Annali dell'Istituto superiore di sanita最新文献

Introduction: Urban and transport planning, environmental exposures, physical activity and human health are strictly linked. The aim of this study was to analyze the determinants of sustainable and active mobility in 4 Italian provinces.

Materials and methods: An online multiple-choice survey was administered via Google Form between October 2019 and February 2020.

Results: 605 people answered the questionnaire, reporting their mobility practices. The home location did not seem to influence mobility behaviours, with the exception of the greater use of public transport for those who did not live in the province capital. Working or studying in central areas was associated with less use of the car, while not working or studying in the province capital was associated with less use of the motorbike. Women use cars more, and motorcycles/bicycles less. Age and educational level did not seem to influence mobility practices, while being a student compared to a worker was related to greater use of public transport and tendency to walk to the work/study place as well as to lesser car use.

Discussion: It is essential that all cities adopt solutions to encourage healthy mobility. The positive relationship between BMI and car use, between good food score and bike use and between frequent light physical activity and healthy mobility indicators confirmed that risk factors are often interconnected and that improving even one single habit could have a positive effect on the others as well.

Conclusion: An urgent paradigm shift is needed to transform urban areas from agglomerations oriented on motorized transport to ones that rely on active and sustainable mobility, in order to turn cities into places generating wellness and health.

The search for cause-effect relationships is a central aspect of epidemiological surveillance programs applied to populations living close to contaminated sites. Here are described needs for assessing causality in using different epidemiological study designs in association with the aim of promoting environmental public health, where uncertainties should be considered under a precautionary driven approach.

Objectives: This study (GLASS) aimed to explore low health literacy (HL) prevalence among journalists and general population and factors associated with low HL.

Methods: GLASS was an Italian online cross-sectional study. Questionnaires included instruments for different HL dimensions: single item literacy screener (SILS), medical term recognition test (METER), medical data interpretation test (MDIT). For each instrument, multiple regressions were performed.

Results: Participants were 665. A total of 24.6%, 85.0%, and 58.9% journalists and 19.5%, 77.8%, and 62.6% general population reported low HL (SILS, METER, MDIT, respectively). Regressions showed that journalists who had never written about health and journalists who had personally written about health without being health journalists had a higher likelihood of low HL compared with health journalists.

Conclusion: Since journalists are key players in public health, our findings are relevant; especially considering the context of the current pandemic. It would be advisable to bolster a stronger collaboration between professionals in the media world and the scientific community.

During the second European Joint Action on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) and Healthcare-Associated Infections (HCI) (EU-JAMRAI) annual meeting, the Evaluation Team elicited stakeholders' opinions regarding the implementation of the National Strategies and Action Plans to fight AMR and HCI, the One Health integration and the EU-JAMRAI support to the national and EU authorities in two Focus Groups. This qualitative exercise contributed to identify criticalities and possible improvements in aspects such as political priorities, legislation/legal requirements, human and financial resources, and supervision in many health sectors to ensure effective implementation of the action plans. Stakeholders pointed out at the different speed of EU member states, in particular concerning the One Health integration in the plans. Finally, the Stakeholders strongly asked the EU-JAMRAI to reinforce the integration and dissemination of the best practices and results, to help policymakers at national and European levels in defining and implementing harmonized policies and actions against AMR and HCI.

Background: Due to their abundance in some environments, the blood-sucking habit and the involvement in the transmission of several diseases, blackflies of the genus Simulium (Diptera: Simuliidae) can be considered among the most annoying biting arthropods.

Methods: Following repeated attacks to humans and animals, entomological investigations were carried out in green areas of Rome and surroundings. Site and period of attacks were reported, together with the human and animal reactions to the bites.

Results: Four Simulium species have been identified through morphological or molecular analysis: Simulium intermedium, Simulium lineatum, Simulium lundstromi and Simulium ornatum (complex). Larval breeding sites were identified in small moats, where a high density of blackflies larvae and pupae was revealed.

