Economic Issues Research Articles

CircRNA expression profiles and regulatory networks in the vitreous humor of people with high myopia

Myopia is a global health and economic issue. Circular RNAs (circRNAs) have been shown to play an important role in the pathogenesis of many ocular diseases. We first evaluated the circRNA profiles and possible roles in vitreous humor samples of individuals with high myopia by a competitive endogenous RNA (ceRNA) array. Vitreous humor samples were collected from 15 high myopic (5 for ceRNA array, and 10 for qPCR) and 15 control eyes (5 for ceRNA array, and 10 for qPCR) with idiopathic epiretinal membrane (ERM) and macular hole (MH). 486 circRNAs (339 upregulated and 147 downregulated) and 264 mRNAs (202 upregulated and 62 downregulated) were differentially expressed between the high myopia and control groups. The expression of hsa_circ_0033079 (hsa-circDicer1), hsa_circ_0029989 (hsa-circNbea), hsa_circ_0019072 (hsa-circPank1) and hsa_circ_0089716 (hsa-circEhmt1) were validated by qPCR. Pearson analysis and multivariate regression analysis showed positive and significant correlations for axial length with hsa-circNbea and hsa-circPank1. KEGG analysis showed that the target genes of circRNAs were enriched in the mTOR, insulin, cAMP, and VEGF signaling pathways. GO analysis indicated that circRNAs mainly targeted transcription, cytoplasm, and protein binding. CircRNA-associated ceRNA network analysis and PPI network analysis identified several critical genes for myopia. The expression of circNbea, circPank1, miR-145-5p, miR-204-5p, Nras, Itpr1 were validated by qPCR in the sclera of form-deprivation myopia (FDM) mice model. CircPank1/miR-145-5p/NRAS and circNbea/miR-204-5p/ITPR1 were identified and may be important in the progression of myopia. Our findings suggest that circRNAs may contribute to the pathogenesis of myopia and may serve as potential biomarkers.

The impact of BMI on life expectancy in Portugal

The overweight represents a serious public health problem in Portugal, with a prevalence that exceeds 50%. Obesity-related diseases constitute the health system's main causes of death and economic issues. Despite this, there is no consensus on the relationship between the Body Mass Index (BMI) and the risk of early mortality. In this context, assessing the impact of the average BMI on life expectancy in Portugal is important. A retrospective cross-sectional observational study was carried out using an Autoregressive Distributed Lag model. The dependent variable is life expectancy at birth, expressed in the total years obtained from the World Development Indicators (WDI). The independent variables are: (i) the average BMI of the population (calculated based on the average male and female BMI obtained from Our World in Data); and (ii) the total population obtained from the WDI. The population's mean BMI variable limited the study's time horizon, comprising annual statistical data from 1975 to 2016. The increase in BMI negatively affects the life expectancy of the Portuguese population in the short term. A 1% variation in BMI reflects a 1.98% reduction in life expectancy. The result was statistically significant at 1%, and the p-value was 0.0001. In the long term, there was no statistically significant effect of the mean BMI on the population's life expectancy. Also, in the long term, population growth has a positive and statistically significant effect on life expectancy. Although there is no consensus in the literature that BMI is associated with increased mortality, the results obtained through this model captured this trend in Portugal in the short term. Therefore, promoting life expectancy by improving the Portuguese's health and quality of life is necessary. The adoption of measures that favor the recovery or maintenance of normal weight is essential.

Content development for a new item-bank for measuring multifocal contact lens performance

BackgroundPresbyopia is an age-related condition that causes a decreased ability to focus on nearby objects. Multifocal contact lenses are commonly used to address this issue. However, there seems to be a notable dissatisfaction among multifocal contact lens wearers. The absence of a reliable instrument to measure the patient’s perspective, despite the widespread use of this method, highlights the need for further research in this area.ObjectiveThe objective of this study is to develop an item-bank integrating all domains necessary to assess the patient’s perspective on multifocal contact lens performance, offering a comprehensive measure. The item-bank will ensure a high level of content validity, be self-administered, and will initially be available in Spanish. The aim of this tool is to serve as a valuable resource for research and optometric clinics, facilitating the follow-up of patients with presbyopia who wear multifocal contact lenses or those who are newly starting to use them.MethodologyThe MCL-PRO item bank, followed a systematic and step-wise inductive approach to gather information, following the recommendations outlined in the COSMIN guidelines and similar studies. The process involved the following steps: (1) Literature review and relevant existing items identification (2) Social media review, (3) Semi-structured focus groups, (4) performing qualitative analysis, (5) refining and revising the items, and (6) generating the content of the item bank.ResultsA total of 575 items were included in the item-bank hosted under 8 different domains that were found to be important for presbyopic population: visual symptoms (213), activity limitation (111), ocular symptoms (135), convenience (36), emotional well-being (33), general symptoms (16), cognitive issues (21) and economic issues (10).ConclusionThe item-bank created has followed standardised methodology for its development and encloses all the aspects for MCL performance evaluation from patients perspective.

