Political Parties and Political Foundations in Italy. Their Changing Landscape of Structure and Financing

This book, published with research funds from the University of Rome La Sapienza, aims at disseminating knowledge about the Italian system of political parties and political foundations among non-Italian scholars, in the light of the recent legislative reforms in this field. Due to their nature as free associations of citizens under art. 49 Cost., political parties are supposed to enjoy a full autonomy in determining their own purposes, internal organisation and financial management. However, the recent regulation on the funding of political parties contains provisions aimed at influencing the contents of party statutes, imposing upon them several organisational obligations. Moreover, some draft laws concerning the internalfunding have been proposed, with the idea of making intra-party democracy not only a prerequisite for obtaining funds, but also for competing in elections. However, many argue that a law should be the least invasive possible, and parties should instead proceed to self-reformation. The stronger the erosion process of party organisations and of political cultures is, the more strongly affirmed will be the personalised models of political organisation, in which even the funding of the organisation’s own public viability is managed autonomously. This is why ever more frequently some political leaders make use of think tanks for fund-raising, by virtue of the broad degree of autonomy that they enjoy

Effects of information, education, and communication campaign on a community-based health insurance scheme in Burkina Faso

Objective : The study analysed the effect of Information, Education, and Communication (IEC) campaign activities on the adoption of a community-based health insurance (CHI) scheme in Nouna, Burkina Faso. It also identified the factors that enhanced or limited the campaign's effectiveness. Design : Complementary data collection approaches were used. A survey was conducted with 250 randomly selected household heads, followed by in-depth interviews with 22 purposively selected community leaders, group discussions with the project management team, and field observations. Bivariate analysis and multivariate logistic regression models were used to assess the association between household exposure to campaign and acquisition of knowledge as well as household exposure to campaign and enrolment. Results : The IEC campaign had a positive effect on households’ knowledge about the CHI and to a lesser extent on household enrolment in the scheme. The effectiveness of the IEC strategy was mainly influenced by: 1 frequent and consistent IEC messages from multiple media channels (mass and interpersonal channels), including the radio, a mobile information van, and CHI team, and 2 community heads’ participation in the CHI scheme promotion. Education was the only significantly influential socio-demographic determinant of knowledge and enrolment among household heads. The relatively low effects of the IEC campaign on CHI enrolment are indicative of other important IEC mediating factors, which should be taken into account in future CHI campaign evaluation. Conclusion : The study concludes that an IEC campaign is crucial to improving the understanding of the CHI scheme concept, which is an enabler to enrolment, and should be integrated into scheme designs and evaluations

Rehabilitative treatment of patients with covid-19 infection: The p.a.r.m.a. evidence based clinical practice protocol

Background: The impact of the SARS-CoV-2 on the National Health System (NHS) required a reorganization of the various levels of care, which also involved the rehabilitation reality. Aim of the work: A clinical practice review of the literature was conducted to provide operational-rehabilitation guidelines adapt-ed to the local reality and to the recent corporate reorganization in the context of the COVID-19 emergency. Methods: A practice review of the available scientific evidence was regularly conducted from the start of the COVID-19 pandemic to periodically update the clinical practice guidelines. Articles that met the following inclusion criteria were included: studies conducted on human adult subjects with COVID-19 infection, un-dergoing rehabilitation in any hospitalization setting. Results: The results of this clinical practice update were periodically discussed with colleagues and collaborators in a multi-professional team, in order to guarantee a good clinical practice protocol, named P.A.R.M.A. Conclusions: The P.A.R.M.A. protocol is the result of a periodic review literature update, which has allowed us to take charge of patients affected by COVID-19 ac-cording to the most up-to-date clinical evidences, guaranteeing a shared and uniform treatment within a local reality in an era of health emergency. (www.actabiomedica.it)

Studying complex interventions : reflections from the FEMHealth project on evaluating fee exemption policies in West Africa and Morocco

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

The Health and Demographic Surveillance System (HDSS) in Nouna, Burkina Faso, 1993–2007

The Nouna Health and Demographic Surveillance System (HDSS) is located in rural Burkina Faso and has existed since 1992. Currently, it has about 78,000 inhabitants. It is a member of the International Network for the Demographic Evaluation of Populations and Their Health in Developing Countries (INDEPTH), a global network of members who conducts longitudinal health and demographic evaluation of populations in low- and middle-income countries. The health facilities consist of one hospital and 13 basic health centres (locally known as CSPS). The Nouna HDSS has been used as a sampling frame for numerous studies in the fields of clinical research, epidemiology, health economics, and health systems research. In this paper we review some of the main findings, and we describe the effects that almost 20 years of health research activities have shown in the population in general and in terms of the perception, economic implications, and other indicators. Longitudinal data analyses show that childhood, as well as overall mortality, has significantly decreased over the observation period 1993–2007. The under-five mortality rate dropped from about 40 per 1,000 person-years in the mid-1990s to below 30 per 1,000 in 2007. Further efforts are needed to meet goal four of the Millennium Development Goals, which is to reduce the under-five mortality rate by two-thirds between 1990 and 2015

Immune function after major surgical interventions : the effect of postoperative pain treatment

Introduction: Impaired immune function during the perioperative period may be associated with worse short- and long-term outcomes. Morphine is considered a major contributor to immune modulation. Patients and methods: We performed a pilot study to investigate postoperative immune function by analyzing peripheral blood mononuclear cells' functionality and cytokine production in 16 patients undergoing major abdominal surgery. All patients were treated with intravenous (i.v.) patient-controlled analgesia with morphine and continuous wound infusion with ropivacaine+methylprednisolone for 24 hours. After 24 hours, patients were randomized into two groups, one continuing intrawound infusion and the other receiving only i.v. analgesia. We evaluated lymphoproliferation and cytokine production by peripheral blood mononuclear cells at the end of surgery and at 24 and 48 hours postoperatively. Results: A significant reduction in TNF-\u3b1, IL-2, IFN-\u3b3 and lymphoproliferation was observed immediately after surgery, indicating impaired cell-mediated immunity. TNF-\u3b1 and IFN-\u3b3 remained suppressed up to 48 hours after surgery, while a trend to normalization was observed for IL-2 and lymphoproliferation, irrespective of the treatment group. A significant inverse correlation was present between age and morphine and between age and lymphoproliferation. No negative correlation was present between morphine and cytokine production. We did not find any differences within the two groups between 24 and 48 hours in terms of morphine consumption and immune responses. Conclusion: A relevant depression of cell-mediated immunity is associated with major surgery and persists despite optimal analgesia. Even though morphine may participate in immunosuppression, we did not retrieve any dose-related effect