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Il divario tra ricerca e pratica si riferisce ai casi in cui la ricerca fatica a essere applicabile in contesti concreti, come quello sanitario, con un notevole impatto sull’organizzazione dell’assistenza, sull’erogazione dei servizi e sugli esiti di salute. Questo aspetto si somma, nei sistemi sanitari come quello italiano, a una forte variabilità nell’accesso ad assistenza di qualità e negli esiti di salute tra le Regioni e nello stesso territorio. Viene usata l’espressione “trasferimento della conoscenza”1 per spiegare il processo iterativo di sintesi e scambio dai risultati della ricerca sanitaria al miglioramento della qualità nella pratica clinica. Comprendere e applicare tutto ciò risulta essenziale per implementare con tempestività ed efficacia le evidenze scientifiche.

Audit and Feedback (A&F) is an effective multidimensional strategy for improving the quality of care. The optimal methods for its implementation remain unclear. This study aimed to map the state of art of A&F strategies in the hospitals involved in a time-dependent emergency network. For these purposes, a structured questionnaire was defined and discussed within the research group. This consists of 29 questions in three sections: (1) characteristics of the structure, (2) internal feedback systems, and (3) external feedback systems. All structures involved in the network were invited to participate in the e-survey by indicating a Health Management representative and a clinical representative for the Cardiovascular (CaV) and/or for the Cerebrovascular area (CeV). Of 20 structures invited, a total of 13 (65%) responded to the survey, 11 for the CaV area and 8 for the CeV area. A total of 10 of 11 (91%) facilities for the CaV area and 8/11 (75%) for the CeV area reported that they perform A&F activities. All facilities perform at least one of the activities defined as “assimilating A&F procedures.” The most frequent is the presentation and discussion of clinical cases (82% CaV and 88% CeV) and the least is the identification of responsible for improvement actions (45% CaV and 38% CeV). In 4/10 (40%) facilities for the CaV area and 4/8 (50%) for the CEV area, corrective actions are suggested or planned when the feedback is returned. These results confirm the need to define, in a synergistic way with the relevant stakeholders, an effective and agreed A&F intervention to improve the level of implementation of A&F strategies.

Background: In Europe, one of the most consistent findings is that of migrant mortality advantage in high-income countries. Furthermore, the literature shows that economic shocks, which bring worse health outcomes, can severely affect the most disadvantaged individuals. We analyse differences and changes in all-cause mortality between Italians and migrants residing in Rome before, during, and in the aftermath of the Great Recession (2001–2015) by birth-cohort. Methods: The analysis is a longitudinal open cohort study. Mortality data come from the Register of the Causes of Death (58,637 deaths) and the population denominator (n = 2,454,410) comes from the Municipal Register of Rome. By comparing three time-periods (2001–2005, 2006–2010, and 2011–2015), we analyse all-cause mortality of Rome residents born, respectively, in the intervals 1937–1976, 1942–1981, 1947–1986 (aged 25–64 years at entry into observation). Computing birth-cohort-specific death rates and applying parametric survival models with age as the time-scale, we compare mortality differences between migrants and Italians by gender, area of origin, and time-period. Results: Overall, we find a lower risk of dying for migrants than Italians regardless of gender (Women: HR = 0.61, 95% CI 0.56–0.66; Men: HR = 0.49, 95% CI 0.45–0.53), and a lower death risk over time for the total population. Nevertheless, such a pattern changes according to gender and migrants’ area of origin. Conclusion: Given the relevance of international migrations in Europe, studying migrants’ health has proved increasingly important. The deterioration in migrant health and the gradual weakening of migrants’ mortality advantage is likely to become a public health issue with important consequences for the healthcare system of all European countries.

