Search

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic represented an unprecedented challenge for the healthcare world and the introduction of a new stronger and believable project plays a fundamental role for the quality of work and the provision of qualitative care., Aim: The survey provided by Italian Association for the Quality of Health and Social Care (ASIQUAS) aims to examines the impact of "Health" chapter included in the Recovery Plan, through the assessment of management quality of the COVID-19 pandemic., Methods: Starting from a literature review, in September 2021, a web-based survey has been conducted and administered by e-mail. It has been taken into account measures widely used by different healthcare structures in order to analyze the projects implemented in the face of pandemic and to evaluate the new real possibility to invest funds in new healthcare structures and projects., Results: The survey consists of 19 multiple choices and respondents were from different types of structures, including regional departments and regional health agencies (1.4%), universities, research centers and scientific hospitalization and treatment institutes (IRCCS) (11%), hospitals and university polyclinics (34.2%), Local Health Authorities (39.7%), socio-health organizations and Others (13.7%). The pandemic has highlighted many vulnerabilities at both hospitals and territorial level. The major weaknesses revealed by the survey are mainly due to the lack of support from new staff units and poor availability of specific training tools for COVID-19 procedures. The Recovery Plan is still unclear with a lot of concern about the implementation and many limits of diffusion., Conclusions: It becomes essential to guarantee a new effective and interoperative model of integration. Today we can start more aware for the implementation of a system closer to everyone's needs, making shortcomings the new strength and starting point., (©2022 Pacini Editore SRL, Pisa, Italy.)

Introduction: Defensive medicine (DM) is used when a doctor deviates from good practices to prevent complaints from patients or caregivers. This is a structured phenomenon that may not only affect the physician, but all healthcare personnel. The aim of this review was to determine whether DM is also performed by Non-Medical Health Professionals (NMHP), and the reasons, features, and effects of NMHP-DM., Materials and Methods: The review was conducted according to PRISMA guidelines, and specific inclusion criteria were used to search for relevant documents published up to 12 April 2018 in the main biomedical databases., Results: A total of 91 potentially relevant studies were identified. After the removal of duplicates, 72 studies were screened for eligibility, separately by two of the authors. Finally, 14 qualitative and quantitative studies were considered relevant for the purpose of the present review. These last studies were assessed for their methodological quality., Conclusions: NMHP-DM is quite similar to DM practiced by doctors, and is mainly caused by fear of litigation. Midwives and nursing personnel practiced both active and passive DM, such as over-investigation, over-treatment, and avoidance of high-risk patients. NMHP-DM could increase risks for patient health, costs, risk of burnout for healthcare employees. Further studies are needed to better understand prevalence and features of NMHP-DM in all health professional fields, in order to apply appropriate preventive strategies to contrast DM among health care personnel., (Copyright © 2019 FECA. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.)

