Search

To date, there are very few epidemiologic studies on caries disease in 6–7 year old children living in Sicily (Southern Italy). The first permanent molar (FPM) is the most commonly affected tooth in this target population, and a one-unit increase in the number of decayed FPMs is predictive of caries in other teeth and in adulthood. The primary aim of this research is to estimate the prevalence of caries in 6–7 year old schoolchildren living in Palermo and, as a secondary aim, to estimate the prevalence of affected FPMs. It was designed as a cluster cross-sectional survey on 995 children from 16 schools, selected based on their geographical location, in one of the eight city districts. Caries data were recorded using the International Caries Detection and Assessment System for each tooth surface. The relation between socio-economic status, behavioural determinants, and clinical information and the number of teeth with initial caries (IC), moderate caries (MC), or extensive caries (SC) was analysed through the ordinal logistic regression. Among the 995 schoolchildren, 662 (66.5%) had at least one lesion and 742 (74.6%) had FPMs. Of the latter, 238 (32.0%) were affected by IC, 86 (11.6%) were affected by MC, and only 3 (0.4%) were affected by SC. During multivariable analysis, there was evidence of an increased risk of MC and SC related to the deprivation of the district in which the children lived and went to school, as well as to the protective role of parental education and employment. The same significant determinants were found for IC and MC FPMs. The study showed the important role of socio-economic determinants, unhealthy behaviours, and social deprivation related to the increased risk of moderate and extensive caries in 6–7 year old schoolchildren. Investigating this target population is very important, as early development of caries in FPMs may have serious consequences in the prognostics of oral health in an adult.

Supplemental material, sj-docx-1-inq-10.1177_00469580231159318 for The Race to Retain Healthcare Workers: A Systematic Review on Factors that Impact Retention of Nurses and Physicians in Hospitals by Neeltje de Vries, Anke Boone, Lode Godderis, José Bouman, Szymon Szemik, Domenica Matranga and Peter de Winter in INQUIRY: The Journal of Health Care Organization, Provision, and Financing

Supplemental material, sj-doc-2-inq-10.1177_00469580231159318 for The Race to Retain Healthcare Workers: A Systematic Review on Factors that Impact Retention of Nurses and Physicians in Hospitals by Neeltje de Vries, Anke Boone, Lode Godderis, José Bouman, Szymon Szemik, Domenica Matranga and Peter de Winter in INQUIRY: The Journal of Health Care Organization, Provision, and Financing

Psychotic patients with a lifetime history of cannabis use generally show better cognitive functioning than other psychotic patients. Some authors suggest that cannabis-using patients may have been less cognitively impaired and less socially withdrawn in their premorbid life. Using a dataset comprising 948 patients with first-episode psychosis (FEP) and 1313 population controls across 6 countries, we examined the extent to which IQ and both early academic (Academic Factor [AF]) and social adjustment (Social Factor [SF]) are related to the lifetime frequency of cannabis use in both patients and controls. We expected a higher IQ and a better premorbid social adjustment in psychotic patients who had ever used cannabis compared to patients without any history of use. We did not expect such differences in controls. In both patients and controls, IQ was 3 points higher among occasional-users than in never-users (mean difference [Mdiff] = 2.9, 95% CI = [1.2, 4.7]). Both cases and control daily-users had lower AF compared to occasional (Mdiff = −0.3, 95% CI = [−0.5; −0.2]) and never-users (Mdiff = −0.4, 95% CI = [−0.6; −0.2]). Finally, patient occasional (Mdiff = 0.3, 95% CI = [0.1; 0.5]) and daily-users (Mdiff = 0.4, 95% CI = [0.2; 0.6]) had better SF than their never-using counterparts. This difference was not present in controls (Fgroup*frequency(2, 2205) = 4.995, P = .007). Our findings suggest that the better premorbid social functioning of FEP with a history of cannabis use may have contributed to their likelihood to begin using cannabis, exposing them to its reported risk-increasing effects for Psychotic Disorders.