BACKGROUND: there has been a long-standing, consistent use worldwide of Healthcare Administrative Databases (HADs) for epidemiological purposes, especially to identify acute and chronic health conditions. These databases are able to reflect health-related conditions at a population level through disease-specific case-identification algorithms that combine information coded in multiple HADs. In Italy, in the past 10 years, HAD-based case-identification algorithms have experienced a constant increase, with a significant extension of the spectrum of identifiable diseases. Besides estimating incidence and/or prevalence of diseases, these algorithms have been used to enroll cohorts, monitor quality of care, assess the effect of environmental exposure, and identify health outcomes in analytic studies. Despite the rapid increase in the use of case-identification algorithms, information on their accuracy and misclassification rate is currently unavailable for most conditions. OBJECTIVES: to define a protocol to systematically review algorithms used in Italy in the past 10 years for the identification of several chronic and acute diseases, providing an accessible overview to future users in the Italian and international context. METHODS: PubMed will be searched for original research articles, published between 2007 and 2017, in Italian or English. The search string consists of a combination of free text and MeSH terms with a common part on HADs and a disease-specific part. All identified papers will be screened for eligibility by two independent reviewers. All articles that used/defined an algorithm for the identification of each disease of interest using Italian HADs will be included. Algorithms with exclusive use of death certificates, pathology register, general practitioner or pediatrician data will be excluded. Pertinent papers will be classified according to the objective for which the algorithm was used, and only articles that used algorithms with "primary objectives"

Background: Little is known about the comparative risk of death with atypical or conventional antipsychotics (APs) among persons with cardiovascular or cerebrovascular disease (CCD). Research design and methods: A cohort study was conducted using five Italian claims databases. New atypical AP users with CCD aged ≥65 (reference) were matched to new conventional AP users. Mortality per 100 person-years (PYs) and hazard ratios (HR), estimated using Cox models, were reported. Incidence and risk of death were estimated for persons having drug–drug interactions. Outcome occurrence was evaluated 180 days after AP initiation. Results: Overall 24,711 and 27,051 elderly new conventional and atypical AP users were identified. The mortality rate was 51.3 and 38.5 deaths per 100 PYs for conventional and atypical AP users. Mortality risk was 1.33 (95%CI: 1.27–1.39) for conventional APs. There was no increased mortality risk with single drug–drug interactions (DDIs) vs. no DDI. AP users with ≥1 DDI had a 29% higher mortality risk compared to no DDI in the first 90 days of treatment (HR: 1.29 (95% CI: 1.00–1.67)). Conclusions: Conventional APs had a higher risk of death than atypical APs among elderly persons with CCD. Having ≥1 DDI was associated with an increased risk of death.

Purpose: The study aimed to fill existing knowledge gaps on the safety of antidepressant drugs (ADs) by estimating the risk of hospitalization for arrhythmia associated with use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and newer atypical ADs (NAAs) among elderly with previous cardiovascular (CV) events. Methods: The cohort was composed by 199,569 individuals aged ≥ 65 years from five Italian healthcare territorial units who were discharged for cardiovascular outcomes in the years 2008–2010. The 17,277 patients who experienced hospital admission for arrhythmia during follow-up were included as cases. Odds of current ADs use among cases (i.e., 14 days before hospital admission) was compared with (i) odds of current use of 1:5 matched controls (between-patients case-control) and with (ii) odds of previous use during 1:5 matched control periods (within-patient case-crossover). The risk of arrhythmia associated with ADs current use was modelled fitting a conditional logistic regression. A set of sensitivity analyses was performed to account for sources of systematic uncertainty. Results: Current users of SSRIs and NAAs were at increased risk of arrhythmia with case-control odds ratios (OR) of 1.37 (95% confidence interval, CI 1.18 to 1.58) and 1.41 (1.16 to 1.71) and case-crossover OR of 1.48 (1.20 to 1.81) and 1.72 (1.31 to 2.27). An increased risk of arrhythmia was associated with current use of trazodone (NAA) consistently in case-control and case-crossover designs. Conclusions: Evidence that current use of SSRIs and NAAs is associated to an increased risk of arrhythmia among elderly with CV disease was consistently supplied by two observational approaches.

