[The plan for prevention of obesity of ASL RMB, Italy]. / Prevenzione dell'Obesità: l'esperienza del piano attuativo aziendale per la prevenzione dell'obesità in una ASL romana.

Lazio District, by pointing out the guidelines of the "Obesity and Overweight for Lazio District Plan" (DGR no1166, 23/12/05), enacts the "National Prevention Plan 2005-2007". The Public Health Service for Food and Nutrition has been the main player of the Plan; the District and Department of Health of the District had a technical and organizational support role. Within the development of the Plan for prevention of obesity of ASL RMB, a technical multidisciplinary group was constituted and three more programs were developed, all of them were dedicated to promotion and support of breast-feeding, prevention of obesity and overweight in childhood and adulthood. The educational activity concerning promotion and support of breast-feed ing actively involved operators from consultory rooms and hospital staff from ASL. The reports about nutritional surveillance allowed a careful analysis of the service conditions and priorities. Special criticality facets have been pointed out such as the high prevalence of overweight (31%) and obesity (7%), the habit of skipping breakfast, a low fruit and vegetables consumption, a generally sedentary lifestyle and, during the intervention, the parents' low involvement. In geriatric age cases, a high malnutrition risk both for overnutrition and undernutrition was found in the elderly groups that were checked; the diets' nutritional density as well as the physical activity aspect recover an important role in the intervention planning. Moreover the discussions with catering companies were an important aspect in order to make several target groups aware. The globally considered experience highlighted positive elements of mobilization, consensus, reorientation of activities and resources, giving proof of the significance of integration concerning specifical aims of different company services. Nevertheless, the carrying on of such activities needs resource investments in the specifical area and enlargement of activities especially for the multisector-based efforts.

[Overweight and obesity in Italian children aged 6-11 years]. / Prevalenza di sovrappeso ed obesità in Italia nella fascia di età 6-11 anni.

The objective of this study is to obtain reliable data from recent surveys carried out in Italy on the prevalence of overweight (OW) and obesity (OB) in children. We searched in MEDLINE/PubMed, Google and Google Scholar and we included the surveys that fulfilled the following criteria: English or Italian language, time period January 2000-April 2008, target of 6-11 years; BMI evaluated according to IOFT cut-offpoints. Search terms included overweight, obesity, children, Italy, associated with AND/OR. 41 studies have been selected; the percentage of OW varied between 14.7% and 31.3% and OB between 4.3% and 27.3%. In girls, OW values ranged from 11.5% to 34.7% and in boys from 12.6% to 30.1%; in girls, the percentage of OB varied between 4.7% and 29.2%, in boys between 4.4% and 25.8%. There were some variations in the prevalence of OW and OB among diferent regions. The highest values were in Central and Southern Italy, except for Sardinia, where the values were similar to that of Northern Italy. Beyond BMI, the most frequently collected variables were dietary pattern, physical activity, and lifestyle. School is the main site of investigation; third grades (8-9 years) is the most studied age group. The urgency to develop actions to contrast obesity in childhood is confirmed by the prevalence values observed in the Italian regions.

HEV prevalence in the general population and among workers at zoonotic risk in Latium Region.

Hepatitis E Virus (HEV) infections are responsible for large waterborne outbreaks in developing countries. Sporadic cases in the developed world are mainly imported from endemic areas. HEV has been suggested to be a zoonotic infection, for which pigs may be the reservoir; specific swine strains of HEV have been identified. Humans are susceptible to infections with swine strains. The aim of this study was to analyse whether Italian pig farmers, veterinarians and abattoir workers are more exposed than persons with other occupations. A total of 92 workers at zoonotic risk and 3511 controls from the general population of two Latium cities, Rome and Rieti, were tested for IgG-HEV antibodies. No significant difference in anti-HEV prevalence was observed between the two groups. The prevalence of general population was 2.9% against 3.3% of pig breeders, while there was a statistically significant difference (p = .0004) between subjects recruited in Rome (prevalence 2.5%) and those recruited in Rieti (prevalence 5.5%). Moreover, in some subgroups of general population and in a subgroup of pig breeders, the prevalence was higher than that previously reported in Italy and in other European countries. The highest value (33%) was found in male housekeepers enrolled in Rome; an analogous value was found in the employees of abattoirs (33%). Further studies are needed to elucidate the transmission routes.