Background: According to the principle of horizontal equity, individuals with similar need may have the same possibility of access to health services. The aim of this study is to identify patterns of diagnostic services utilization, in people with, and without chronic disease in Italy., Methods: Secondary analysis of data from the national survey on Health and use of health care in Italy, carried out in 2013, including 99,497 participants. Multilevel analysis has been used to study the variables associated to diagnostic services utilization., Results: 13.78% of participants have had one diagnostic testing in the four weeks before the interview. In healthy people, utilization of diagnostic testing is reduced in people with low educational level (OR 0.75; 95%CI 0.67-0.84), in housewives (OR 0.66; 95%CI 0.51-0.87), or in those unable to work (OR 0.48; 95%CI 0.26-0.87), while increased in those perceiving a worse health status (up to OR 4.00, 95%CI 2.00-8.01 in very bad health). In people afflicted with chronic disease, access to diagnostic assessment is impaired by educational level (OR 0.69; 95%CI 0.61-0.78) and low household income (OR 0.75; 95%CI 0.58-0.97), while it is increased in the presence of a ticket exemption (OR 1.55, 95%CI 1.42-1.68), and fixed-term occupation (OR2.28, 95%CI 1.31-3.95). Being former-smokers in associated to an increased utilization of services in both groups., Conclusions: Despite a universal and theoretically egalitarian, public, health care system, variations in diagnostic services utilization are still registered in Italy, both in healthy people and those afflicted by chronic diseases, on socio-economic/occupational basis, and self-perceived health status. Moreover, this significant effect of occupation on healthcare utilization, suggests the need for a comprehensive evaluation of economics in occupational health., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Objective To identify the prevalence of the practice of defensive medicine among Italian hospital physicians, its costs and the reasons for practising defensive medicine and possible solutions to reduce the practice of defensive medicine. Methods Cross-sectional web survey. Main outcome measures Number of physicians reporting having engaged in any defensive medicine behaviour in the previous year. Results A total of 1313 physicians completed the survey. Ninety-five per cent believed that defensive medicine would increase in the near future. The practice of defensive medicine accounted for approximately 10% of total annual Italian national health expenditure. Conclusions Defensive medicine is a significant factor in health care costs without adding any benefit to patients. The economic burden of defensive medicine on health care systems should provide a substantial stimulus for a prompt review of this situation in a time of economic crisis. Malpractice reform, together with a systematic use of evidence-based clinical guidelines, is likely to be the most effective way to reduce defensive medicine.

Background: Quitting smoking has several health benefits, including an improvement in health-related quality of life. It is not well established if there is a relationship between the age when people stop smoking and health-related quality of life in older adults., Aims: The primary aim was to investigate the relationship between health-related quality of life and the age when people quit smoking in a national representative sample of community-dwelling older Italian adults. The secondary aim was to describe the characteristics of older former smokers according to their age when they stopped smoking., Methods: Data were drawn from the "Health and use of health care in Italy", a national cross-sectional survey (2004-2005). Seven thousand five hundred and sixty-two former smokers, aged 65 years and older, were evaluated by age of smoking cessation. Socio-demographic characteristics, physical activity, the 12-Item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-12) score and its physical (PCS-12) and mental (MCS-12) component summary scores, disability and comorbidities were analyzed., Results: Educational level, marital status and area of residence were associated with a different age of smoking cessation, as a higher level of disability and comorbidity. PCS-12 (β -0.144; p < 0.001) and MCS-12 (β -0.077; p < 0.001) component scores were lower in subjects who quit smoking later. The relationship was confirmed for the PCS-12 score even after adjustment for socio-demographic, disability and clinical variables (β -0.031; p < 0.001), while it disappeared for the MCS-12 score (β -0.010, p = 0.307), after adjustment for comorbidities., Conclusion: Physical and mental health-related quality of life is influenced by the age of smoking cessation in older individuals, but this relationship is influenced by comorbidities, particularly depression. Some individual characteristics are related to the age of the person when he/she quit smoking.

Objectives: To investigate the prevalence of obesity among different types of employment status in the Italian working population, and to examine associated risk factors., Material and Methods: Cross-sectional survey of 36 814 people that declared to have been occupied with the same type of contract for at least 5 years was analyzed. Multivariable logistic regression models were built considering workers' sex, age, education, family body mass index (BMI) category, leisure time and occupational physical activity, weight control habits, smoking habit, use of drugs, number of working hours per week, and type of working contract., Results: After adjusting for covariates, the importance of temporary-employment was confirmed by multivariate analysis, with odds ratio (OR) = 1.32 for obesity (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.07-1.63) with respect to employed persons; the association was even more important in workers occupied for more than 40 h/week (OR = 1.69, 95% CI: 1.07-2.66); moreover, shiftwork was confirmed as a risk factor for obesity in workers (OR = 1.06, 95% CI: 0.94-1.2). Dealing with different occupational group, some categories were associated with obesity; in particular, this phenomenon involved people employed in agriculture (OR = 1.44, 95% CI: 1.22-1.7), transportation (OR = 1.53, 95% CI: 1.26-1.85), and public administration (OR = 1.31, 95% CI: 1.1-1.55)., Conclusions: Our analysis suggest that obesity is strongly correlated with temporary employment. Maybe the way out this pathway to obesity in the future might be working better, choosing organizational flexibility rather than fixed term. Int J Occup Med Environ Health 2016;29(6):903-914., (This work is available in Open Access model and licensed under a CC BY-NC 3.0 PL license.)

