Searching for an alliance with journalism: a survey to investigate health literacy in Italy.

OBJECTIVES: This study (GLASS) aimed to explore low health literacy (HL) prevalence among journalists and general population and factors associated with low HL. METHODS: GLASS was an Italian online cross-sectional study. Questionnaires included instruments for different HL dimensions: single item literacy screener (SILS), medical term recognition test (METER), medical data interpretation test (MDIT). For each instrument, multiple regressions were performed. RESULTS: Participants were 665. A total of 24.6%, 85.0%, and 58.9% journalists and 19.5%, 77.8%, and 62.6% general population reported low HL (SILS, METER, MDIT, respectively). Regressions showed that journalists who had never written about health and journalists who had personally written about health without being health journalists had a higher likelihood of low HL compared with health journalists. CONCLUSION: Since journalists are key players in public health, our findings are relevant; especially considering the context of the current pandemic. It would be advisable to bolster a stronger collaboration between professionals in the media world and the scientific community.

Emotional eating and depression during the pandemic: QuarantEat, an Italian nationwide survey.

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to explore the consequences of the pandemic lockdown among the Italian general population by focusing on depression and emotional overeating (EO). METHODS: QuarantEat was an Italian, nationwide, cross-sectional study conducted using a computer-assisted web interview method (May 6-31, 2020). The 40-item questionnaire included the five-item World Health Organization Wellbeing Index and EO Questionnaire-5. Multivariable logistic regressions were performed. RESULTS: A total of 1865 adults participated in the study. Depression and EO were reported by 57.6% and 49.3%, respectively, of the sample. When considering multivariable models, women, students, participants who smoked more/equal during lockdown, and individuals with EO were more likely to report depression. Following a healthier diet or exercising during lockdown reduced the probability of depression. The likelihood of EO was higher for participants who were female, consumed more food, had a less healthy diet, were overweight and obese, consumed more chocolate, consumed more snacks between meals or before going to sleep/during the night, and were at risk for depression. Increasing age, having a relationship, and not having increased television/computer watching time while eating reduced the odds of EO. CONCLUSIONS: QuarantEat highlighted high levels of depression and EO right after the end of pandemic lockdown measures, and outlined the importance of the relationships between mental health and health risk behaviors, such as smoking, exercise, diet, and changes in eating behaviors due to the pandemic lockdown. Planning interventions using a holistic approach and reaching every individual to overcome the limits caused by the restrictive lockdown measures is essential.

How the reduction of working hours could influence health outcomes: a systematic review of published studies.

OBJECTIVES: The health effects of work-time arrangements have been largely studied for long working hours, whereas a lack of knowledge remains regarding the potential health impact of reduced work-time interventions. Therefore, we conducted this review in order to assess the relationships between work-time reduction and health outcomes. DESIGN: Systematic review of published studies. Medline, PsycINFO, Embase and Web of Science databases were searched from January 2000 up to November 2019. OUTCOMES: The primary outcome was the impact of reduced working time with retained salary on health effects, interventional and observational studies providing a quantitative analysis of any health-related outcome were included. Studies with qualitative research methods were excluded. RESULTS: A total of 3876 published articles were identified and 7 studies were selected for the final analysis, all with a longitudinal interventional design. The sample size ranged from 63 participants to 580 workers, mostly from healthcare settings. Two studies assessed a work-time reduction to 6 hours per day; two studies evaluated a weekly work-time reduction of 25%; two studies evaluated simultaneously a reduced weekly work-time reduction proportionally to the amount of time worked and a 2.5 hours of physical activity programme per week instead of work time; one study assessed a reduced weekly work-time reduction from 39 to 30 hours per week. A positive relationship between reduced working hours and working life quality, sleep and stress was observed. It is unclear whether work time reduction determined an improvement in general health outcomes, such as self-perceived health and well-being. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that the reduction of working hours with retained salary could be an effective workplace intervention for the improvement of employees' well-being, especially regarding stress and sleep. Further studies in different contexts are needed to better evaluate the impact of work-time reduction on other health outcomes.

