Perceptions of Tobacco Price Policy among Students from Sapienza University of Rome: Can This Policy Mitigate Smoking Addiction and Its Health Impacts?

Tobacco use is one of the main risk factors for non-communicable diseases. Avoiding youth initiation and treating addiction are fundamental public health issues to ensure better health. Among tobacco control policies, increasing tobacco price is the single most effective intervention. It reduces tobacco consumption, especially among youths, while representing a government financing source. This study aimed to assess the agreement with the proposal of a one-euro increase in tobacco price earmarked to health issues among students at Sapienza University. Two convenience samples were surveyed, five years apart, on World No Tobacco Days. Smoking habits, agreement with the proposal and reasons for it were collected. Results from the 208 questionnaires (107 in 2014, 101 in 2019) showed 46.6% of agreement with the proposal (53.3% in 2014, 39.2% in 2019, p = 0.044). Main predictive factor for agreement was being a non-smoker (OR = 6.33 p < 0.001), main reason (64.8%) was it could trigger smokers to quit or reduce consumption. Several factors might have influenced this finding, including the introduction of novel tobacco products and their increased advertisement on social media. In 2024, European Union is planning to update the Tobacco Taxation Directive which could greatly contribute to the reduction of non-communicable diseases and premature deaths.

Prevalence of chronic pancreatitis: Results of a primary care physician-based population study.

BACKGROUND: Data on chronic pancreatitis prevalence are scanty and usually limited to hospital-based studies. AIM: Investigating chronic pancreatitis prevalence in primary care. METHODS: Participating primary care physicians reported the prevalence of chronic pancreatitis among their registered patients, environmental factors and disease characteristics. The data were centrally reviewed and chronic pancreatitis cases defined according to M-ANNHEIM criteria for diagnosis and severity and TIGAR-O classification for etiology. RESULTS: Twenty-three primary care physicians participated in the study. According to their judgment, 51 of 36.401 patients had chronic pancreatitis. After reviewing each patient data, 11 turned out to have definite, 5 probable, 19 borderline and 16 uncertain disease. Prevalence was 30.2/100.000 for definite cases and 44.0/100.000 for definite plus probable cases. Of the 16 patients with definite/probable diagnosis, 8 were male, with mean age of 55.6 (±16.7). Four patients had alcoholic etiology, 5 post-acute/recurrent pancreatitis, 6 were deemed to be idiopathic. Four had pancreatic exocrine insufficiency, 10 were receiving pancreatic enzymes, and six had pain. Most patients had initial stage and non-severe disease. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first study investigating the prevalence of chronic pancreatitis in primary care. Results suggest that the prevalence in this context is higher than in hospital-based studies, with specific features, possibly representing an earlier disease stage.

How long will it take to reduce gastric cancer incidence by eradicating Helicobacter pylori infection?

Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) is the most important risk factor for the development of gastric cancer. The objective of this article is to estimate how the number of clinically diagnosed cases caused by H. pylori would reduce in the years after the eradication of the infection from a population. It is assumed that the eradication of H. pylori will prevent the start of some new gastric tumors, but those that have passed the "point of no return" will continue to develop until diagnosed clinically. The observed reduction in the number of clinically diagnosed cases of gastric cancer will depend on the form and parameters of the distribution of the time t taken for tumor to develop into a clinical case after passing the "point of no return." This analysis assumes that the time t follows normal and log-normal distributions with means 5, 10, and 15 years. If the mean value of time t were 5 years, H. pylori caused cases should be almost eliminated after 10 years, whereas if the mean were 10 years, the number of cases should be halved. If the mean were 15 years, the reduction would only be about 15% after 10 years. The eradication of H. pylori from a population will reduce the incidence of gastric cancer, but the follow-up time needed to show and evaluate the reduction may be longer than that that has been used in studies published so far.

[The role of the quality of hospital discharge records on the comparative evaluation of outcomes: the example of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)]. / Ruolo della qualità delle schede di dimissione ospedaliera nella valutazione comparativa degli esiti: l'esempio della BPCO riacutizzata.

OBJECTIVE: To analyse the results of the regional comparative evaluation of the outcome "thirty days mortality after admission for reacutized Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)" before and after a reabstract study. DESIGN: Reabstract study of clinical records included in the regional comparative evaluation. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: 232 clinical records retrieved from Grassi Hospital archives (years 2006-2007) and reviewed by two physicians and one nurse specifically trained. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Models performed before and after reabstract study for comparative evaluation of the outcome were compared. Blind coding of diagnosis and interventions/procedures was completed according to a standard grid consistent with regional guidelines for Hospital Discharge Record coding. Other information was registered, if present on discharge record: smoking habit, number of reacutizations occurred within previous year, use of oxigen and/or other therapies, pneumological visit at discharge. RESULTS: The majority (94%) of reviewed cases were confirmed as being cases of COPD. A total of 168 cases (72%) have been identified as reacutized COPD coherent with enrolment criteria of regional program, 49 (21%) have been identified as COPD and only 15 cases (6%) resulted not affected by COPD. Results of the regional comparative model were substantially unchanged for Grassi hospital (RR =23 vs RR =24). Accurateness of clinical documentation resulted inadequate especially regarding information at discharge (50% missing information on smoking habit, 83% on previous year reacutizations, 22% on follow-up organization after discharge). CONCLUSION: This study contributes to the debate on the role of administrative data on the comparative evaluation of health outcomes. Other relevant issues are to promote the collaboration among different health professionals working in the same hospital, and to increase the awareness of the importance of the quality of health and administrative data.

[Malariology offprints in the Bignami archive]. / Estratti di argomento malariologico nell'archivio Bignami.

The offprint collection in the Bignami archive dates from 1865 to 1972. It consists of 301 offprints, published in various Western countries, focusing on malaria and its eradication. The offprints can be classified by subject: on the zoology of parasites, on malarial infection, on the course and treatment of malarial fever, on pharmacology. Besides providing a sample of the state of the art on malariology in the period, they offer evidence concerning the network and activities of malariologists in Italy and abroad.