Health impact assessment (HIA) is a multidisciplinary method aimed at assessing the health effects of policies, plans, and projects using quantitative, qualitative, and participatory techniques. In many European countries, such as in Italy, there is a lack of implementation of HIA procedures and it would be necessary to develop instruments and protocols in order to improve the specific skills of professionals involved in the assessment process. This article aims to describe the development and implementation of HIA guidelines, promoted by the Italian National Agency for Regional Health Services (AGENAS), in 4 Southern Italian regions. Public health search engine and institutional Web sites were consulted to collect international data existing in this field. Monthly workshops were then organized with regional representatives to discuss the scientific literature and to identify the guidelines' contents: source of data, stakeholders, screening- and scoping-phase checklist tools, priority areas, monitoring, and reporting plans. Four regions (Calabria, Campania, Puglia, and Sicilia) took part in the project. This article describes the methodology of development and implementation of HIA guidelines in the Italian context. The tools created to collect data and assess health consequences (such as screening and scoping grids) are reported. This project represents the first structured initiative proposed and supported by the Ministry of Health aiming to introduce HIA in Italy. HIA should be considered a priority in the public health agenda, as a fundamental instrument in helping decision makers to make choices about alternatives to prevent disease/injury and to actively promote health.

Background: Defensive medicine affects healthcare systems worldwide. The concerns and perception about medical liability could lead practitioners to practise defensive medicine. Second victim is a healthcare worker involved in an unanticipated adverse patient event. The role of being second victim and the other possible determinants for defensive medicine is mostly unclear., Objective: To study the condition of being second victim as a possible determinants of defensive medicine among Italian hospital physicians., Design, Setting and Participants: A secondary analysis of the database of the national survey study on the prevalence and the costs of defensive medicine in Italy that was carried out between April 2014 and June 2014 in 55 Italian hospitals was performed for this study. The demographic section of the questionnaire was selected including the physician's age, gender, specialty, activity volume, grade and the variable being a second victim after an adverse event., Results: A total sample of 1313 physicians (87.5% response rate) was used in the data analyses. Characteristics of the participants included a mean age 49.2 of years and 19.4 average years of experience. The most prominent predictor for practising defensive medicine was the physicians' experience of being a second victim after an adverse event (OR=1.88; 95%CI, 1.38-2.57). Other determinants included age, years of experience, activity volume and risk of specialty., Conclusions: Malpractice reform, effective support to second victims in hospitals together with a systematic use of evidence-based clinical guidelines, emerged as possible recommendations for reducing defensive medicine., (Copyright © 2016 SECA. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.)

Background: The aims of this study were to estimate the existence of clusters of AROs in the municipalities of the Marches Region (Central Italy) after complaints from residents living near an abandoned landfill site., Methods: Cases of AROs (i.e., congenital malformation, chromosomal abnormalities, and low birth weight) were retrieved from hospital discharge data. SaTScan and GeoDa were used to check for the presence of clusters at a regional and a small area level. Moreover, at a small area/neighborhood level, smoothed rates were calculated, and a case-control approach was used to assess the residence in proximity to the abandoned landfill as an independent risk factor for AROs., Results: AROs were associated with the price per square meter of the accommodations in the area of residence (OR 2.53, 95 % CI 2.06-3.10). On the other hand, residence within one kilometer of the landfill (OR 0.04, 95 % CI 0.01-0.23) and maternal age greater than 35 years (OR 0.96, 95 % CI 0.92-0.99) were protective., Conclusions: Residency in proximity to the abandoned landfill was not a risk factor for the occurrence of AROs. The results show that basic information, such as the price of accommodations in different neighborhoods, could be of interest in order to target training programs for women living in difficult conditions and highlights the potential role of the building environment in perinatal health. However, we note that aside from the data provided by Geographic Information Systems in public health, collection of the patient's residential address was unreliable for selected conditions. Future efforts should emphasize the patient's residential address as information important for evaluating the health of individuals instead of being merely administrative data.