Grief processes in the COVID-19 pandemic: narrative review

In March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a global pandemic for Covid-19, a disease caused by the new coronavirus. Several sanitary measures had to be adopted to prevent the contagion and spread of the virus, in addition to countless changes and adaptations in daily life, which generated several symbolic losses and also loss of human life, especially in Brazil. Thus, the present study seeks to analyze scientific production on the issue relating to grief and the pandemic, in order to investigate the main aspects and developments of grief, as well as possible questions and attempted answers and suggested solutions. To this end, the narrative review method was used. The electronic databases Portal de Periódicos of CAPES, Scielo and Pepsic were consulted, using the keywords “mourning”; pandemic"; “psychology” in the period from 2020 to 2022. After reading the articles found in the databases, 24 articles published in Brazil were selected, which, after qualitative assessment, resulted in the elaboration of four thematic categories, namely: “Loss and grief in the context of pandemic : care strategies”; “Mourning as a political event and collective experience”; “Psychology practices during the pandemic: adaptations and possibilities” and “Complicating elements in the grieving processes”. Analyzing the scientific production on grief during the Covid-19 pandemic allowed us to take a look at how some processes were experienced in this unique and, in many ways, challenging historical moment. Science played a crucial role in responding to urgent social, psychological, health demands, among others, that emerged daily. The scientific production on grief and pandemic between the years 2020 and 2022 presented several contributions to give us a glimpse into strategies for caring for psychological suffering, about the possibilities of exercising psychology in the face of a new reality, especially in a remote environment, and about some elements complications in the grieving process. Furthermore, a very important contribution of the studies was the analysis that mourning in the Covid-19 pandemic was an event crossed by political, social, cultural and economic issues, and was also a collective experience.

Accounting for intangibles: a critical review

PurposeIn 2000, Cañibano et al. published a literature review entitled “Accounting for Intangibles: A Literature Review”. This paper revisits the conclusions drawn in that paper. We also discuss the intervening developments in scholarly research, standard setting and practice over the past 20+ years to outline the future challenges for research into accounting for intangibles.Design/methodology/approachWe conducted a literature review to identify past developments and link the findings to current accounting standard-setting developments to inform our view of the future.FindingsCurrent intangibles accounting practices are conservative and unlikely to change. Accounting standard setters are more interested in how companies report and disclose the value of intangibles rather than changing how they are determined. Standard setters are also interested in accounting for new forms of digital assets and reporting economic, social, governance and sustainability issues and how these link to financial outcomes. The IFRS has released complementary sustainability accounting standards for disclosing value creation in response to the latter. Therefore, the topic of intangibles stretches beyond merely how intangibles create value but how they are also part of a firm’s overall risk and value creation profile.Practical implicationsThere is much room academically, practically, and from a social perspective to influence the future of accounting for intangibles. Accounting standard setters and alternative standards, such as the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and European Union non-financial and sustainability reporting directives, are competing complementary initiatives.Originality/valueOur results reveal a window of opportunity for accounting scholars to research and influence how intangibles and other non-financial and sustainability accounting will progress based on current developments.

