Conspiracy beliefs, COVID-19 vaccine uptake and adherence to public health interventions during the pandemic in Europe

Background: Conspiracy beliefs can be a major hindrance causing a lack of compliance with public health measures, including vaccination. We examined the relationship between individual attitudes, socio-demographic factors, conspiracy beliefs, COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and preferences about pandemic policies in Europe. Methods: We used data from the 10th round of the European Social Survey, conducted in 2021-22 in 17 European countries. Both a conspiracy index and a personal attitude index for each participant were built by using a Latent Class Analysis model. Then, we used a multilevel regression model to investigate the relationship between a personal attitudes index, socio-demographic factors and country of residence, and a conspiracy index. We descriptively analyse the relationship between the conspiracy index and four main items related to COVID-19. Results: We found that a higher probability of believing in conspiracy theories was associated with male gender, middle age, lower levels of education, unemployment, lower levels of trust and satisfaction and right-wing political orientation. The country of residence was a contextual factor, with eastern European countries having higher levels of conspiracy beliefs. Individuals who expressed conspiracy beliefs had lower COVID-19 vaccine uptake, were less satisfied with the way health services coped with the pandemic and less supportive of governmental restrictions. Conclusions: This study provides valuable insights into the factors associated with conspiracy beliefs and their potential impact on public health. The findings highlight the need for effective strategies to address the underlying factors driving conspiracy beliefs, reduce vaccine hesitancy and promote acceptance of public health interventions

Workers’ Aging Management—Human Fatigue at Work: An Experimental Offices Study

The aging issue in the work context is becoming a significant element of the future sustainability of service and industrial companies. It is well known that with increasing worker age the problem of maintaining the performance and the safety level when fatigue increases is a crucial point, and fatigue increases with the age. Due to social and political developments, especially in Western countries, the retirement age is increasing and companies operate with a higher workforce mean age. Therefore, the problem of recognizing and measuring fatigue has become a key aspect in the management of aging. Note that in the scientific engineering field, the problem of fatigue evaluation when a worker is performing his/her work activities is an important issue in the industrial and service world and especially in the context of the researchers that are investigating the human reliability assessment. As it is clear from the literature, the industrial operations management are suffering from some misleading concepts that only the medicine scientific context can clarify. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to define what are the open issues and the misleading concepts present in the classical fatigue evaluation methods, and second to define two experimental curves of fatigue that will help the decision makers to minimize the impact of fatigue on the workers, thus maximizing the sustainability of the working tasks assigned. This aim is achieved by examining the medical literature about the measurement of a particular kind of fatigue related to the circadian cycle, i.e., the cognitive one; after that, a survey about the possible technologies for measurements is performed. On the basis of technology selection, an experiment on real work activities is performed and some remarkable results about the fatigue in the workers observed and the technology use and its limitations are defined

European Social Survey (Round 10): opinioni e atteggiamenti su nuove tecnologie, benessere, lavoro, apprendimento, salute, immigrazione

La European Social Survey è un'indagine comparata condotta, a cadenza biennale, da oltre 20 anni in più di 20 Paesi europei. L'Inapp, su designazione del Ministero del Lavoro e delle Politiche sociali, rappresenta l'Italia nel Consorzio europeo che coordina la realizzazione della survey (ESS ERIC). Il presente Rapporto ha l’obiettivo di presentare i principali risultati della rilevazione svolta in Italia nell’ambito della decima edizione (Round 10) di ESS, concentrandosi su alcune tematiche rilevanti per l’Inapp. I temi di approfondimento riguardano: l’utilizzo di Internet e delle nuove tecnologie digitali della comunicazione; il benessere soggettivo e sociale; la soddisfazione lavorativa e l’interazione lavoro-vita privata; la partecipazione degli individui ai percorsi di apprendimento e la loro percezione rispetto allo stato del sistema educativo e formativo, alla propria condizione di salute ed allo stato del sistema sanitario, alle misure per ridurre le diseguaglianze nella distribuzione dei redditi e contrastare la povertà; le opinioni ed i comportamenti verso gli immigrati

Low in‑hospital mortality rate in patients with COVID‑19 receiving thromboprophylaxis: data from the multicentre observational START‑COVID Register

Abstract COVID-19 infection causes respiratory pathology with severe interstitial pneumonia and extra-pulmonary complications; in particular, it may predispose to thromboembolic disease. The current guidelines recommend the use of thromboprophylaxis in patients with COVID-19, however, the optimal heparin dosage treatment is not well-established. We conducted a multicentre, Italian, retrospective, observational study on COVID-19 patients admitted to ordinary wards, to describe clinical characteristic of patients at admission, bleeding and thrombotic events occurring during hospital stay. The strategies used for thromboprophylaxis and its role on patient outcome were, also, described. 1091 patients hospitalized were included in the START-COVID-19 Register. During hospital stay, 769 (70.7%) patients were treated with antithrombotic drugs: low molecular weight heparin (the great majority enoxaparin), fondaparinux, or unfractioned heparin. These patients were more frequently affected by comorbidities, such as hypertension, atrial fibrillation, previous thromboembolism, neurological disease,and cancer with respect to patients who did not receive thromboprophylaxis. During hospital stay, 1.2% patients had a major bleeding event. All patients were treated with antithrombotic drugs; 5.4%, had venous thromboembolism [30.5% deep vein thrombosis (DVT), 66.1% pulmonary embolism (PE), and 3.4% patients had DVT + PE]. In our cohort the mortality rate was 18.3%. Heparin use was independently associated with survival in patients aged ≥ 59 years at multivariable analysis. We confirmed the high mortality rate of COVID-19 in hospitalized patients in ordinary wards. Treatment with antithrombotic drugs is significantly associated with a reduction of mortality rates especially in patients older than 59 years

