Journal of Health and Social Sciences: A reputable, DOAJ-indexed, free, open access journal

Three years ago, the Italian Society for Psychotherapy and Social Development (SIPISS) established the Journal of Health and Social Sciences (JHSS) as a forum for the interdisciplinary exchange of views from scientists from around the world to promote the growth of modern man. The sentiments ‘science in society and science for society’ and the ‘art of medicine as love of humanity’ inspired me and Dr Ferrari as co-founders and editors in chief of the Journal, as they motivate the belief that science may contribute to knowledge, progress, peace and social development. JHSS focuses on public health with an interdisciplinary view of health from a wide range of fields, including medicine, psychology and social sciences [1]. Public health is concerned with improving the health of people all over the world and is the ideal arena for contributions from medicine, sociology of health and psychology as it provides an interdisciplinary approach that may accelerate improvements in health by addressing global and regional health inequalities [2]. However, the journal’s research findings must be shared with policy makers, organizations and other researchers, and strong research ethics are essential in converting research into political action. Therefore, our Journal established a place where academics and practitioners meet to overcome the conflicts and dualities in their relationships [3]. JHSS is also a place where research from developing countries, which is often underrepresented in the international health debate, is represented to a similar extent as research from developed countries. Finally, JHSS is a place where research findings are freely available and accessible, so they have the greatest possible impact on health and health inequalities. Today, we launch the journal’s subtitle, The Italian Journal for Interdisciplinary Health and Social Development, in order to give much more emphasis on the SIPISS’ perspectives and greater clarity to the target audience and content, which concerns a broad and interdisciplinary view on public health by drawing on medicine, psychology and social sciences contributions. Thank you, Dr Giuseppe Ferrari, psychologist and publisher, for making JHSS a full, open-access journal that is free of charge for authors. The journal has no hidden costs for either readers or authors. In addition, JHSS has not received any economic support from public or economic institutions or pharmaceutical companies. JHSS is pure because it is free of any political or economic pressures; it is propelled by highly passionate, enthusiastic, competent contributing researchers and their tireless work. It is rare to be able to deliver high-quality publications at no cost. The journal is published by Edizioni FS, which is a small international publishing house, and I am very proud that it actively faces the scientific challenge with important publishers of academic journals, who are also owners of well-known databases and scientific indexes. Consequently, I enthusiastically embraced the opportunity to be the journal’s director and provide scientific guidance for this courageous project. Thanks to the combined efforts of some of the editorial board members and authors, our journal published 79 high-quality manuscripts from 2016 to 2018 (39 original articles, 10 commentaries, 5 reviews and 25 other types of manuscripts, including 25 works from developing countries and 54 from developed countries). In a time when it is difficult to give voice to voiceless people, JHSS provides room for discussions and views from researchers from poor and disadvantages countries on issues that have a significant health impact on all people, from climate change to other themes in global public health. Based on these figures and high-quality publications, Journal of Health and Social Sciences was included in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), which is an independent, high-quality database, and Hinari, which is a prestigious free biomedical database provided by the World Health Organization. The DOAJ guarantees scientific quality because it only publishes high-quality, open access titles after the research passes a serious evaluation process conducted by a panel of leading experts in scientific publishing. Discriminating between legitimate and predatory journals is difficult, and in 2016, the DOAJ removed approximately 3,330 journals from its database due to their failure to submit valid reapplications based on new criteria established by the DOAJ in response to the ‘maturing open access arena’ and the ‘greater demands made on open access publishing by questionable journals and publishers’ [4]. The DOAJ identifies predatory, illegitimate, deceptive and unethical publishers as ‘questionable publishers’ based on reasonable content, services, transparency and business behaviour standards [4]. Therefore, DOAJ may be considered just as prestigious as Pubmed, Medline and Scopus due to its relevancy and importance in open access publishing. Recently, JHSS set up an Advance Online Publication system that provides final online versions of articles before they are compiled and published in an issue, providing the most rapid access to accepted papers, which can be quickly cited using the date of the posting, the title and authors of the article, name of the journal, the quotation ‘Advance online publication’ and the paper’s DOI [5]. I am sure that this advance publication system will be helpful in gaining access to other important indexes as soon as possible. However, I believe that the most important requisites in this field are ethical works and passionate readers and researchers who will support the journal’s mission to close the value gap existing between JHSS and journal already indexed in Web of Science. Indexes and ‘Impact Factor’ of journals are often wrongly used for evaluating research [6-8]. I believe that our open-access view, along with a shared spirit of ideals, are welcomed by the global scientific community and will give the journal enough of a reward to continue ensuring the highest possible levels of scientific quality for our readers and authors. Beyond the Impact Factor

Job stress models for predicting burnout syndrome: a review

In Europe, the Council Directive 89/391 for improvement of workers’ safety and health has emphasized the importance of addressing all occupational risk factors, and hence also psychosocial and organizational risk factors. Nevertheless, the construct of “work-related stress” elaborated from Eu-OSHA is not totally corresponding with the “psychosocial” risk,  that is a broader category of risk, comprising various and different psychosocial risk factors. The term “Burnout”, without any binding definition, tries to integrate symptoms as well as cause of the burnout process. In Europe, the most important methods developed for the work related stress risk assessment are based on the Cox’s transactional model of job stress. Nevertheless, there are more specific models for predicting burnout syndrome. This literature review provides an overview of job burnout, highlighting the most important models of job burnout, such as the “Job Strain”, the “Effort/Reward Imbalance” and the “Job Demands-Resources” models. The difference between these models and the Cox’s model of job stress is explored.    