Demanded interdisciplinary subjects for integration in medical education program from the point of view of graduated medical physicians and senior medical students: a nationwide mixed qualitative-quantitative study from Iran

IntroductionThis study aimed to detect interdisciplinary subjects for integration into the medical education program of Iran.MethodsA qualitative-quantitative method was used. Firstly, interdisciplinary subjects demanded by medical graduates and senior medical students were defined by qualitative study. In the second stage, questionnaire was developed which based on the findings of qualitative stage, experts’ opinion and reviewing of the national general guide of professional ethics for medical practitioners. Questionnaire consisted of demographic, occupational and thirteen interdisciplinary items. These items consisted of social determinants of health, social and economic consequences of disease, social prescribing, physicians’ social responsibility, role of gender, racial, ethnic, social and economic issues in approach to patients, role of logic and mathematics in clinical decision-making, philosophy of medicine, maintaining work-life balance, self-anger management, national laws of medicine, religious law in medical practice, health system structure, and teamwork principles. Level and importance of knowledge and self-assessed educational needs were asked about each item. In the third stage, a national online survey was conducted. SPSS 25 was used for statistics.ResultsBy content analysis of data in qualitative stage, 36 sub-themes and 7 themes were extracted. In the quantitative part, 3580 subjects from 41 medical universities across Iran participated in this study. 2896 (80.9%) were medical graduates and 684 (19.1%) were senior medical students. Overall, knowledge about interdisciplinary items was low to intermediate, while high to very high knowledge ranged from maximally 38.7% about socioeconomic consequences of disease to minimally 17.2% about social prescribing. Participants gave the most importance to the having knowledge about self-anger management (88.3%), maintaining work-life balance (87.2%) and social determinants of health (85.8%), respectively. However, national laws of medicine (77.6%), maintaining work-life balance (75.4%) and self-anger management (74%) were the first top three educational demands by participants.ConclusionThis study revealed a low to moderate level of knowledge about interdisciplinary topics among both graduated medical physicians and senior medical students. These groups showed a strong demand and tendency to know and to be educated about these topics. These findings underscore the urgency for educational reforms to meet the interdisciplinary needs of medical professionals in Iran.

Dispositional awe negatively predicts corruption via the sense of connectedness.

Corruption is a political and economic issue that has a detrimental impact on social and economic development. This study investigated the predictive effect of dispositional awe on corruption, and the underlying mechanisms from the perspective of connectedness. A sample of 548 (Nfemale = 371) individuals, aged between 16 and 71 years old (M = 21.18, SD = 3.39), was collected. Participants completed scales to measure dispositional awe, the sense of connectedness, corruption, and social desirability. Structural equation modelling and a bootstrap procedure were used to analyze the relationship between the variables. Results showed that dispositional awe negatively predicted corruption, including the tendencies for giving and accepting bribes, and this could be explained by the sense of connectedness, after controlling for the effect of social desirability. The findings highlight the significance of dispositional awe in relation to corruption, enhance our understanding of the underlying mechanisms connecting the two variables, and provide practical implications for the prevention of corruption.

Sloboda kretanja radnika i Otvoreni Balkan

The concept of Open Balkan emerged four years ago among high-ranking officials of Balkan countries, driven by the aspiration for increased cooperation in economic and other vital areas. The collaboration between Serbia, North Macedonia, and Albania aims to tackle socio-economic challenges, fostering regional cooperation for better state integration and the joint use of resources to combat unemployment and economic issues. This initiative has led to various agreements and acts forming the legal framework, mirroring the European Union’s values of unrestricted movement of people, goods, capital, and services. Key areas include establishing a single market, recognizing diplomas and qualifications, introducing administrative benefits in employment, and streamlining work permits. Facilitating free labor market access reduces emigration and aligns labor supply and demand across sectors. The construction of a unified labor market involves implementing an electronic system for identifying and applying for freelance jobs within the regional Union, serving as a potent tool for migration control and addressing labor shortages in specific professions.

Analysis of Students’ Creative Thinking Ability by Utilizing the Environment in Economics Subjects at SMA Negeri 1 Air Sugihan, Ogan Komering Ilir

In this study at SMA Negeri 1 Air Suguhan Organ Komering Ilir, we examined students’ imaginative capacity to utilize the environment for economic issues. The question of this research was how the environmental changes of SMA Negeri 1 Air Suguhan Ogan Komering Ilir could be applied to the creative thinking abilities of students for business problems. The factors in this think about were imagination considering and environment. An expressive strategy was utilized in this consideration. The test comprised of his 53 understudies from SMA Negeri 1 Air Suguhan Ogan Komering Ilir. Data were collected through observation, questioning, and documentation. As a result of perception, it was found that students’ inventive considering is composed of five markers. Fluency standard is “very good” (83.76%), flexible skill standard is “very good” (89.1%), creative skill standard is “very good” (83.76%) “good” (79.25%).