Clinical features and outcomes of elderly hospitalised patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, heart failure or both

Background and objective: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and heart failure (HF) mutually increase the risk of being present in the same patient, especially if older. Whether or not this coexistence may be associated with a worse prognosis is debated. Therefore, employing data derived from the REPOSI register, we evaluated the clinical features and outcomes in a population of elderly patients admitted to internal medicine wards and having COPD, HF or COPD + HF. Methods: We measured socio-demographic and anthropometric characteristics, severity and prevalence of comorbidities, clinical and laboratory features during hospitalization, mood disorders, functional independence, drug prescriptions and discharge destination. The primary study outcome was the risk of death. Results: We considered 2,343 elderly hospitalized patients (median age 81 years), of whom 1,154 (49%) had COPD, 813 (35%) HF, and 376 (16%) COPD + HF. Patients with COPD + HF had different characteristics than those with COPD or HF, such as a higher prevalence of previous hospitalizations, comorbidities (especially chronic kidney disease), higher respiratory rate at admission and number of prescribed drugs. Patients with COPD + HF (hazard ratio HR 1.74, 95% confidence intervals CI 1.16-2.61) and patients with dementia (HR 1.75, 95% CI 1.06-2.90) had a higher risk of death at one year. The Kaplan-Meier curves showed a higher mortality risk in the group of patients with COPD + HF for all causes (p = 0.010), respiratory causes (p = 0.006), cardiovascular causes (p = 0.046) and respiratory plus cardiovascular causes (p = 0.009). Conclusion: In this real-life cohort of hospitalized elderly patients, the coexistence of COPD and HF significantly worsened prognosis at one year. This finding may help to better define the care needs of this population

Prospective validation of the CLIP score: a new prognostic system for patient with cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma

Prognosis of patients with cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) depends on both residual liver function and tumor extension. The CLIP score includes Child-Pugh stage, tumor morphology and extension, serum alfa-fetoprotein (AFP) levels, and portal vein thrombosis. We externally validated the CLIP score and compared its discriminatory ability and predictive power with that of the Okuda staging system in 196 patients with cirrhosis and HCC prospectively enrolled in a randomized trial. No significant associations were found between the CLIP score and the age, sex, and pattern of viral infection. There was a strong correlation between the CLIP score and the Okuda stage, As of June 1999, 150 patients (76.5%) had died. Median survival time was 11 months, overall, and it was 36, 22, 9, 7, and 3 months for CLIP categories 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4 to 6, respectively. In multivariate analysis, the CLIP score had additional explanatory power above that of the Okuda stage. This was true for both patients treated with locoregional therapy or not. A quantitative estimation of 2-year survival predictive power showed that the CLIP score explained 37% of survival variability, compared with 21% explained by Okuda stage. In conclusion, the CLIP score, compared with the Okuda staging system, gives more accurate prognostic information, is statistically more efficient, and has a greater survival predictive power. It could be useful in treatment planning by improving baseline prognostic evaluation of patients with RCC, and could be used in prospective therapeutic trials as a stratification variable, reducing the variability of results owing to patient selection

La transizione all'università tra origine sociale e background migratorio. Evidenze italiane dai dati della RCFL (2015-2019)

L’obiettivo del presente contributo è quello di indagare alcuni aspetti fondamentali dei processi di transizione all’università ponendo attenzione alla classe sociale di origine e al background migratorio.l’obiettivo del presente contributo è quello di indagare alcuni aspetti fondamentali dei processi di transizione all’università ponendo attenzione alla classe sociale di origine e al background migratorio. la transizione all'università tra origine sociale e background migratorio. evidenze italiane dai dati della rcfl (2015-2019) pasquale di padov

I controlli della validità interna ed esterna

Tramite l'adozione di un disegno di ricerca di tipo sperimentale, ossia d'una specifica strategia di indagine che potesse permettere la manipolazione di alcune variabili e lo studio degli effetti di queste su altre, si è tentato valutare l’impatto di una campagna informativa volta a sensibilizzare i giovani laziali della scuola media superiore sui rischi collegati alle radiazioni ionizzanti. L'analisi delle risultanze di un disegno sperimentale non consta esclusivamente di una fase di elaborazione e sintesi dei dati, bensì richiede necessariamente una previa riflessione sul rispetto dei requisiti di validità interna ed esterna, senza la quale tutto il percorso successivo sarebbe quanto meno manchevole, se non addirittura inutile in caso di violazione degli assunti di base. L'affermazione di validità interna dell'esperimento è da intendersi come possibilità di difendere l'imputazione di causalità verso la variabile sperimentale X, costituita nel nostro caso dall'intervento formativo sul tema in questione, dall'influenza di altri fattori esterni, la cui influenza, se non controllata, è in grado di produrre risultanze sperimentali non interpretabili secondo quelle che erano le intenzioni del ricercatore, o di "invalidare", appunto, l'esperimento tout-court. Una volta accertata la solidità dal punto di vista interno all’esperimento, è succesivamente possibile procedere poi alla generalizzazione dei risultati dello, o, se si preferisce, valutare il suo grado di rappresentatività rispetto a tutti quei soggetti che nell'esperimento non sono stati coinvolti e ai quali vorremmo estendere le nostre conoscenze. A tale tipo di giudizio si attribuisce il nome di validità esterna