1,721,018 research outputs found
An Archaeology of and in the Mediterranean
No full textThe foreword presents the Proceedings of the 16th Symposium on Mediterranean Archaeology, held in Florence on March 1st-3rd 2012, focusing on modern historiography that has shown an increasing need to place a greater emphasis on the study of the ancient Mediterranean inside a wider “natural” cultural and geographic horizon
How to Improve the Drafting of Health Profiles
Full text linkDelineating patients’ health profiles is essential to allow for a proper comparison between medical care and its results in patients with comorbidities. The aim of this work was to evaluate the concordance of health profiles outlined by ward doctors and by epidemiologists and the effectiveness of training interventions in improving the concordance. Between 2018 and 2021, we analyzed the concordance between the health profiles outlined by ward doctors in a private hospital and those outlined by epidemiologists on the same patients’ medical records. The checks were repeated after training interventions. The agreement test (Cohen’s kappa) was used for comparisons through STATA. The initial concordance was poor for most categories. After our project, the concordance improved for all categories of CIRS. Subsequently, we noted a decline in concordance between ward doctors and epidemiologists for CIRS, so a new training intervention was needed to improve the CIRS profile again. Initially, we found a low concordance, which increased significantly after the training interventions, proving its effectiveness. © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland
Identifying the Drivers of Inter-Regional Patients’ Mobility: An Analysis on Hospital Beds Endowment
Full text linkBackground: In a Beveridgean decentralized healthcare system, like the Italian one, where regions are responsible for their own health planning and financing, the analysis of patients' mobility appears very interesting as it has economic and social implications. The study aims to analyze both patients' mobility for hospital rehabilitation and if the beds endowment is a driver for these flows; Methods: From 2011 to 2019, admissions data were collected from the Hospital Discharge Cards database of the Italian Ministry of Health, population data from the Italian National Institute of Statistics and data on beds endowment from the Italian Ministry of Health website. To evaluate patients' mobility, we used Gandy's Nomogram, while to assess if beds endowments are mobility drivers, we created two matrices, one with attraction indexes (AI) and one with escape indexes (EI). The beds endowment, for each Italian region, was correlated with AI and EI. Spearman's test was carried out through STATA software; Results: Gandy's Nomogram showed that only some northern regions had good hospital planning for rehabilitation. A statistically significant correlation between beds endowment and AI was found for four regions and with EI for eight regions; Conclusions: Only some northern regions appear able to satisfy the care needs of their residents, with a positive attractions minus escapes epidemiological balance. The beds endowment seems to be a driver of patients' mobility, mainly for escapes. Certainly, the search for mobility drivers needs further investigation given the situation in Molise and Basilicata
The Structures and Activities oh Health Promotion in the Italian NHS
Full text linkBackground: In Italy, the Ministry of Health is the main decision-making entity in healthcare. The local health authorities (LHAs) are responsible for health promotion (HP) activities, based on national and regional health plans. Our aim was to investigate the structured activities of HP in Italy at national, regional, and territorial levels. Methods: From February 2020 to July 2021, we searched for online information about the structures, projects, and responsibilities at the different levels mentioned above. The sources were the official sites of the Ministry of Health, the regions, and LHAs. Results: During the “prevalence period” of 2014–2021, we found 41 active facilities dedicated to HP: 7 complex operational units and 34 simple units. The other 30 facilities also had HP activities despite the absence of dedicated units. The most discussed topic seemed to be physical activity (63%), followed by addictions (53%), nutrition (48%), and prevention (33%); in the queue appeared dental hygiene and family/parenting (both at 7%). The LHA of the City of Turin and the LHA of Salerno had the most significant number of topics. Conclusions: The results showed great heterogeneity, in the Italian context, concerning HP activities. We assume that the phenomenon depends on reduced attention to the digitalization of information. The Italian Society of Health Promotion is pursuing the goal of the construction of an organic system of HP—with its own articulations, competencies, and scientific and operational goals— at different levels, thus transcending the health care system (which is often powerless in regulatory activity) and providing the one harbinger of the most promising results in terms of cost/benefit
Overview of case definitions and contact tracing indications in the 2022 monkeypox outbreak