Is Milei a populist? People and market in the new radical right in Argentina

ABSTRACT The electoral rise of Milei, that brought him up to the presidency of Argentina in 2023, has run in parallel with discussions about his use of populist ideas. Overall, Milei is characterised by his emphasis on economic issues, with an extreme pro-market position based on the Austrian school, but he also stands out for a strong anti-establishment discourse. While observers may consider these appeals as populist, a categorisation based on just this feature could be premature given the multidimensional nature of populism. This article tests the importance of populism in the discourse of Milei displaying an empirical strategy based on the holistic grading of key political discourses. Main results indicate that Milei’s discourse is partially populist because it lacks a people-centred vision, even one anchored in market rationality. We expect these results will facilitate comparisons of the Argentinian case with other Latin-American cases in which populism and neoliberalism seem to be mutually reinforcing.

Consideration of Multi-Objective Stochastic Optimization in Inter-Annual Optimization Scheduling of Cascade Hydropower Stations

There exists a temporal and spatial coupling effect among the hydropower units in cascade hydropower stations which constitutes a complex planning problem. Researching the multi-objective optimization scheduling of cascade hydropower stations under various spatiotemporal inflow impacts is of significant importance. Previous studies have typically only focused on the economic dispatch issues of cascade hydropower stations, with little attention given to their coupling mechanism models and the uncertainty impacts of inflows. Firstly, this paper establishes a coupled optimization scheduling model for cascade hydropower stations and elaborates on the operational mechanism of cascade hydropower stations. Secondly, according to the needs of actual scenarios, two types of optimization objectives are set, considering both the supply adequacy and peak-shaving capacity as indicators, with the total residual load and the peak-valley difference of the residual load as comprehensive optimization objectives. Subsequently, considering the uncertainty impact of the inflow side, a stochastic optimization model for inflow is established based on a normal distribution probability. Finally, case study analyses demonstrate that the proposed model not only effectively achieves supply stability but also reduces the peak-valley difference in load, and can achieve optimized scheduling under the uncertain environment of inflow.

The environmental dimension in urban legislation in Belém/PA: the neighborhood impact study in the master plan

The Master Plan is an urban policy instrument that aims to guide city planning. This tool encompasses economic, social, political and environmental issues. Within this context, this research seeks to make a brief analysis of the environmental dimension of the Belém Master Plan, specifically the issue of the Neighborhood Impact Study - NIS. In order to achieve the proposed objective, we will use the methodology of bibliographical and documentary research. At the end, some observations will be made on the environmental issue, the Neighborhood Impact Study, within the aforementioned Master Plan, noting the need to improve the institute.

Qualitative ethical technology assessment of artificial intelligence (AI) and the internet of things (IoT) among filipino Gen Z members: implications for ethics education in higher learning institutions

ABSTRACT The primary aim of this paper is to identify the knowledge and perceptions of the Gen Z Filipino students about the forms and ethics of artificial intelligence (AI) and the internet of things (IoT). It likewise describes their experiences in the use of said technologies. The Gen Z population is considered the most exposed to AI and IoT. This paper is based on four focus group discussions (FGDs) with 28 university students. Results have revealed that the Gen Z participants consider the potential threats and challenges of AI and IoT to humanity which include privacy, confidentiality, and anonymity. In addition, the ethical challenges associated with AI and IoT pose the risks not only to data privacy but to security as well. Gen Z students suggest that people’s understanding of these technologies can be hastened through proper education and techno capacity-building. This implies that teaching ethics in HEIs needs to tackle ethical issues of technology and relate them to social, environmental, health, and economic issues.

Use of mHealth in promoting maternal and child health in "BIMARU" states of India "A health system strengthening strategy": Systematic literature review.

