[Changes in alcohol consumption from youth to adulthood in Italy]. / Le variazioni nel consumo di alcol in Italia dall'età giovanile a quella adulta.

BACKGROUND: alcohol consumption is a significant risk factor for health at all ages. Consumption patterns and associated risks vary across countries and cultures and are affected by socio-demographic characteristics. The objective of the study was to assess changes in alcoholic beverage consumption patterns from youth to adulthood in Italy, and specifically in the North, Central and South-Islands geographic areas. METHODS: subjects who consume wine, beer and spirits/bitters/alcoholic aperitifs, as recorded by the Istat Multipurpose surveys "Aspects of daily life", were grouped into non-drinkers, occasional drinkers and drinkers of at least one glass a day. The percentage distribution of consumers in the 14-24 year age group in 1998 was compared with that of the 30-39 year age bracket in 2013 through a multivariate logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: in 1998, 39.1% of subjects aged 14-24 years in Italy did not consume alcohol, with a higher prevalence in Central Italy (41.3%). The likelihood of being an alcohol drinker was greater in subjects aged 30-39 years in 2013 compared to those aged 14-24 in 1998, as regards both occasional consumption (OR=1.515; p<0.05) and daily consumption (OR=2.144; p<0.05), the latter more markedly in the central regions. Furthermore, the likelihood of being a daily wine drinker (OR=2.889; p<0.05) and beer drinker (OR=1.602; p<0.05) increased, above all in the central regions, as was the case for occasional consumption of the same drinks. Consumption of spirits/bitters/alcoholic aperitifs only showed significant increases with regard to occasional drinking. CONCLUSIONS: alcohol consumption in adulthood compared to in youth in Italy confirms the traditional Mediterranean characteristics in conjunction with the presence of patterns more typical of Northern Europe.

Trends in consumption of alcoholic beverages and policy interventions in Europe: an uncertainty "associated" perspective.

Having qualitatively investigated, both the temporal curves of alcoholic beverage consumption trends and the introduction of preventive alcohol policy measures in six European countries during the 1960s-2000s, drinking control policy measures often appeared to operate as co-factors of change, while during some periods of time they were not even present even if effective consumption changes were occurring. Study limitations are noted.

[A systematic review of the effectiveness of workplace safety interventions]. / Revisione sistematica dell'efficacia degli interventi per la prevenzione degli infortuni sul lavoro.

INTRODUCTION: The authors carried out a systematic review of the effectiveness of workplace safety interventions, as a part of a wider project funded by CCM, Centre for Disease Control. METHODS: Several electronic bibliographic databases were checked, using a standardized string selection. The string contained the following four items: the intervention; job features; type of injury; efficacy/effectiveness. RESULTS: Of the various databases consulted, Web of Science was the most efficient. Overall 5531 articles were selected. After reading the title and abstract, 4695 were excluded and eventually 35 systematic reviews were selected, which synthesized 769 original articles. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: The main topics of the selected systematic reviews were: certain sectors (building industry, agriculture, health care); personal protective equipment; work organization and prevention management at plant level; evaluation of prevention policies by national and regional authorities. A clear need for multiple bibliographical data-base search emerged at the end of this study.

[Assessment of nutritional status in institutionalized elderly individuals through body impedance analysis]. / Stato nutrizionale negli anziani istituzionalizzati:applicazione dell'analisi bioimpedenziometrica.

The aim of this study was to describe changes in body composition and determine the prevalence of malnutrition or of risk of malnutrition in long institutionalized elderly patients. Four hundred five patients aged over 64 years were included in the study. Nutritional status was evaluated by means of questionnaire, height and weight measurements and bioelectrical Impedance Vector Analysis (BIVA). Height, weight and phase angle significantly diminished with increasing age. Significant gender differences were also found, with phase angle being lower in females with respect to males. BIVA confidence analysis showed significant differences in body composition between subjects of different ages and levels of physical self-sufficiency.Overall, a large proportion of subjects in this study had evidence of malnutrition or were shown to be at risk for malnutrition. This indicates the importance of performing nutritional risk screening in all institutionalized subjects upon admission and during their stay in nursing homes.

Body composition assessment in a sample of eight-year-old children.

OBJECTIVE: We assessed the body composition of 8-y-old children living in Livorno through the integration of bioelectrical and anthropometric evaluations. METHODS: The study, conducted during December 2005, involved 8-y-old third graders of Livorno, Italy. We collected for each subject (449 children, 210 female and 239 male) anthropometric parameters and carried out bioelectrical impedance test with a STA/BIA Soft Tissue Analyzer. Data were processed with SPSS 14.0. RESULTS: According to anthropometric parameters, a statistically significant difference between genders was found only for height. Percentages of overweight and obese children by gender were 13.9 and 2.4 for girls and 21.3 and 2.1 for boys (P<0.05). No significant differences were observed for weight, height, and body mass index percentiles from national reference values, whereras significant differences were found in mid-upper arm circumference between our sample and-lacking national data-the reference (U.S.) population for age and gender. With regard to bioelectrical impedance analysis, a common trend of distribution was observed in both genders toward the left and the area above the spatial ellipses and a statistically significant difference between genders for all parameters with the exception of phase angle. A gradual mean impedance shortening vector was observed with an increase of body mass index or mid-upper arm circumference. The comparison of the two techniques showed a good relation between anthropometric and bioelectrical parameters. CONCLUSION: An integrated interpretation of bioelectrical impedance analysis and anthropometry, demonstrated by the correlation of many parameters between the two techniques, seems to emerge as a good indication of nutritional status for most children of both genders.