Beliefs and Opinions of Health Care Workers and Students Regarding Influenza and Influenza Vaccination in Tuscany, Central Italy

Immunization of health care workers (HCWs) against influenza has been associated with improvements in patient safety. The aim of this study is to assess the beliefs, attitudes, and knowledge of HCWs and health profession students regarding influenza. An anonymous questionnaire was distributed to HCWs in three local Florentine healthcare units, at Careggi University Teaching Hospital, and to students in health profession degree programs. A total of 2576 questionnaires were fully completed. A total of 12.3% of subjects responded that they were “always vaccinated” in all three of the seasonal vaccination campaigns studied (2007–2008 to 2009–2010), 13.1% had been vaccinated once or twice, and 74.6% had not received vaccinations. Although the enrolled subjects tended to respond that they were “never vaccinated,” they considered influenza to be a serious illness and believed that the influenza vaccine is effective. The subjects who refused vaccination more frequently believed that the vaccine could cause influenza and that it could have serious side effects. More than 60% of the “always vaccinated” group completely agreed that HCWs should be vaccinated. Self-protection and protecting family members or other people close to the respondent from being infected and representing potential sources of influenza infection can be considered motivating factors for vaccination. The results highlight the importance of improving vaccination rates among all HCWs through multi-component interventions. Knowledge of influenza should be reinforced

Recommended vaccinations for asplenic and hyposplenic adult patients

Asplenic or hyposplenic (AH) individuals are particularly vulnerable to invasive infections caused by encapsulated bacteria. Such infections have often a sudden onset and a fulminant course. Infectious diseases (IDs) incidence in AH subjects can be reduced by preventive measures such as vaccination. The aim of our work is to provide updated recommendations on prevention of infectious diseases in AH adult patients, and to supply a useful and practical tool to healthcare workers for the management of these subjects, in hospital setting and in outpatients consultation. A systematic literature review on evidence based measures for the prevention of IDs in adult AH patients was performed in 2015. Updated recommendations on available vaccines were consequently provided. Vaccinations against S. pneumoniae, N. meningitidis, H. influenzae type b and influenza virus are strongly recommended and should be administered at least 2 weeks before surgery in elective cases or at least 2 weeks after the surgical intervention in emergency cases. In subjects without evidence of immunity, 2 doses of live attenuated vaccines against measles-mumps-rubella and varicella should be administered 4–8 weeks apart from each other; a booster dose of tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis vaccine should be administered also to subjects fully vaccinated, and a 3-dose primary vaccination series is recommended in AH subjects with unknown or incomplete vaccination series (as in healthy people). Evidence based prevention data support the above recommendations to reduce the risk of infection in AH individuals

Waist-to-height ratio and its associations with body mass index in a sample of Tuscan children in primary school

Abstract Background Visceral obesity in children increases the risk of developing cardiovascular diseases. To evaluate overweight children, in addition to Body Mass Index (BMI), waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) can be used to predict cardiometabolic risk. The goal of this study is to describe WHtR in a sample of Tuscan children. Methods A sample of children living in the province of Pistoia, Tuscany, was measured for the following anthropometric parameters: weight, height, and waist circumference. BMI and WHtR were calculated. For the latter indicator, a threshold of 0.5 was considered as a cardiovascular risk predictor. The subjects were classified into underweight, normal weight, overweight, and obese using Cole’s cut-offs. Results The number of children enrolled were 1575 (821 males; 754 females), aged 6–11 years. Of them, 64.3% were normal weight, 4.9% underweight, 22.3% overweight, and 8.5% obese. Moreover, 12.8% had a WHtR ≥0.5 (85.7% males; 88.7% females). The average WHtR value was 0.45 ± 0.045, and was significantly different as per gender (F = 0.45 vs. M = 0.46). WHtR was significantly correlated with BMI (r = 0.766). Conclusion The average WHtR value was in line with previous studies conducted among children of similar age groups. Large-scale perspective studies are needed to validate the Italian WHtR cut-offs for children

Dieci domande sulla riforma costituzionale

Analisi del procedimento di revisione della parte seconda della Costituzione e della natura del referendum previsto dall'art. 138 Cost

Dieci domande sulla riforma costituzionale

Discussione di alcuni nodi critici della riforma costituzionale della XVII legislatura, entro un Forum tra costituzionalisti invitati dalla redazione, muovendo da una serie di domande comuni proposte dalla rivista (gli invitati potevano scegliere liberamente se rispondere, in breve, a ciascuna di esse oppure dilungarsi di più su un numero ristretto di questioni)