[Contact with death or illness and career choice in non-medical healthprofessions and business students: a cross-sectional analysis]. / Contatto con morte, malattia e scelta della carriera nelle professioni sanitarie non mediche e negli studenti di economia: un'analisi trasversale.

UNLABELLED: . Contact with death or illness and career choice in non-medical health professions and business students: a cross-sectional analysis. PURPOSE: It is anecdotally reported that a personal severe illness or the death of a significant person might be key reasons for the choice of a career in the non-medical health professions. AIM: The aim of the questionnaire was to explore past relevant life events before starting professional studies (severe personal illness; severe illness or death of a significant person; drug addiction of a relative or friend) by comparing students of nursing or other non medical health professions with business students. METHODS: An anonymous questionnaire with standardized closed questions was distributed in 2010 to a group of bachelor students of non-medical health professions (nursing, physiotherapy, occupational therapy and rescue care) and to a control group of business students at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland. RESULTS: Students of non-medical health professions had been, compared to business students, significantly more exposed to severe illnesses or the death of a relative (OR 3.070, CI95% 1.716-5.494), to personal severe illness (OR 3.950, CI95% 1.384-11.279) and to addiction of a relative or friend (OR 2.672, CI95% 1.316-5.422) before starting their professional studies. CONCLUSIONS: This cross-sectional analysis suggests that exposure to a severe illness or death may play an important role in the choice of career, probably by supporting intrinsic motivations. Further research should explore the role of those past life experience in professional behavior.

Ability to pay and equity in access to Italian and British National Health Services.

BACKGROUND: Equity in delivery and distribution of health care is an important determinant of health and a cornerstone in the long way to social justice. We performed a comparative analysis of the prevalence of Italian and British residents who have fully paid out-of-pocket for health services which they could have obtained free of charge or at a lower cost from their respective National Health Services. METHODS: Cross-sectional study based on a standardized questionnaire survey carried out in autumn 2006 among two representative samples (n = 1000) of the general population aged 20-74 years in each of the two countries. RESULTS: 78% (OR 19.9; 95% CI 15.5-25.6) of Italian residents have fully paid out-of-pocket for at least one access to health services in their lives, and 45% (OR 18.1; 95% CI 12.9-25.5) for more than five accesses. Considering only the last 2 years, 61% (OR 16.5; 95% CI 12.6-21.5) of Italians have fully paid out-of-pocket for at least one access. The corresponding pattern for British residents is 20 and 4% for lifelong prevalence, and 10% for the last 2 years. CONCLUSIONS: Opening the public health facilities to a privileged private access to all hospital physicians based on patient's ability to pay, as Italy does, could be a source of social inequality in access to care and could probably represent a major obstacle to decreasing waiting times for patients in the standard formal 'free of charge' way of access.

Impact of job insecurity on sexual desire: an exploratory analysis.

PRINCIPLES: To explore, for the first time, the impact of job insecurity on sexual desire. METHODS: Cross-sectional analysis of a nationally representative sample of 7247 individuals aged 20-64 years working as full or part-time employees in Switzerland. RESULTS: The logistic regression analysis showed that workers aged 20-49 years perceiving high levels of job insecurity are exposed to a significantly higher risk of decrease of sexual desire compared to the reference group. The risk is 53% higher among men (OR 1.53; 95% CI 1.16-2.01) and 47% for woman (OR 1.47; 1.13-1.91). No increased risk was found for employees aged 50-64 years old. CONCLUSION: An increasing fear of job loss is associated with a deterioration in sexual desire. These first preliminary findings should promote further epidemiological and clinical prospective studies on the impact of job insecurity on intimate relationships and sexual dysfunction.