Low-middle income countries like India bear a heavier burden of maternal, childcare, and child mortality rates when compared with high-income countries, which highlights the disparity in global health. Numerous societal, geopolitical, economic, and institutional issues have been linked to this inequality. mHealth has the potential to ameliorate these challenges by providing health services and health-related information with the assistance of frontline workers in the provision of prepartum, delivery, and postnatal care to improve maternal and child health outcomes in hard-to-reach areas in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). However, there is limited evidence to support how mHealth can strengthen maternal and child health in India. The scoping review guideline in the Cochrane Handbook was used to retrieve studies from 4 international databases: CINAHL, Embase, Medline Ovid, and PubMed. This search strategy used combined keywords (MeSH terms) related to maternal and child healthcare, mHealth, and BIMARU in conjunction with database-controlled vocabulary. Out of 278 records, 8 publications were included in the review. The included articles used mHealth for data collection, eLearning, communication, patient monitoring, or tracking to deliver maternal and neonatal care. The results of these papers reflected a favourable effect of mHealth on the target population and found that it altered their attitudes and behaviours about healthcare. Higher job satisfaction and self-efficiency were reported by mHealth user care providers. Multiple barriers to the acceptance of mHealth exist, but the majority of the evidence points towards the feasibility of the intervention in a clinical setting. The mHealth has positive potential for improving maternal and child health outcomes in low-resource settings in India's BIMARU states by strengthening the healthcare system. The results of the study could be used in the tailoring of an effective mHealth intervention and implementation strategy in a similar context. However, there is a need for economic evaluation in the future to bridge the knowledge gap regarding the cost-effectiveness of mHealth interventions.

Heterogenous treatment effects of a voluntary Inclusionary Zoning program on housing prices

Housing affordability remains a social and economic issue in New Zealand. Affordability policies such as Inclusionary Zoning have been promoted to streamline land delivery and boost the housing supply. This paper takes the Special Housing Areas (SHA) programme implemented in Auckland, New Zealand, as a case of a voluntary IZ, and explores the effects on the distribution of housing prices. We rely on a Difference-in-Difference framework as the general identification strategy to estimate quantile treatment effects. We use about 175 thousand sales transactions between September 2011 and September 2016. Considering all transactions, the results show that the SHAs program failed to reduce housing prices across the distribution; and, even in some cases, prices increased. We also find that, for new dwellings, the program decreased prices at the lower end of the distribution while increasing them at the upper end. We argue that the mechanism driving these results is the construction of larger dwellings in the upper part of the distribution. As the SHAs did not involve a mandatory mechanism for affordability purposes, we argue that non-affordable dwellings were built and delivered in the first place with the added price premium of a streamlined delivery. Therefore, as an example of a voluntary IZ program, the SHAs may have stimulated supply, but numerous implications arise as improvements in affordability are negligible or questionable.

Towards "All-round Cadres": Policy Priorities and Issue Diversity of Local Bureaucrats in China, 2005–19

Abstract: How do Chinese local political elites prioritise their attention in the one-party system? This study examines the issue diversity among China's local cadres by analysing the agendas of 707 local Party secretaries during their daily official activities from 2005 to 2019. Findings reveal that political and economic issues significantly dominate the secretaries' attention, overshadowing other niche topics. Yet after the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in 2012, there has been an increase in the secretaries' focus on Party affairs while there has been a decline in their focus on economic issues, leading to fragmented attention and disproportionate changes. These findings not only highlight the tension between the broader Party reforms and the actual responses of local officials, but also suggest the CPC's efforts to reshape the bureaucratic system by transforming local cadres into "all-rounders" capable of addressing diverse challenges while maintaining strong political leadership and loyalty.

Global renewable energy trade network: patterns and determinants.

The renewable energy product trade is critically important to global economic prospects and its rapid development, making it a key issue in international economics of much interest to scholars. Previous studies have paid attention to bilateral trade, yet we still know little about the patterns of renewable energy product trade and its evolution from the whole industry perspective. Based on bilateral trade data, complex network, as well as ERGM and TERGM, we build global renewable energy trade networks (GRETNs) during 2000-2018 and explore the patterns and determinants. The results show that (1) the GRETNs expand during 2000-2018, characterized by a small-world, reciprocity, degree disassortative, and export volume heterogeneity. (2) The GRETNs form four communities, and the community patterns greatly fluctuate over time. (3) Economies in North America, Europe, and Asia play dominant roles, while the USA, Germany, and China are the cores of the GRETNs. (4) Endogenous structure of reciprocity, structural embeddedness, and out-degree popularity are essential parts of the evolving patterns of GRETNs. Most trade relationships are developed between economies located within the same continent, participating in APEC or WTO, or having similar areas. There is heterophily in GDP and per capita income, and Matthew effects in GDP, urbanization, and industrialization rate. Countries that share a common geographic border, language, religion, or currency, being former colonies of the same colonialists, and having signed regional trade agreements are more likely to trade in renewable energy products.