Background: Estimating CKD prevalence is difficult. Information on CKD prevalence is rather scanty in Italy and available figures come from surveys in selected geographical areas. Administrative data have been already demonstrated to be an effective tool in estimating the epidemiological burden of diseases, however there is limited experience in literature as far as CKD is concerned. Methods: The aim of this study is to develop an algorithm based on regional Health Administrative Databases to identify individuals with CKD and provide estimates of disease prevalence in Lazio Region (Italy); about 5.500.000 inhabitants in 2017. A population-level analysis based on a record-linkage strategy using data from Health Administrative Databases has been applied in Lazio Region. CKD cases were identified between January 1, 2012 and December 31, 2017 using Outpatient Specialist Service Information System, Hospital Discharge Registry, Ticket Exemption Registry and Drug Dispensing Registry. Age-specific and standardized prevalence rates were calculated by gender. CKD cases were classified as higher and lower severity. Results: The algorithm identified 99,457 individuals with CKD (mean age 71 years, 55.8% males). The exclusive contributions of each regional source used were: 35,047 (35.2%) from Outpatient Specialist Service Information System, 27,778 (27.9%) from Hospital Discharge Registry, 4143 (4.2%) from Ticket Exemption Registry and 463 (0.5%) from Drug Dispensing Registry; 5.1% of cases were found in all databases. The standardized prevalence rate at December 31, 2017 was 1.76, 2.06% for males and 1.50% for females. The prevalence increased with age, rising from 0.33% (age 0-18) up to 14.18% (age 85+) among males and from 0.25% up to 8.18% among females. The proportion of CKD individuals with lower severity disease was 78.7% in both genders. Conclusions: The proposed algorithm represents a novel tool to monitor the burden of CKD disease, that can be used by the regional gove

Background: In a globally aging population, chronic conditions with a high impact on healthcare costs and quality of life, such as osteoporosis and associated fractures, are a matter of concern. For osteoporosis, several drug treatments are available, but evidence on adverse cardiovascular and cerebrovascular (CCV) events, and in particular the risk of atrial fibrillation (AF), related to anti-osteoporotic drug use is inconclusive. The objective of this study was to evaluate the association between the use of bisphosphonates (BPs), strontium ranelate (SR), and other anti-osteoporosis drugs and the risk of AF and CCV events in a large cohort of patients affected by CCV diseases. Methods: Based on a cohort of patients aged 65 years and over, discharged from the hospitals of five large Italian areas after a CCV event between 2008 and 2011, two nested case-control studies were conducted. Cases were patients with a subsequent hospital admission for AF or CCV; four controls for each case were randomly selected and matched by age group, sex and follow-up time. A total of three exposure measures were tested: ever use, adherence and recency of use. In the conditional logistic regression models, patients not treated with any anti-osteoporotic medication were considered as the reference category. Results: The initial cohort accounted for 657,246 patients. Neither BPs nor SR use was associated with an increased risk of AF regardless of the adherence and recency of use. Overall BP and SR use was associated with a slightly increased risk of CCV; however, results reversed when considering higher adherence: odds ratio (OR) 0.81, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.71-0.92 for BPs and OR 0.71, 95% CI 0.52-0.97 for SR. Conclusions: BPs do not increase cardiovascular risk and can be prescribed to elderly patients for osteoporosis treatment. However, patients with pre-existing cerebrovascular/cardiovascular conditions should be carefully monitored.

Background: Little is known about the comparative risk of death with atypical or conventional antipsychotics (APs) among persons with cardiovascular or cerebrovascular disease (CCD). Research design and methods: A cohort study was conducted using five Italian claims databases. New atypical AP users with CCD aged ≥65 (reference) were matched to new conventional AP users. Mortality per 100 person-years (PYs) and hazard ratios (HR), estimated using Cox models, were reported. Incidence and risk of death were estimated for persons having drug–drug interactions. Outcome occurrence was evaluated 180 days after AP initiation. Results: Overall 24,711 and 27,051 elderly new conventional and atypical AP users were identified. The mortality rate was 51.3 and 38.5 deaths per 100 PYs for conventional and atypical AP users. Mortality risk was 1.33 (95%CI: 1.27–1.39) for conventional APs. There was no increased mortality risk with single drug–drug interactions (DDIs) vs. no DDI. AP users with ≥1 DDI had a 29% higher mortality risk compared to no DDI in the first 90 days of treatment (HR: 1.29 (95% CI: 1.00–1.67)). Conclusions: Conventional APs had a higher risk of death than atypical APs among elderly persons with CCD. Having ≥1 DDI was associated with an increased risk of death.

