondents from primary level of health care and second group consisted of 50 residents of nursing home. The research was conducted in the period from June to July 2022. A general socio-demographic questionnaire, SF-36 health questionnaire for estimating the QoL and the scale of depression, anxiety and stress (DASS-21) were used as instruments in this study.</p> <p><strong>Results. </strong>Respondents who were institutionalized had significantly lower values of domains and summary scores of QoL compared to respondents whose health care took place outside of institutions, where the difference was observed in physical health summary score (37.67&plusmn;6.20% vs. 50.39&plusmn;10.74%, p&lt;0.001), and the mental health summary score (44.87&plusmn;11.82% vs. 51.83&plusmn;16.01%, p =0.015). Respondents who received long-term health care institutionally had significantly (p=0.011) more mild anxiety (12%) and moderate anxiety (34%) compared to respondents who received long-term health care outside the institution (4% vs. 14%).</p> <p><strong>Conclusion. </strong>Our results showed that residents of nursing home had significantly worse physical and mental functioning, as well as more frequent occurrence of anxiety symptoms compared to users of longterm health care placed outside institutions, in home environment.</p>

The pandemic of COVID-19 has brought many changes in health care systems at all levels of health care. The increase in the number of cases of COVID-19 has led to overuse and misuse of antibiotics.The aim of this study was to compare the consumption of antibiotics for systemic use in outpatients in the Republic of Srpska (RS), before and during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the association between antibiotic consumption and the rate of incidence and mortality of COVID-19. The total consumption of the antibiotics for systemic use (J01) in outpatients in the Republic of Srpska during 2019 was 19.40 DDD/TID, with an increase to 30.80 DDD/TID in 2020.Significantly higher use of penicillin (10.58 ± 11.01 DDD/TID in 2019 vs. 17.10 ± 13.63 DDD/TID in 2020), cephalosporins (2.68 ± 1.90 DDD/TID in 2019 vs. 5.93 ± 2.77 DDD/TID in 2020) and macrolides (2.14 ± 2.22 DDD/TID in 2019 vs. 3.40 ± 3.44 DDD/TID in 2020) was observed during the pandemic period. It is necessary to improve the prescribing practice of antibiotics at the primary health care level, public awareness about rational use of antibiotics, as well as the current antibiotic stewardship programs and control their implementation.