Italian young doctors’ knowledge, attitudes and practices on antibiotic use and resistance: A national cross-sectional survey

Objectives: Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is one of the major health issues worldwide. Clinicians should play a central role to fight AMR, and medical training is a pivotal issue to combat it; therefore, assessing levels of knowledge, attitudes and practices among young doctors is essential for future antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) programmes. Methods: A nationwide, cross-sectional, multicentre survey was conducted in Italy. A descriptive analysis of knowledge and attitudes was performed, along with a univariate and multivariate analysis of their determinants. Results: Overall, 1179 young doctors accessed the survey and 1055 (89.5%) completed all sections. Regarding the knowledge section of the questionnaire, almost all participants declared to know the different species of bacteria proposed, however the percentage of participants who correctly responded to clinical quizzes was 23% for the question on vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE), 42% on carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE), 32% on extended-spectrum β-lactamase-producing enterobacteria (ESBL) and 27% on methicillin-resistantStaphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Similarly, 81% of participants disagreed in stating that AMR was adequately addressed during their medical training and 71% disagreed that they received the right example from their tutors. Finally, a high rate of agreement with the proposed actions to combat AMR was documented; in particular, the percentage agreement was 76% for respondents who agreed to be part of an active surveillance system or AMS programme. Conclusions: Tackling AMR should be a priority for politicians and for all health workers. Inclusion of competencies in antibiotic use in all specialty curricula is urgently needed. © 2020 The Author

The “NeuroDante project”: neurometric measurements of subject’s reaction to literary auditory stimuli from Dante’s “Divina Commedia”

This work is a pilot study that used neurometric indexes during the listening of selected pieces of Dante‟s “Divina Commedia” in 20 participants. Half of them had a literary formation (Humanist; university students of litera-ture) while the other half of is attending other university courses (Not Human-ist). The study applied the electroencephalographic (EEG) rhythms variations, the heart rate (HR) and galvanic skin response (GSR) during the listening of the excerpts. The neurometric indexes here employed were the ApproachWith-drawal (AW), the cerebral Effort (CE) and the Emotional indexes (EI). Results for the comparisons of the estimated AW, CE and EI related to the perception of the canticas showed as the Humanist group reported higher AW and EI values when compared to the Not Humanist sample (p<0.03 and p<0.01, re-spectively). Results suggest that the perception of the aesthetic experience is significantly modulated by the previous specific knowledge experienced by the participants. Finally, results of this kind of research could find application in the implementation of software and devices based on symbiotic relation with the perspective reader or listener of a literature opera, in order to personalize and maximize the fruition of them