Engaging adolescents in developing health education interventions: a multidisciplinary pilot project.

Adolescents engagement is fundamental to develop dedicated educational interventions. We piloted non-standard sociological methodology to assess risk perception, information sources and perceived educational needs of a group of Italian adolescents focusing on three infectious diseases. Three high-school classes students participated in a World Café event. A thematic analysis was performed. Participants showed lack of knowledge on diseases prevention. Family and school were key health information sources and social media considered unreliable. Future interventions preferences included interactive and informal sessions. We showed the utility of non-standard sociological methods to assess health knowledge among adolescents and enhance the design of dedicated interventions.

[The multidimensional concept of health and the gender category: theoretical and practical perspectives.] / Il concetto multidimensionale di salute e la categoria di genere: prospettive teoriche e applicative.

OBJECTIVES: This paper will examine the difficulties encountered in the bio-medical approach adopted to understand the psycho-social needs present in the clinical observation of a diseased body to the treatment of the person. METHODS: Traditional interpretation tools are not sufficient to comprehend the complexity of the factors involved in prevention processes, and the risk is that the introduction of new approaches will be delayed. Knowledge is an interactive, communicative and social process, meaning our focus shifts from the things we see to the way we see them, only to see what we don't normally see. RESULTS: As a result, the multi-dimensional concept of health implies a revised disciplinary status, particularly if the concept of gender is not to be considered synonymous with sex, but rather an interpretative category of the differences that characterize the roles, expectations and obligations of men and women from a cultural perspective. CONCLUSIONS: Indeed, the way in which we live our everyday life, our use of time, our work and family lives, opportunities and relationships, in addition to our access to services condition our perception of health and result in the risk of disease onset. It is for this reason that we need to examine doctor-patient relationships and caregiving practices.

[Gender-sensitive risk assessment and health medical surveillance: some operative tools.] / Valutazione dei rischi e sorveglianza sanitaria in ottica di genere: proposta di strumenti operativi.

OBJECTIVES: A thorough and fully application of the principles of gender mainstreaming, in accordance with the European Community guidelines, to the health and safety at work, implies the systematic review of the whole prevention from the gendered point of view. This means that both biology- and gender-based differences between male and female workers should be conceived not only as determinants of health but also as factors affecting either positively or negatively the health and safety risk prevention. In this evolutionary cultural step the role of the occupational physician is particularly important. METHODS: In this paper we propose some operative tools that can concretely implement gender perspective in all the various areas of prevention, where the occupational physician has a leading, if not even exclusive, role such as risk assessment, training and health medical surveillance.