From the editors

Dear Colleagues,
We are proud to announce that this latest issue of the Journal is for the first time being published under the auspices of the President Stanisław Wojciechowski Calisia University. We began publishing the Journal in 2016 at the State Higher Vocational School, then at the Academy, which on October 1^st 2023 became the Calisia University, established as such by virtue of an act signed by the President of the Republic of Poland on May 4^th of this year. October 10^th 2023 saw the University’s first historic inauguration of the academic year. In his speech, the University’s Rector, Prof. Andrzej Wojtyla, described the ceremony inaugurating the academic year as a celebration of the university community, but also as something to be celebrated by the entire community of the city of Kalisz, the oldest borough in Poland, and the entire Kalisz province, which boasts a magnificent history. The University has now expanded its curriculum to include the new field of Law and a Medical Faculty.
We would like to draw special attention to another contribution from our team concerning one of the key public health problems in Poland – the threat of tobacco related diseases in the Polish population. 2016 saw implementation of the National Programme for Reducing the Health Consequences of Tobacco Smoking being suspended, which in the coming years will undoubtedly result in an increase in the incidence of cardiovascular diseases and cancer (pp. 108-114).
In a further section of this issue, we present the results of the 3rd World Conference on Family Health, which we reported on in the last issue of the Journal (J Health Inequal 2023; 9(1): 2-15). In this issue, we present abstracts and several papers discussing contributions to that conference. Welcome addresses were delivered by among others Professor Aurelijus Veryga, Member of the Lithuanian Parliament and that country’s former Minister of Health (p. 122), and Professor Martin Gorsky, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, who emphasized the role of historical research in public health (p. 115). The conference’s official inauguration included the awarding of the title Doctor Honoris Causa to two co-creators and members of our Editorial Board: Prof. Peter Boyl and Dr. Mateusz Zatoński. A tribute to Mateusz Zatoński presented by Professor Martin McKee, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, can be found on page (pp. 123-124). The subject of tobacco control is supplemented by a series of publications by the team at Bath University (pp. 131-135), as well as contributions by Prof. Robert West of University College London (p. 137). Another interesting feature, which we present on pages 149-152 is a series of contributions concerning the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting infodemic.
In this issue, we also present other articles on the subject of COVID-19, including a description of international organizations that are undertaking numerous initiatives aimed at improving health and limiting the negative health effects of the pandemic (pp. 179-184). The journal also discusses the negative impact of remote learning during the pandemic, namely the increasing physical health problems among students, such as insomnia, stomach pains, and decreased appetite (pp. 168-178). Another article presents the adverse health effects for the mother and foetus in whom the COVID-19 infection was asymptomatic (pp. 161-167). Another subject covered in this issue and well worth reading concerns the needs of the inhabitants of Polish cities as expressed in participatory budgeting projects (pp. 224-230). Likewise noteworthy is the work on the attitudes of nursing students towards people with physical disabilities (pp. 185-193) and that related to the effect of taking statins on sleep quality (pp. 217-223).