Objectives: To describe NSAID utilization for musculoskeletal conditions in a large cohort of Italian elderly with cerebro/cardiovascular disease, a population in which NSAIDs should be generally avoided due to the prothrombotic potential. Methods: Administrative data from five Italian geographic areas were analyzed. Patients aged ≥ 65 with a cerebro/cardiovascular event recorded between 2008 and 2011 (cohort entry) were selected. Prescription NSAIDs reimbursed for musculoskeletal conditions and dispensed during 1 year follow-up were retrieved to describe (i) prevalence of use, (ii) average amount of defined daily doses of NSAIDs claimed by users per day of follow-up, and (iii) distribution of the received daily dose (RDD) among patients with ≥ 2 dispensings. Among new users, i.e., patients without NSAID dispensings during 2 years before cohort entry, the first dispensed NSAID molecule was observed. Results: Overall, 511,989 patients were selected. Across the five geographic areas, prevalence of use ranged from 48 to 21% and average consumption ranged between 30 and 67 DDD/1000 users/day. Around 10% of patients in the overall cohort had a RDD > 1. Nimesulide (9.6%) and diclofenac (7.5%) had the highest prevalence of use. The most consumed NSAIDs were nimesulide and coxibs with 10.6 and 7.5 DDD/1000 users/day, respectively. Among new users recruited in 2011, 30% had diclofenac or a coxibs as the first prescription. Conclusions: NSAID use was common in the study cohort, particularly in central-southern areas. In contrast with current recommendations, coxibs and diclofenac were among the most prescribed active principles, even in new users. Interventions to promote appropriateness of use are warranted.

Background: Functional impairment is associated with adverse outcomes in older people, as well as in patients on chronic hemodialysis. The aim of this study was to evaluate if functional impairment represents a risk factor for reduced survival in patients on chronic hemodialysis. Methods: All incident chronic hemodialysis patients of Lazio, a large region of central Italy, registered in the Dialysis and Transplant Lazio Region Registry (DTLRR) in the period 2008–2013 were considered eligible. Inclusion criteria were: age > 18 years, resident in Lazio, still doing dialysis after 90 days from incidence date, doing hemodialysis or hemodiafiltration treatment for > 9 h/week. Patients were stratified into three classes of functional activity: total autonomy, autonomy in some activities, and not self-sufficient. Functional activity was assessed for each patient by the referring physician for the DTLRR from the ~ 90 hemodialysis units of the Lazio region. Each patient was followed from date of first dialysis treatment to the end of the study (31/12/2015) or death or renal transplant, whichever occurred first. Cox proportional hazard models were performed to obtain mortality hazard ratios (HR), 95% confidence intervals (CI), for each class of functional activity adjusting for sex, age, country of birth, city of residence, body mass index (BMI), type of nephropathy, vascular access, previous nephrology counselling, weekly hours of hemodialysis, serum albumin, hemoglobin, and presence of comorbidities (e.g. vascular diseases, coronary disease, and diabetes). Results: A total of 3356 patients were studied. In the whole follow-up period, 1622 deaths occurred (48%). Functional impairment was associated with the risk of mortality: compared to ‘total autonomy’, the HR for ‘autonomy in some activities’ was 1.30 [95% CI: 1.14–1.49] and for ‘not self-sufficient’ 1.71 [1.47–1.99] (p for trend < 0.05). The number of evitable deaths attributable to reduced functional