Determinants of Health Disparities in Italian Regions

There is an extensive literature on regional disparities in health, but much of thisliterature focuses on the United States. Among European countries, Italy is the country whereregional health disparities contribute the most to socioeconomic health disparities. In this paper,we report on regional differences in self-reported poor health and explore possible determinantsat the individual and regional levels in Italy. We use data from the “Indagine Multiscopo sulle Famiglie”, a survey of aspects ofeveryday life in the Italian population, to estimate multilevel logistic regressions that model poorself-reported health as a function of individual and regional socioeconomic factors. Next we usethe causal step approach to test if living conditions, healthcare characteristics, social isolation,2and health behaviors at the regional level mediate the relationship between regionalsocioeconomic factors and self-rated health. We find that residents living in regions with more poverty, more unemployment, andmore income inequality are more likely to report poor health and that poor living conditions andprivate share of healthcare expenditures at the regional level are determinants of socioeconomicdisparities in self-rated health among Italian regions. The implications are that regional contexts matter and that regional policies in Italyhave the potential to reduce health disparities by implementing interventions aimed at improvingliving conditions and access to quality healthcare.health inequality, Italy, self-reported health, regional health disparities

The Regional Impact of Health Care Expenditure: the Case of Italy

Decentralisation invests the sub-central authorities of a country with autonomy in political and economic power the exercise of which may widen interregional divergence and inequality. This paper provides evidence demonstrating that in the case of Italy the central government's policies for rationalisation and containment of the growth of health care expenditure in combination with decentralisation in the administration and provision of health care have resulted in interregional inequality, aggravating the existing regional divergence.regional divergence; health care expenditure.

Determinants of health disparities between Italian regions

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Among European countries, Italy is one of the countries where regional health disparities contribute substantially to socioeconomic health disparities. In this paper, we report on regional differences in self-reported poor health and explore possible determinants at the individual and regional levels in Italy.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We use data from the "Indagine Multiscopo sulle Famiglie", a survey of aspects of everyday life in the Italian population, to estimate multilevel logistic regressions that model poor self-reported health as a function of individual and regional socioeconomic factors. Next we use the causal step approach to test if living conditions, healthcare characteristics, social isolation, and health behaviors at the regional level mediate the relationship between regional socioeconomic factors and self-rated health.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We find that residents living in regions with more poverty, more unemployment, and more income inequality are more likely to report poor health and that poor living conditions and private share of healthcare expenditures at the regional level mediate socioeconomic disparities in self-rated health among Italian regions.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The implications are that regional contexts matter and that regional policies in Italy have the potential to reduce health disparities by implementing interventions aimed at improving living conditions and access to quality healthcare.</p

Response to COVID-19: was Italy (un)prepared?

On 31st January 2020, the Italian cabinet declared a 6-month national emergency after the detection of the first two COVID-19 positive cases in Rome, two Chinese tourists travelling from Wuhan. Between then and the total lockdown introduced on 22nd March 2020 Italy was hit by an unprecedented crisis. In addition to being the first European country to be heavily swept by the COVID-19 pandemic, Italy was the first to introduce stringent lockdown measures. The SARS-CoV-2 outbreak and related COVID-19 pandemic have been the worst public health challenge endured in recent history by Italy. Two months since the beginning of the first wave, the estimated excess deaths in Lombardy, the hardest hit region in the country, reached a peak of more than 23,000 deaths. The extraordinary pressures exerted on the Italian Servizio Sanitario Nazionale (SSN) inevitably leads to questions about its preparedness and the appropriateness and effectiveness of responses implemented at both national and regional levels. The aim of the paper is to critically review the Italian response to the COVID-19 crisis spanning from the first early acute phases of the emergency (March-May 2020) to the relative stability of the epidemiological situation just before the second outbreak in October 2020

Il futuro del libro tra carta e bit. Una ricerca di marketing sul fenomeno e-book.

Il presente lavoro di tesi ha come obiettico quello di utilizzare l'avvento dell'e-book come occasione per applicare la disciplina di marketing al mercato editoriale. In una prima parte più strettamente teorica, si cerca di descrivere la situazione del mercato editoriale italiano, di riportare alcune osservazioni e ricerche riguardanti il rapporto libro-internet-commercio elettronico e il fenomeno e-book. Nella seconda parte vengono invece riportati i risultati della ricerca condotta sul campo riguardante proprio questi temi. Le "research questions" della ricerca sono: Quali sono i punti di forza e di debolezza del libro su carta rispetto all’e-book? Qual è l’atteggiamento dei lettori, e in particolare dei lettori forti, nei confronti dell’e-book? Qual è il profilo del lettore di e-book