Conclusions: Being able to thrive in highly polluted water, even in few mm depth watercourses, some blackfly species are widely distributed in the area and their bites caused mild to severe reactions to humans and animals.

Given the relevance of students' risk education about occupational safety and health (OSH), the need for reliable assessment tools for learning evaluation is widely advocated. However, multiple-choice tests or inventories show several limitations, including the emphasis on basic definitions instead of organized conceptual systems and passive information transfer. Instead, concept maps may represent a non-traditional evaluation tool to inspect how students actively organize and represent the acquired knowledge in line with the theory of meaningful learning. A concept map specifically developed in the field of risk education and its quantitative scoring protocol are here proposed. Then, a case study with a pre- post-test design is presented, including 611 upper school students who undertook an OSH-related risk educational course. The findings are briefly discussed and help identify the possible information we can get from concept maps in terms of problem-based learning.

Background: Severe acquired brain injury (sABI) frequently causes impairment in self-awareness (ISA), leading to reduced patients' compliance to treatment, worse functional outcome, and high caregiver distress. Self-awareness (SA) is a multilevel and complex function that, as such, requires a specific and effective assessment. To date, many tools are available to evaluate the declarative, but not emergent and anticipatory levels of awareness, therefore the Self-Awareness Multilevel Assessment Scale (SAMAS) was recently proposed. The new tool proved to be useful to assess SA at different levels across all domains of functioning (motor, cognitive, psycho-behavioural, etc.) because it measures not only the declarative SA, but also emergent and anticipatory levels of SA, thus overcoming some important limits of other current assessment methods.

Aim: This study evaluated the inter-rater reliability (IRR) of the SAMAS.

Methods: Four professionals blind to each other evaluated 12 patients with sABI. Each patient was rated by two professionals.

Results: Inter-rater reliability was moderate-to-excellent, adding evidence in support of the use of SAMAS to specifically diagnose ISA after sABI.

Conclusions: The SAMAS can help to better address neurorehabilitation, as it allows assessing ISA as early as possible, at all possible levels of awareness and functional domains.

The Italian Fund for Alzheimer's and other dementias was approved and signed in December 2021. The Fund is financed with 15 million euros in three years. The main goal is to provide new strategies in the field of dementia with a Public Health perspective. The Fund includes eight main activities that will be monitored and supervised by the Italian National Institute of Health: 1) development of a guideline for the assessment, management and support for people with dementia and their families/carers; 2) updating of the Dementia National Plan (DNP); 3) implementation of the documents of the DNP; 4) conducting surveys dedicated to the Italian Dementia Services; 5) promotion of dementia prevention strategies; 6) training strategies for healthcare professionals, families and caregivers; 7) creation of a National Electronic Record for Dementia; 8) evaluation and monitoring of activities promoted by Regions and Autonomous Provinces in the field of dementia, together with the dementia National Permanent Table. These activities are outlined in detail in the present paper.

Introduction: Aedes japonicus japonicus and Aedes koreicus are two invasive mosquitoes recently reported in various parts of Europe, including areas very close to Piedmont where, since 2012, specific tools have been implemented to allow the early detection of invasive mosquitoes, through the surveillance of the main points of entry.

Results: Thanks to the regional surveillance system, Ae. j. japonicus was intercepted in Piedmont for the first time in 2019, in the northernmost part of the region and now it is reported in six provinces. Ae. koreicus was intercepted for the first time in 2012 in three provinces.

Discussion and conclusion: The spread of these two invasive mosquitoes in Europe is still ongoing. Where Aedes albopictus is abundant, probably their presence goes undetected, therefore, it is crucial to begin surveillance early in the season. Due to their competence for several arboviruses and tolerance to the cold temperatures Ae. j. japonicus and Ae. koreicus represent a further concern for Public Health. A longer seasonal period for surveillance and response to mosquito-borne diseases, as well as a shift up of these activities to previously uncovered altitudes are indeed needed.