Quantitative Framework to Assess Resilience and Risk at the Country Level

This paper presents a quantitative method to assess the resilience and the resilience-based risk at the country level. The approach is inspired by the classical risk analysis, in which risk is a function of vulnerability, hazard, and exposure. In the proposed analysis, resilience based risk is a function of resilience, hazard, and exposure. In the new formula, the resilience parameter is evaluated using the data provided by the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA). HFA scores and ranks countries based on a number of equally weighted indicators. To use those indicators in the resilience assessment, the contribution of each indicator toward resilience must be determined. To do that, three methods to weight and combine the different HFA indicators are proposed. The first two methods are based on the dependence tree analysis (DTA), while the third method is based on a geometrical combination of the indicators using spider plots. The proposed methodology has been applied to a case study composed of 37 countries for which both the resilience (R) and the resilience-based risk (RBR) indexes have been determined

Factors Associated with SARS-CoV-2 Infection Evaluated by Antibody Response in a Sample of Workers from the Emilia-Romagna Region, Northern Italy

Factors associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection risk are still debated. This case–control study aims to investigate the possible relationship between SARS-CoV-2 infection, evaluated through antibody response, and the main sociodemographic, occupational, clinical-anamnestic, and biochemical factors in a population of Modena province (Northern Italy), mainly workers. Both workers who voluntarily joined the screening campaign proposed by companies and self-referred individuals who underwent serological testing were enrolled. Subjects with antibody positivity were recruited as cases (n = 166) and subjects tested negative (n = 239) as controls. A questionnaire on sociodemographic, occupational, and clinical data was administered through telephone interviews. Serum zinc/iron/copper/chromium/nickel, vitamins D/B12, folates, triglycerides, and LDL/HDL/total cholesterol were measured. Cases lived more often in urban areas (61.8% vs. 57%). Cases and controls did not differ significantly by working macrocategories, but the percentage of workers in the ceramic sector was higher among cases. Low adherence to preventive measures in the workplace was more frequent among seropositives. Folate concentration was significantly lower among cases. Therefore, adequate folate levels, living in rural areas, and good adherence to preventive strategies seem protective against infection. Workers in the ceramic sector seem to be at greater risk; specific factors involved are not defined, but preventive interventions are needed

Healthcare sustainability challenge

Healthcare structures are supposed to protect and improve Public Health, but in the meanwhile they are highly energy-demanding and socially impactful structures, which cause negative side effects on the people’s health and on the environment. Building hospitals able to cope with the definition of Health as complete well-being and which can fit to the future means therefore constructing sustainable structures. Such complex realities work as a whole, single organism, that can be robust and productive only if every single part is healthy. So when it comes to healthcare facilities, sustainability has to be taken into account as both a main requirement and a quality issue, since they must be capable to deliver high standards also in changing circumstances. Starting from these assumptions the Sustainable High Quality Healthcare project is born with the aim of providing a new original insight into such a complex subject. Its goal is to define, through the construction of an innovative assessment system, solutions and strategies towards the realization of sustainable existing operative or in-design hospitals, where sustainability applies to the main macro-areas