Objective: The aim of this paper was to evaluate socio-economic factors associated to poor primary care utilization by studying two specific subjects: the hospital readmission rate, and the use of the Emergency Department (ED) for non-urgent visits., Methods: The study was carried out by the analysis of administrative database for hospital readmission and with a specific survey for non-urgent ED use., Results: Among the 416,698 sampled admissions, 6.39% (95% CI, 6.32-6.47) of re-admissions have been registered; the distribution shows a high frequency of events in the age 65-84 years group, and in the intermediate care hospitals (51.97%; 95%CI 51.37-52.57). The regression model has shown the significant role played by age, type of structure (geriatric acute care), and deprivation index of the area of residence on the readmission, however, after adjusting for the intensity of primary care, the role of deprivation was no more significant. Non-urgent ED visits accounted for the 12.10%, (95%CI 9.38-15.27) of the total number of respondents to the questionnaire (N = 504). The likelihood of performing a non-urgent ED visit was higher among patients aged <65 years (OR 3.2, 95%CI 1.3-7.8 p = 0.008), while it was lower among those perceiving as urgent their health problem (OR 0.50, 95%CI 0.30-0.90)., Conclusions: In the Italian context repeated readmissions and ED utilization are linked to different trajectories, besides the increasing age and comorbidity of patients are the factors that are related to repeated admissions, the self-perceived trust in diagnostic technologies is an important risk factor in determining ED visits. Better use of public national health care service is mandatory, since its correct utilization is associated to increasing equity and better health care utilization.

A literature review was performed on the subject of defensive medicine, in order to gather information and evidence for identifying a shared definition of this phenomenon, identify its causes, quantify its frequency and its economic impact.Results show that defensive medicine is primarily the result of medical professionals adapting to the pressure of litigation risks, and whose behaviour is motivated by fear of malpractice claims rather than by the patient's health. Defensive medicine seems to have become a diffuse phenomenon, afflicting all diagnostic-therapeutic areas and some disciplines to a greater degree, and leading to a large waste of human, organizational and economic resources.

Background: Healthcare professionals have an important role to play both as advisers-influencing smoking cessation-and as role models. However, many of them continue to smoke. The aims of this study were to examine smoking prevalence, knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours among four cohorts physicians specializing in public health, according to the Global Health Profession Students Survey (GHPSS) approach., Materials and Methods: A multicentre cross-sectional study was carried out in 24 Italian schools of public health. The survey was conducted between January and April 2012 and it was carried out a census of students in the selected schools for each years of course (from first to fourth year of attendance), therefore among four cohorts of physicians specializing in Public Health (for a total of n. 459 medical doctors). The GHPSS questionnaires were self-administered via a special website which is created ad hoc for the survey. Logistic regression model was used to identify possible associations with tobacco smoking status. Hosmer-Lemeshow test was performed. The level of significance was P ≤ 0.05., Results: A total of 388 answered the questionnaire on the website (85%), of which 81 (20.9%) declared to be smokers, 309 (79.6%) considered health professionals as behavioural models for patients, and 375 (96.6%) affirmed that health professionals have a role in giving advice or information about smoking cessation. Although 388 (89.7%) heard about smoking related issues during undergraduate courses, only 17% received specific smoking cessation training during specialization., Conclusions: The present study highlights the importance of focusing attention on smoking cessation training, given the high prevalence of smokers among physicians specializing in public health, their key role both as advisers and behavioural models, and the limited tobacco training offered in public health schools.