Economic feasibility study for the expansion of the Cyprus aquaculture sector: A roadmap for transition to offshore in the Mediterranean Sea

Global demand for seafood is constantly increasing, driven by population growth and rising per capita consumption. While wild-capture fisheries are facing limitations in meeting this demand, the expansion of aquaculture emerges as the only solution. This paper investigates the potential for increasing the aquaculture production in the Republic of Cyprus by transitioning towards offshore aquaculture farms. The model developed provides a valuable roadmap for offshore transitions in Mediterranean near-coast areas. The study includes a detailed economic analysis coupled with sensitivity analysis to assess the feasibility of this transition considering various expansion scenarios. The results provide valuable insights into the viability and implications of this process, highlighting economic and operational issues.

Trends and Focuses for ESG Investment Support: A Cross Country Comparative Analysis

Currently, the modern society faces a measure of challenges, connected with the lack of balance between the economic and social development issue. This has caused the growing recognition of sustainable and responsible practices within the financial decisions making process, providing a measure of transformations of both financial and business landscape, contributing to a more equitable and environmentally conscious society. The modern researches in finance are significantly influenced by the increasing demand for ESG, the strengthening of ESG principles implementation in wealth and assets management. According to PwC researches, the ESG-oriented assets under management market in Europe is already about 172 % in compartment with 2021 year, the forecasted increase till 2026 year will be nearly 50 % comparing to the current volume. Thereby, there is an urgent need to summarize the theoretical descriptions of ESG investing along with the current trends of particular ESG components transformation along with the considering analytical research on trends and focuses for ESG investing’s support. The current research problem lays in the highlighting the functionality of ESG-oriented activity and its investment attractiveness trough the overview of theoretical definitions of ESG, comparing with the Trends and focuses for ESG investing’s support within the representative sampling on countries from the World Bank’s databases. The study is focused on the detailed analysis of separate indicators within a group of ten different countries. “Agricultural land”, “Electricity production from coal sources” and “CO2 emissions” indicators are analyzed within the environmental component. The social component of ESG is represented by the “Government expenditure on education” and “Individuals using the Internet” indicators. The “Regulatory Quality”, “Rule of Law” and “Voice and Accountability” indicators are considered as a part of governmental component. The chosen countries (Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, Norway, Poland, Ukraine, United Kingdom and the United States of America) represent deferent environment and approaches to ESG management and its investment support. The current research aims to represent the possibility to balance the ESG components, creating synergetic effect in case of their combinations. In particular, the attention is paid to the instruments of monetary and fiscal policy to balance ESG in the COVID-19 time. The elaboration of possible scenarios of ESG’s components balancing is possible in case of implementation of systematic measures to monitor debt sustainability and increase the transparency of banking institutions' balance sheets along with the developing the targeted measures to maintain an adequate level of liquidity and solvency of national economies, and coordination of national strategies and policies 
 Keywords: sustainable development, sustainable finance, ESG investing, social-responsible business

Substance Abuse and Sleep Quality in University Students.

Substance abuse remains a challenging public health issue, especially among young people. It has been shown that poor sleep and substance abuse may have mutual intensifying effects. This study aimed to evaluate the rates of substance abuse, cigarette smoking, and alcohol consumption and their association with sleep disturbances among university students in 2021. The participants were the students of the Faculty of Sciences, University of Guilan, Iran in 2021. Data were collected through a researcher-made demographic questionnaire, the first two questions of the translated version of the World Health Organization (WHO) Alcohol, Smoking, and Substance Involvement Screening Test (ASSIST), and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). A total of 222 students entered the study from March to August 2021. The rates of substance abuse in the past three months and lifetime were 35.6% and 45.5%, respectively. The most common type of substance abuse was related to the 'other substances' category. Substance abuse was significantly higher in students living in dormitories and those with a family history of substance abuse. Poor sleep was found in 34.2% of the students, and substance abuse and alcohol consumption both in the past three months and lifetime were significantly associated with lower sleep quality. This study showed that substance abuse was significantly associated with sleep disturbances. The study results also illustrated an upward trend of substance abuse in recent years among students in Rasht, which may be related to economic issues in the country and/or the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Considering the rising prevalence of substance abuse and its impacts on society, policymakers are highly recommended to pay special attention to its risk factors.