Obiettivo dello studio: Valutare l’efficienza diagnostica di due tecniche immunocromatografiche (IC) utilizzate per la ricerca di antigeni di Rotavirus di gruppo A (RVA) nei campioni fecali: CerTest Rotavirus+Adenovirus (Biotec) e Vikia Rota+Adeno (bioMérieux). relazione Entrambe le tecniche IC sono state confrontate con la PCR RealTime, considerata il gold standard per la diagnosi delle enteriti da RVA. I RVA sono i principali agenti eziologici di gastroenterite acuta (AGE) nei bambini al di sotto dei 5 anni di età, con elevati tassi di morbilità e mortalità nelle diverse aree geografiche. Metodi impiegati: Uno studio retrospettivo è stato eseguito su 2096 campioni fecali, raccolti dal 2009 al 2015 da bambini ricoverati per AGE presso l’Ospedale “G. Di Cristina” di Palermo. Tutti i campioni testati in IC (1467 con il CerTest e 629 con il Vikia) sono stati parallelamente sottoposti a RealTime PCR. Per la successiva caratterizzazione molecolare sono state condotte analisi genetiche delle proteine VP7 e VP4 per definire le combinazioni G-P. Risultati e conclusioni: Il confronto dei risultati ottenuti dai due test IC con la RealTime PCR, ha evidenziato una maggiore sensibilità del test Vikia (94% vs 85%) e una maggiore specificità del CerTest (93% vs 89%). Inoltre, sono stati osservati un più alto Valore Predittivo Positivo (87% vs 78%) e di “Positive Likelihood Ratios” (12.32 vs 8.8), contestualmente a un basso Valore Predittivo Negativo (91% vs 97%) e di “Negative Likelihood Ratios” (0.16 vs 0.06) in CerTest rispetto a Vikia. Sia il CerTest che il Vikia hanno mostrato un sostanziale valore di concordanza (K = 0,79) con la RealTime PCR. Una significativa correlazione è stata osservata tra i campioni con alto ciclo soglia in RealTime PCR, indicativo di bassa carica virale, e campioni falsi negativi in IC. Nessuna correlazione, invece, è stata ritrovata tra i campioni falsi positivi in IC e una possibile cross-reazione con Norovirus, Adenovirus o Astrovirus. Sia CerTest che Vikia sono stati in grado di rilevare tutti i genotipi di RVA circolanti nel periodo di studio (G2P[4], G1, G3, G4, G9, G12P[8]). I risultati ottenuti hanno mostrato, quindi, un'efficacia soddisfacente dei due test IC come strumenti diagnostici di routine. Tuttavia, le tecniche biomolecolari restano indispensabili per scopi epidemiologici e per la caratterizzazione molecolare dei RVA circolanti.

Introductions: The characteristics of HPV infection in women have been extensively investigates, however, only a few studies have analyzed the characteristics of HPV infection in men and in sexual couples. Materials and methods: 195 sexual couples positive for HPV-DNA were examined, at the Virology laboratory of the Department of Sciences for Health Promotion and Mother and Child Care (Policlinico, University of Palermo, Italy). HPV-DNA detection was performed by the INNOLiPA HPV Genotyping Extra II Test (Fujirebio) and nested PCR/sequencing method. All women (range: 20-60, mean age: 31.5 ys) had performed a pap smear and knew the cytological diagnosis: 73 (37.4%) negative at Pap smear, 21 (10.8%) with atypical squamous cell of undetermined significance (ASCUS), 82 (42.1%) with low grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (LSIL), 18 with high grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (HSIL) and 1 carcinoma, For ease of computation, these two latter categories were grouped together, and thus represented a total of 19 cases of ≥HSIL (9.7%). As for the partners (range 20-70; mean age: 36.7 ys) only two had genital warts . Results: 36 types of HPV were identified: 27 were present in both men and women, two (HPV-67, -90) only in women and seven types (HPV-43, -81, -82, -83, -87, -91, -107) only in men. Infection with or containing high risk HPV types (HR-HPV) was in 112/195 (57.4%) women and in 57/195 (29.2%) men; low risk HPV types (LR-HPV) was in 17/195 (8.7%) women and in 32/195 (16.4%) men. Multiple infections was in 66/195 (33.8%) women and in 106/195 (54.4%) men. Mostly frequent types, the same in men and women, were: HPV-16 (27.7% and 21% respectively), HPV-51 (13.8% and 19% ), and -66 (13.8% and 18.5%). HPV-group specific (HR or LR) concordance between sexual partners was found in 163/195 (83.6%; 95%CI=[78.4-88.8]) couples. HPV-type specific concordance was found in 99/195 (50.8%; 95%CI=[43.8-57.8]) couples, of which 82 (82.8%) shared one types, 12 (12.1%) two types and 4 (4.1%) three types, 1 (1%) four types. Cytological diagnosis was not statistically significantly associated neither with HPV-group specific concordance (p=0.206) nor with HPV-type specific concordance (p=0.312). Conclusions: partners of positive women represent a population at high risk of infection and in turn can be a source of (re)infection to the partner. Studied are needed to improve knowledge of the natural history of HPV infection in sexual couples, to control viral transmission and provide adequate counseling to HPV infected sexual partners.