Full text linkBackground: In 2022, a new outbreak of the Mpox virus occurred outside of Africa, its usual endemic area. The virus was detected in European, American, Asian, and Oceanian countries where Mpox is uncommon or had not been reported previously and where the spread was rapid. The study aims to compare the case definition and the indications for contact tracing in case of Mpox infection among the World Health Organization (WHO), the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), and four European Countries. Methods: From August 2022 to November 2022, we conducted research, first on the WHO and ECDC official websites and then on the official websites of the Ministry of Health or National Health Agencies of four European Countries (Italy, France, Spain, and Portu-gal). All reports found were compared to enlighten the differences in the definition of the case and indications for contact tracing. Results: The WHO divides the case definition into four categories: suspected, probable, confirmed, and dis-carded, while the ECDC divides cases into confirmed and probable. The ECDC defines contact as close and others, while the WHO divides it into high, medium, and minimal risk. The four countries analyzed show heterogeneity in both the case definitions and the indications for contact tracing. Conclusions: Our analysis revealed heterogeneity in the case definition between the WHO and ECDC. Different countries followed different indications or have given their indications for both the case definition and contact tracing indications. Harmonization strengthens public health preparedness and response and creates unified communication
Analysis and Impact of Infection Prevention Procedures in Long-Term Care Facilities
Full text linkBackground. Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) are a significant healthcare complication, with major implications for public health. In the EU/EEA, up to 2.6 million new HAIs cases occur annually, causing significant burdens and economic costs. In Italy, the prevalence of HAIs is rising due to factors like invasive devices, antibiotic resistance, and poor infection control. The aim of this work is to evaluate the effectiveness of HAIs containment practices in long-term care facilities (LTCF). Materials and methods. This cross-sectional study included eight LTCF inspected by Prevention Technicians of the Local Health Authority Tuscany South-East (LHA-TSE) in 2023. The study evaluated non-compliance in procedures for legionellosis prevention, cleaning and disinfection, laundry management, management of pans, HAIs prevention, healthcare tools disinfection, and hairdressing services. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and the Mann Whitney test to compare infection rates with procedure compliance. Results. In 2023, 606 infections were reported in the eight enrolled LTCF. The most frequent infections were COVID-19 (19.4%), urinary tract infections (16.9%), pharyngitis (15.6%), and influenza-like illness (ILI) (15%). For the “Laundry Procedure,” 3 LTCF were compliant and 5 were not, showing a significant relationship with influenza syndromes (p = 0.02) and surgical site infections (p = 0.04). For the “Cleaning Check” procedure, non-compliance was linked to higher fungal infections (p = 0.01) and gastroenteritis (p = 0.04). The “Disinfection of Health Tools procedure showed non-compliance correlated with higher gastroenteritis (p = 0.04) and conjunctivitis (p = 0.01). Gastrointestinal infections from Clostridium difficile were linked to non-compliance with “HAIs Procedures Routes” (p = 0.04), “Pans” processes (p = 0.04), and cleanliness in the hairdressing service (p = 0.04). Herpes simplex or Herpes zoster infections were higher in LTCF with non-compliant hairdressing service rooms (p = 0.02). Two legionellosis cases were recorded in LTCF with reported noncompliance in analytical procedures for Legionellosis. Conclusions. Our analysis showed significant correlations between cleanliness procedures and reductions in fungal infections, gastroenteritis, and ear infections. Compliance in laundry procedures was linked to ILI and surgical site infections. Non-compliance in healthcare tools correlated with higher rates of gastroenteritis and conjunctivitis, highlighting the need for stronger practices. The data suggest that effective prevention measures reduce HAIs, though discrepancies in implementation across facilities call for standardization and continuous monitoring. © Copyright by Pacini Editore Srl, Pisa, Italy
Thoughts on Ancient Textual Sources in their Current Digital Embodiments
No full textThe paper provides an overview on the current status of Digital Humanities projects concerned with the edition of cuneiform texts, as well as on academic education aimed at the implementation of ad-hoc digital tools for philological and historical research. It argues that basic skills in both programming languages (scripting in Python or Perl) and data visualization are becoming crucial to contemporary scholars, in order to deal with an ever increasing amount of on-line, open-access, complex information. In tum, this new way of approaching ancient
textual sources must be paired with a proper conceptual framework for the digital representation of ancient texts, their encoding, and deep structure(s ). As a case study to test the potential of a scripting-oriented approach to philological research, a survey of the similarity between three large lexical repertoires is provided (Old Akkadian, Old Babylonian, and Old Assyrian): as the outcome shows a slightly more pronounced proximity of Old Akkadian to Old Babylonian, the formulation of the problem in digital terms exemplifies how the above-mentioned methodologies may contribute in achieving results in such complex domains
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