"Second victims" are health care providers who remain traumatized and suffer at the psycho-physical level after being involved in a patient adverse event. A systematic review of the literature was conducted to: a) estimate the prevalence of second victims among healthcare workers, b) describe personal and work outcomes of second victims, c) identify coping strategies used by second victims to face their problems, and d) describe current support strategies. Findings reveal that the prevalence of "second victims" of medical errors is high, ranging in four studies from 10.4% to 43.3%. Medical errors have a negative impact on healthcare providers involved, leading to physical, cognitive and behavioural symptoms including the practice of defensive medicine. Managers of health organizations need to be aware of the "second victim" phenomenon and ensure adequate support is given to healthcare providers involved. The best strategy seems to be the creation of networks of support at both the individual and organizational levels. More research is needed to evaluate the efficacy of support structures for second victims and to quantify the extent of the practice of defensive medicine following medical error.

The aim of our study was to describe the distribution of Visceral Leishmaniasis (VL) in Italy, focusing on HIV-infected patients, to estimate the burden of the disease and the public health actions that should be undertaken. A review of official notifications and hospitalization data has been performed. From 2006 to 2008, a total of 289 cases of VL were notified; the overall notification rate was 1.63/1,000,000 (95% CI 1.45-1.83). In total, 1192 VL-associated hospitalizations were detected, with a hospitalization rate of 6.71/1,000,000 (95% CI 6.34-7.10). For the age group "≤ 24 years", a statistically significant increase was detected (p<0.05). A total of 68.9% (n = 821) of hospitalizations were detected in HIV-positive patients. The geographic distribution of rates revealed a significant increase in the north-eastern area of the country. Our study confirms that the epidemiological pattern of VL is changing and that, in Italy, control measures and preventive strategies should be based on not only the official notification system but also hospital data. This would lead to the identification of areas of parasite spread and to the creation of awareness campaigns geared toward general practitioners in the affected areas. Easy case detection would allow for timely public health actions and strategies for the implementation of more effective interventions for reservoir control., (Copyright © 2013 King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Objectives: In family medicine contrasting evidence exists on the effectiveness of team practice compared with solo practice on chronic disease management. In Italy, several experiences of team practice have been introduced since the late 1990s but few studies detail their impact on the quality of care. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the impact of team practice in family medicine in six Italian regions using chronic disease management process indicators as a measure of outcome., Methods: Cross-sectional studies were performed to assess impact on quality of care for diabetes, congestive heart failure and ischaemic heart disease. The impact of team vs. solo practice was approximated through performance comparison of general practitioners (GPs) adhering to a team with respect to GPs working in a solo practice. Among the 2082 practitioners working in the 6 regions those assisting 300+ patients were selected. Quality of care towards 164,267 patients having at least one of three chronic conditions was estimated for the year 2008 using administrative databases. Quality indicators (% of patients receiving appropriate care) were selected (4 for diabetes, 4 for congestive heart failure, 3 for ischaemic heart disease) and a total score was computed for each patient. For each disease the response variable associated to each physician was the average score of the patients on his/her list. A multilevel model was estimated assessing the impact of team vs. solo practice., Results: No impact was found for diabetes and heart failure. For ischaemic heart disease a slightly significant impact was observed (0.040; 95% CI: 0.015, 0.065)., Conclusions: No significant difference was found between team practice and solo practice on chronic disease management in six Italian regions., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.)

