3 research outputs found
Health tourism: an opportunity for sustainable development
In February 2017, the âProgramma
Mattone Internazionale Saluteâ (ProMis), that is the
Italian Program for Internationalization of Regional
Health Systems of the Ministry of Health (MoH),
presented the first version of its Position Paper on
Health Tourism, which embeds a first shared
approach to the recommendations expressed by the
European Committee of Regions (CoR) on "AgeFriendly" tourism. The CoR stresses the importance
of local and regional authorities in the coordination
of multi-sectoral policies such as healthcare, social
assistance, transport, urban planning and rural
development in relation to the promotion of mobility,
security, accessibility of services, including health
care and social services.
"Age-friendly" tourism is an example of an
innovative tourist offer that strives to meet the health
needs of the entire "traveling" population, with an
integrated and cross-sector approach that involves
various organizations operating in sectors such as
healthcare, accessibility and transport.
The aim of the workshop was to explore the
interest of the stakeholders to participate in a
systemic action in the field of "health" tourism, and
to identify priority implementation areas that offer
opportunities to take advantage of validated,
innovative experiences that strengthen the
accessibility to health and social services in regional,
national and international contexts.
This effort provides the opportunity to take
advantage of aligning the European Structural and
Investment Funds (ESIF) to the development of
tourism, coherently with the needs and resources of
local and regional health authorities
Postpartum depression screening in mothers and fathers at well-child visits: a feasibility study within the NASCITA cohort
Objective To assess the feasibility of the family paediatricianâs (FP) role in identifying the signs of postpartum depression in parents in time to guarantee child well-being.Design, setting and participants Data for this observational prospective study were collected within the NASCITA (NAscere e creSCere in ITAlia) cohort. During the first visit, paediatricians collected sociodemographic data regarding the parents and information about their health status, the pregnancy and the delivery. Whooley questions were administered during the first and second visits (scheduled 60â90âdays after childbirth). Moreover, on the third visit (5â7 months after childbirth) the FP was asked to answer âyesâ or ânoâ to a question on the parental postpartum depression, based on his knowledge and on the acquired information.Results In 2203 couples who completed the assessment, 529 mothers (19.9%), 141 fathers (6.3%) and 110 (5%) couples reported any depressive symptomatology. Of these, 141 mothers (5.3% of the total sample) and 18 fathers (0.8% of the total sample) were classified as âlikely depressedâ. An association was found between maternal postnatal depressive symptoms and having a diagnosed psychiatric disorder during pregnancy (OR 9.49, 95%âCI: 3.20 to 28.17), not exclusively breastfeeding at hospital discharge (OR 1.76, 95%âCI: 1.19 to 2.61) and the presence of child sleeping disorders at 3 (OR 2.46, 95%âCI: 1.41 to 4.28) and 6âmonths (OR 2.18, 95%âCI: 1.37 to 3.47). Another significant predictor of postpartum depression was being primiparous (OR 1.99, 95%âCI: 1.31 to 3.02). Concerning the fathers, a significant association was reported only between likely depressed fathers and child sleeping disorders at 3âmonths (OR 7.64, 95%âCI: 2.92 to 19.97). Moreover, having a likely depressed partner was strongly associated with depressive symptoms in fathers (OR 85.53, 95%âCI 26.83 to 272.69).Conclusions The findings of this study support the feasibility of an active screening programme for parental postnatal depression during well-child visits as an integral part of postpartum care.Trial registration number NCT03894566; Pre-results
National, longitudinal NASCITA birth cohort study: prevalence of overweight at 12 months of age in children born healthy
Objective To estimate the prevalence of overweight at 12 months in an Italian birth cohort and to identify factors related to an increased likelihood of being overweight.Methods The Italian NASCITA birth cohort was analysed. Infants were classified as underweight (<5th), normal weight (5â84th) and overweight (â„85th centile) at 12 months of age according to the WHO percentiles of body mass index (BMI) and the prevalence of overweight was estimated. To test the association between the chance of being overweight and parental and newborn characteristics, and infant feeding, healthy newborns (no preterm/low birth weight and with no malformations), with appropriate-for-gestational-age birth weight were selected, and univariate and multivariate analyses were performed.Results The prevalence of overweight was 23.5% (95% CI 22.2% to 24.8%) in all cohort members with 12-month data (N=4270), and 23.1% in the appropriate-for-gestational age subsample (N=2835).A big infant appetite (OR 3.92, 95%âCI 2.40 to 6.40) and living in southern Italy (OR 1.58, 95%âCI 1.29 to 1.94) were the main variables associated with a greater likelihood of being overweight. Breastfeeding practice did not influence the chance of being overweight, but was associated with an increase (exclusive breast feeding for at least 6 months) or a decrease (breast feeding for at least 12 months) in BMI z score at 12 months.Conclusions The sociodemographic factors (eg, area of residence, maternal employment status) seem to be the most relevant determinants influencing the chance of being overweight at 12 months. Early interventions, with particular attention to vulnerable families, may be helpful in preventing childhood and adult obesity