Spirituality and prayer on teacher stress and burnout in an Italian cohort: A pilot, before-after controlled study

Teaching is a stressful profession that exposes workers to the risk of burnout. Techniques involving higher mental functions, such as transcendental meditation and prayer, have been used in stress and burnout prevention programs. In this study, we report the results of an experience conducted in a group of teachers of a religious institute, in which prayer was used as a technique to prevent burnout

Proper Respirators Use Is Crucial for Protecting Both Emergency First Aid Responder and Casualty from COVID-19 and Airborne-Transmitted Infections

We read with great interest the paper by Barycka et al. [...

West Nile virus infection in Europe: need for an integration of occupational health practice and public health activities. Commentary

In these days, the West Nile virus (WNV), which is the most widespread arthropodborne virus infection in the world, is an emerging issue in Europe, wherein 2018, partial figures (until 25 October) showed a number of WNV infection cases more than doupled in comparison with previous five years. This mosquito-transmitted disease is surely a challenge for policymakers, but it is an occupational hazard for outdoor workers, as well. Occupational medicine is a public health discipline based on the principles of epidemiology. Therefore, we argue that addressing the WNV hazard may be an opportunity for integrating the occupational health practice with public health activities to boost their respective preventive strategies

Burnout Syndrome and Meta-Analyses: Need for Evidence-Based Research in Occupational Health. Comments on Prevalence of Burnout in Medical and Surgical Residents: A Meta-Analysis. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public. Health. 2019, 16, doi:10.3390/ijerph16091479

In their meta-analysis of observational studies, Low et al. showed a high prevalence of burnout syndrome (BOS) among medical and surgical residents across the globe with an aggregate prevalence of burnout as 51.0% (CI: 45.0\u201357%). However, the sample size in many of the included studies was quite low (only 26 out of 47 included studies had a sample size of more than 100 participants), and almost all of the 47 studies reported a rate of respondents of less than 80% (43 out of 47, 91.4%). Furthermore, in many of them, the rate of respondents was unknown (5 out of 47) or less than 50% of eligible persons (23 out of 47 studies). As BOS is a self-reported syndrome, healthcare professionals who decided to participate in those studies were many of those affected by BOS, making the percentage of respondents potentially overstated due to the nonresponse bias. Policy decision-making in public health relies on evidence-based research; therefore, quality evaluation of studies in meta-analysis is essential to draw useful data for policymakers

New and Old Indices for Evaluating Heat Stress in an Indoor Environment: Some Considerations. Comment on Kownacki, L.; Gao, C.; Kuklane, K.; Wierzbicka, A. Heat Stress in Indoor Environments of Scandinavian Urban Areas: A Literature Review. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2019, 16 (4), 560. doi:10.3390/ijerph16040560

In their review, Kownacki et al. showed some practical and easy to use workplace heat indices that are useful for indoor environments, namely the \u201cWet Bulb Globe Temperature\u201d (WBGT), the \u201cPredicted Heat Strain\u201d (PHS) model, the \u201cThermal Work Limit\u201d (TWL), the \u201cEquivalent Temperature\u201d (ET) and the thermal comfort index \u201cPMV/PPD\u201d. In this letter, the authors explain why the modified PMV/PPD method together with the indices combining temperature with humidity, such as the \u201cHumidex Index\u201d and the \u201cHeat Index\u201d, could be a more feasible and useful tool for evaluating potential thermal stress in indoor environments for both the occupational and general populatio

Letter to the editor (January 1, 2019) concerning the paper "Impact of air pollution on depression and suicide"

G\u142adka et al. [1], in their careful review of the literature, gave indications of how air pollution can influence the suicide rate. We must remember, however, that air pollution and global warming are both consequences of climate change and are deeply associated [2]. There is strong evidence that high ambient temperature is associated with the suicide risk, and increased morbidity and mortality among people with known mental health problems [3]. Many studies have highlighted the close relationships existing between heat waves and mental disorders, such as psychological exhaustion, anxiety, mood disorders, and dementia, as well as the association of extreme heat exposures with aggressive behaviors [4]. Our understanding of the combined effects of heat and air pollution on mental health and suicide is still limited [5]. Among other things, the increase in temperature accelerates metabolism, and this could increase the toxic effect of environmental pollutants. At present, we cannot say whether the association between the 2 factors is additive or multiplicative. Ultimately, we agree with G\u142adka et al. [1] that further research is needed to explore depression morbidity and suicide statistics. The comparison of geographical areas with high average concentrations of pollutants to those with low pollutants may be useful, but research should not neglect the confounding role played by heat wave. An epidemiological approach based on large population surveys, and the increasing availability of environmental and public health databases across the world [6], could be useful in gaining a better understanding of these complex relationships

Coronavirus disease 2019: the second wave in Italy

PurposeThis paper describes how Italy addressed the first Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) wave and analyzes the possible causes of the current second wave.Design/methodology/approachDescriptive analysis of critical points and differences in the containment strategies between the first and the second waves in Italy.FindingsItaly's strict lockdown has been credited with getting the initial major outbreak under control. Furthermore, the way Italy handled the first wave was considered a lesson for other countries. On the contrary, a decentralized and highly bureaucratic political system with low coordination and political conflicts between government, regions and stakeholders led to a relaxation of individual health behaviors, poor and conflicting communication to the general public, poor management of the public transport and the reopening of schools and companies after the summer, that in turn generated the second wave, which is showing signs of becoming worse than the first.Originality/valueThis is a commentary piece