We analyzed seasonal influenza vaccination coverage among the Italian healthcare workers (HCW) in order to identify socio-demographic and clinical determinants of vaccination. We used data from the survey "Health and health care use in Italy," which comprised interviews of 5,336 HCWs For each respondent, information on socioeconomic, health conditions, self-perceived health and smoking status were obtained. After bivariate analysis, we used multilevel regression models to assess determinants of immunization. Overall 20.8% of HCWs (95%CI 19.7-21.9) reported being vaccinated against seasonal influenza. After controlling for potential confounders, multilevel regression revealed that older workers have a higher likelihood of vaccine uptake (OR = 6.07; 95% CI 4.72-7.79). Conversely, higher education was associated with lower vaccine uptake (OR = 0.65; 95% IC 0.50-0.83). Those suffering from diabetes (OR = 2.07; 95% CI 1.19-1.69), COPD (OR = 1.95; 95% CI 1.31-2.89) and cardiovascular diseases (OR = 1.48 95% CI 1.11-1.96) were more likely to be vaccinated. Likewise, smokers, or former smokers receive more frequently the vaccination (OR = 1.40; 95% CI 1.15-1.70; OR = 1.54; 95% CI 1.24-1.91, respectively) compared with never-smokers as well as those HCWs reporting fair or poor perceived health status (ORs of 1.68, 95% CI 1.30-2.18). Vaccine coverage among HCWs in Italy remains low, especially among those with no comorbidities and being younger than 44 y old. This behavior not only raises questions regarding healthcare organization, infection control in healthcare settings and clinical costs, but also brings up ethical issues concerning physicians who seem not to be very concerned about the impact of the flu on themselves, as well as on their patients. Influenza vaccination campaigns will only be effective if HCWs understand their role in influenza transmission and prevention, and realize the importance of vaccination as a preventive measure.

Background: The Italian National Health Plan 2011-2013 expressly recognizes the Tallinn Charter as the most solid international reference for the definition of National priorities. At sub-national level, many regions apply performance monitoring as an integral part of quality improvement policies., Methods: A national workshop allowed reviewing the state of the art of performance monitoring in Italian regions and Autonomous Provinces in relation to the Tallinn Charter. Participants included representatives of regions and Autonomous Provinces, the National Agency of Regional Health Services, the Italian Ministry of Health and WHO Europe. Six specific questions were used to facilitate brainstorming and to collect updated information., Results: A total of eighteen regions out of twenty-one participated in the meeting. Ten regions were found to use different systems for performance evaluation: two adopting a unique balanced scorecard, two applying different systems for different levels of governance, six using a structured multidimensional system. Different organizational and operational capacities affect the ability to uptake information for policy making., Conclusions: Italian regions are striving to respond to the collective need of performance improvement, through an increased production of systems of indicators and achievement reports that still need to be made comparable across the country. The Tallinn Charter may provide a common platform to improve and share best practices in performance monitoring. The experience of Italian regions is relevant for the international debate and provides specific responses to general questions that can be usefully applied in other decentralized contexts., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Background: Clinical pathways (CPs) are used to improve the outcomes of acute stroke, but their use in stroke care is questionable, because the evidence on their effectiveness is still inconclusive. The objective of this study was to evaluate whether CPs improve the outcomes and the quality of care provided to patients after acute ischemic stroke., Methods: This was a multicentre cluster-randomized trial, in which 14 hospitals were randomized to the CP arm or to the non intervention/usual care (UC) arm. Healthcare workers in the CP arm received 3 days of training in quality improvement of CPs and in use of a standardized package including information on evidence-based key interventions and indicators. Healthcare workers in the usual-care arm followed their standard procedures. The teams in the CP arm developed their CPs over a 6-month period. The primary end point was mortality. Secondary end points were: use of diagnostic and therapeutic procedures, implementation of organized care, length of stay, re-admission and institutionalization rates after discharge, dependency levels, and complication rates., Results: Compared with the patients in the UC arm, the patients in the CP arm had a significantly lower risk of mortality at 7 days (OR = 0.10; 95% CI 0.01 to 0.95) and significantly lower rates of adverse functional outcomes, expressed as the odds of not returning to pre-stroke functioning in their daily life (OR = 0.42; 95 CI 0.18 to 0.98). There was no significant effect on 30-day mortality. Compared with the UC arm, the hospital diagnostic and therapeutic procedures were performed more appropriately in the CP arm, and the evidence-based key interventions and organized care were more applied in the CP arm., Conclusions: CPs can significantly improve the outcomes of patients with ischemic patients with stroke, indicating better application of evidence-based key interventions and of diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. This study tested a new hypothesis and provided evidence on how CPs can work., Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov ID: [NCT00673491].

