Deliverable 2.3-Research needs in terms of statistical methodologies and new data

The MAKSWELL project was set up to help strengthening the use of evidence and information on well-being and sustainability for policy-making in the EU, as also the political attention to well-being and sustainability indicators has been increasing in recent years. Traditionally sample surveys are the data source used for measurement frameworks for well-being and sustainability. Over the last decades more and more new, alternative data sources become available. Examples are administrative data like tax registers, or other large data sets - so called big data - that are generated as a by-product of processes not directly related to statistical production purposes. In Deliverables 2.1, 2.2 as well as 3.1, 4.1 and 4.3 it is discussed in detail how these new data sources can be used in the production of official statistics and measurement frameworks for well-being and sustainability indicators. This Deliverable extends on the experiences obtained in these preceding deliverables by pointing out the needs for new data sources and methods in this context

Osteopathy students profile in Italy: A cross sectional census

Introduction: The Osteopathy Students Analysis (OSA) aims to profile osteopathy students in Italy as a target population in terms of sociodemographic characteristics, geographical distribution, health status, and previous and ongoing education specifications. Materials and methods: The OSA used a cross-sectional design. A Web-based survey was distributed to the Italian Osteopathic Education Institutions (OEIs). The OSA survey was composed of items organised into four sections: 1. Sociodemographic characteristics (11 items); 2. Geographical distribution (5 items); 3. Health status (3 items); 4. Previous and ongoing education specifications (16 items). A descriptive sample population analysis was performed. Dichotomous and categorical variables were presented as frequencies and percentages, and continuous variables were displayed as means and standard deviations. Some variables were analysed using a pentenary distribution. Results: 49 out of the 61 OEIs identified matched the inclusion criteria, and among these, 22 accepted to propose the enrolment of their students into the study. The survey was administered to 4,720 students from all the participant OEIs. A total of 3,762 students responded to the survey, accounting for an estimated response rate of 53.7%. The majority of respondents were men (54%), with an average age of 26.9 ± 6.5 years. Almost the totality of the sample was composed of the European ethnic group (99.1%). Respondents were predominantly born in Italy (97.2%). The majority of the sample reported being in good (49.5%) to excellent (38.6%) health. To date, osteopathy students are almost evenly distributed between the two types of curricula (T1 = 46.6%; T2 = 53.4%). Conclusions: The OSA is the first study that aims to profile Italian osteopathy students as a target population in terms of sociodemographic characteristics, geographical distribution, health status, and previous and ongoing education specifications. Future studies should focus on investigating the correlation between the sociodemographic characteristics of students and their academic performance

From east to west: the former USSR citizens in Italy

In the first decade of 21st century the presence of former USSR citizens in Italy has rapidly grown. At the beginning of 2000, according to the data provided by the archive of residence permits, they were less than 24.000 (13.000 Russians). The 2002 regularization programme has had a strong effect in the growth of their regular presence. At the beginning of 2009 they were almost 240,000 (more than 144,000 Ukrainians). They have peculiar characteristics and show particular socio-economic behaviours. A large part of this presence is constituted by women, in many cases middle aged, mostly employed in the sector of family services. In Italy Moldavians, Ukrainians and Russians are the three most numerous communities coming from this area. Our analysis is focused on these citizenships. In the first part of the paper we enlighten the most relevant demographic trends. We discuss the principal changes interested the three communities describing the specific characteristics (gender and age composition, territorial distribution, marital status, reason of the stay, etc.) and demographic behaviours (marriages, births, etc.). In a second part we study, through a longitudinal approach, the changes that have affected the cohort of regularized belonging to the three citizenships. We can distinguish two principle groups: regularized people that continue to have a residence permit in the years following the regularization and regularized people for whom is not possible to find a correspondence in the archives of residence permits. The principal differences between the two groups will be analyzed. For the first group we especially study the changes occurred during the period of observation: particular attention is paid to the internal mobility (and to marital status changes)