COVID-19 Lockdown and Self-Perceived Changes of Food Choice, Waste, Impulse Buying and Their Determinants in Italy: QuarantEat, a Cross-Sectional Study.

Data about self-perceived food choice (FC) changes and their determinants during COVID-19 lockdowns are limited. This study investigated how the Italian lockdown affected self-perceived food purchases (FP), occurrence of impulse buying (IB), household food waste production (HFWP) and their determinants. A web-based cross-sectional survey was distributed in May 2020, collecting an opportunistic sample of the Italian population. A total of 1865 (70% females) people were enrolled, the median age was 29 (IQR 16.0). Most of the sample increased overall FP (53.4%), food consumption (43.4%), reduced HFWP (53.7%) and halved the prevalence of IB (20.9%) compared to the period before the lockdown (42.5%). Baking ingredients, fresh vegetables, fresh fruit and chocolate had the largest sales increase by individuals, while bakery products, fresh fish and salted snacks purchases highly decreased. Increased FP was associated with the occurrence of IB (adjOR 2.48, p < 0.001) and inversely associated with not having worked during lockdown (adjOR 0.71, p = 0.003). Multivariable logistic regressions revealed occurrence of IB was associated with low perceived dietary quality (adjOR 2.22, p < 0.001), resulting at risk, according to the Emotional Overeating Questionnaire (EOQ, adjOR 1.68, p < 0.001), and inversely associated with decreased HFWP (adjOR 0.73, p < 0.012). Reduced HFWP was associated with higher perceived dietary quality (adjOR 2.27, p < 0.001) and negatively associated with low score at WHO-5 Well-Being Index (adjOR 0.72, p = 0.002). The Italian lockdown highly affected FC behaviours, leading to positive and sustainable habits towards food purchase and consumption. Public health interventions are needed to keep these new positive effects and avoid negative consequences in case of future lockdowns.

Healthcare Workers' (HCWs) attitudes towards mandatory influenza vaccination: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Influenza is a disease responsible for thousands of deaths every year. Although healthcare workers (HCWs) represent a way of contagion for patients, vaccination coverage among them is low. Mandatory vaccination has been proposed, but controversies remain. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to assess the acceptance of mandatory vaccination by HCWs, and to investigate associated characteristics. MEDLINE, Scopus, Embase, PsycInfo, CINAHL and Web of Science were used to search for studies assessing the topic. PRISMA statements were followed. Of the 13,457 univocal records found, 52 studies were included in the systematic review and 40 in the meta-analysis. The pooled proportion of HCWs accepting the policy was of 61% (95% CI: 53%- 68%) but with great heterogeneity between continents (from 54% in Europe to 69% in Asia) and in different professionals (from 40% in nurses to 80% in students). Vaccinated HCWs agreed more frequently with mandatory vaccination than non-vaccinated ones. More studies that consider mandatory vaccination acceptance as the main outcome are needed, but the results of this study confirm that in some settings the majority of HCWs favour mandatory vaccination. This, combined with effects that a flu epidemic could have if overlapped to pandemics with similar symptoms, requires renewed considerations on mandatory vaccination.

Wrong administration route of medications in the domestic setting: a review of an underestimated public health topic.

Introduction: Since medication errors related to incorrect administration routes are less common than other errors, they are rarely considered when assessing patient mistakes. The present review was performed to search for papers assessing incorrect route medication errors made by adult patients with the aim of providing an overview of this phenomenon.Areas covered: PubMed, Scopus, and EMBASE were searched up to October 2019 using free text and MeSH terms, returning 7609 results. Papers were considered eligible if they considered incorrect administration route errors by adult patients in domestic settings. Eleven papers were included, primarily from National Poison Centers (NPCs) or similar institutions from USA or Europe (observation period: 1985-2014). The data showed how an incorrect route of self-administration is a concern for patient safety and should be considered when evaluating medication errors. Moreover, one of the main observations that the results highlighted was the difficulty of obtaining clear and precise data regarding self-administration.Expert opinion: NPC reports are a reliable but not exhaustive tool due to high underreporting; reports should provide additional information or insights into these issues. Additionally, improvements in drug packaging and labeling, proper plain language instruction and patient education could reduce the frequency of such errors.