Background: In spite of the World Health Organization's recommendations to maintain caesarean delivery (CD) between 5% and 15% of total births, the rates of CD continue to rise in countries with routine access to medical services. As in Italy CD rate reached 38% in 2008, the highest at EU level, we evaluated socioeconomic and clinical correlates of "elective" and "non programmed" CD in the Country. We performed a stratified analysis in order to verify whether the effect of such correlates differed among women with an "a priori" preference for natural and caesarean delivery respectively., Methods and Findings: We analyzed cross-sectional data from the Italian National Statistics Institute (ISTAT) survey on health condition. Socio-demographic variables, information on maternal care services use and health conditions during pregnancy, as well as maternal preferences on delivery, were available for a representative sample of 2,474 primiparous women. After an initial bivariate analysis, we used logistic regressions to evaluate factors associated to the study outcomes. Overall CD accounted for 35.5% of the total births in our sample (CI 33.6-37.4%); moreover, 30.7% (CI 28.6-32.6%) of women preferring natural delivery actually delivered with a CD. Elective CD rate is higher among women over 35 years (22.9%, CI 18.8-27.4%), and those living in the South (26.2%, CI 23.0-29.6%). The multivariate analysis showed that, even adjusting for several confounders, women in the South, receiving care in the private sector had higher chances of CD, also in case of preference for natural delivery., Conclusion: Policy interventions are required to reduce the rate of undesired CD, e.g. increasing women knowledge regarding delivery in order to favour aware choices. An effective strategy to reduce CD rate should address the Southern Regions, as women here appear to have a very limited control over the delivery, in spite of a widespread preference for natural delivery.

The researchers' aims were to estimate the prevalence of postpartum depressive symptoms in Italy. Cross-sectional data from the survey, "Health and use of health care in Italy" were analyzed. The authors focused on 5,812 women, pregnant some time during five years before the survey. Multiple logistic regression was used to evaluate risk factors independently associated with postpartum depressive symptoms. Evaluation of seasonal trends was also performed.In the total sample, 23.5% (n = 1,365) reported having suffered postpartum depressive symptoms: 20.7% experienced baby blues, and 2.8% postpartum depression. Factors significantly associated with baby blues were, among others, living in northern or central areas (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 1.88; 95%CI 1.57-2.15 and 1.40; 95%CI 1.20-1.63, respectively), history of depression (aOR 1.34; 95%CI 1.15-1.56), and attendance at antenatal classes (aOR 1.13; 95%CI 1.04-1.22). Factors significantly associated with postpartum depression were: anamnesis of depression (aOR 3.32; 95%CI 2.69-4.09), gaining more than 16 kg of weight during pregnancy (aOR 1.48; 95%CI 1.03-2.12), and undergoing a cesarean section (planned: aOR 1.56; 95%CI 1.05-2.29; unplanned: aOR 1.78; 95%CI 1.16-2.73). Multiparity was a protective factor both for baby blues (aOR 0.80; 95%CI 0.70-0.91), and postpartum depression (aOR 0.71; 95%CI 0.51-0.98). No clear seasonality was observed for postpartum depression, while for baby blues a certain aggregation of events was registered during the central months of the year. The authors' study highlighted variables associated with baby blues and postpartum depression to target screening for women for postpartum depressive symptoms.