Influenza and pneumococcal vaccinations are not associated to COVID-19 outcomes among patients admitted to a university hospital.

In order to reduce the burden on healthcare systems and to support differential diagnosis with COVID-19, influenza and pneumococcal vaccinations were strongly recommended during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in vulnerable groups. However, no univocal and conclusive evidence on the relationship between influenza and pneumococcal vaccinations and COVID-19 outcomes exists. We evaluated the association between such vaccinations, COVID-19 hospitalization, intensive care unit admissions and deaths in a cohort (N = 741) of COVID-19 patients who had access to the emergency room of a large Italian University hospital between March 1, 2020 and June 1, 2020. Results show that influenza and pneumococcal vaccinations did not affect hospitalization, intensive care unit admission and deaths in COVID-19 patients in the overall sample and in those ≥65 years. The same pattern of results was confirmed considering timing of influenza vaccine administration, vaccination type, and number of uptakes in the last five vaccination campaigns. In conclusion, our study does not support an impact of influenza and pneumococcal vaccinations on COVID-19 outcomes.

Effectiveness of influenza vaccine in reducing influenza-associated hospitalizations and deaths among the elderly population; Lazio region, Italy, season 2016-2017.

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to estimate influenza vaccine effectiveness (VE) in preventing influenza-related deaths and hospitalizations in the elderly population. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed the cohort of 1,251,218 elderly aged ≥65 years who were residing in the Lazio region in 2016-2017. We estimated influenza VE using the Cox proportional hazards model, adjusting for demographic characteristics, preexisting health-risk conditions, and prior vaccinations. RESULTS: Estimated VE was 14% (95% confidence interval (CI): 11 to 17); 26% (95%CI: 19 to 33) in preventing influenza-related deaths and 13% (95%CI: 10 to 16) in preventing influenza-related hospitalizations. Seasonal VE was higher in the elderly vaccinated in prior seasons (VE = 20%, 95%CI: 17 to 23). We found no significant differences in effectiveness by vaccine type, although the MF59-adjuvanted vaccine appeared more effective than other vaccines in individuals aged ≥75 years, particularly in those aged ≥90 years (VE = 18%, 95%CI: 9 to 26). CONCLUSIONS: Although VE was low, vaccination still provided benefits in preventing influenza-related hospitalizations and deaths in the elderly, particularly among those vaccinated in prior seasons. Efforts should therefore be made to improve vaccine uptake and the utilization of vaccines with greater effectiveness in the oldest elderly (e.g. high-dose and adjuvanted cell-based vaccines).

Influenza vaccine uptake in the elderly population: Individual and general practitioner's determinants in Central Italy, Lazio region, 2016-2017 season.

BACKGROUND: Elderly people are a priority target group for influenza vaccination and their decision to be vaccinated might partly depend on advice received from general practitioners (GP). This study aims to investigate the association between influenza vaccine uptake in the elderly residents in the Lazio region of Italy and the demographic and professional characteristics of their GPs, taking simultaneously into account the elderly's individual characteristics. METHODS: We used data retrieved from different administrative sources to retrospectively analyse the cohort of 1,255,657 elderly residents aged ≥65 years who were alive and registered in the regional healthcare service at the beginning of the 2016-2017 influenza vaccination campaign (1 Oct. 2016-31 Jan. 2017). We assessed influenza vaccine uptake at the end of the vaccination campaign and evaluated its association with both individual and GP-related characteristics through a multilevel Poisson regression models accounting for clustering at physician level. RESULTS: Overall, vaccination coverage at the end of vaccination campaign was 50.6%. Elderly residents who were male, older, vaccinated in the previous seasons, living in smaller provinces, and spending more money for specialist medical care showed a significantly increased probability to be vaccinated. Vaccine uptake was also significantly higher in the elderly residents assisted by GPs who got master's degree more recently, assisted a relatively high proportion of elderly patients, received influenza vaccination, had a computer assistant, and were associated with other physicians. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that influenza vaccination coverage in the elderly residents of the Lazio region is still unsatisfactorily low. We identified several determinants of influenza vaccine uptake, related to both individual and GP characteristics. Understanding how GP characteristics affected influenza vaccine uptake in the elderly population might provide insight on GPs' attitudes and concerns regarding influenza vaccination, allowing the implementation of targeted evidence-based interventions to sensitise GPs and increase vaccination coverage.

Health care costs and functional outcomes of road traffic injuries in the Lazio region of Italy.

The economic consequences of road traffic injuries (RTIs) are very important in terms of health care costs. The aim of this study is to provide estimates of health care costs of non-fatal RTIs and to estimate functional outcomes using in-hospital rehabilitation data. We identified all emergency department (ED) visits related to RTI during 2008 and then linked them with hospital discharges and rehabilitation admissions, health care costs following RTI were estimated from the integrated database. We performed an epidemiological evaluation of RTI with a comprehensive description of functional outcomes at 6 months. Health care costs have been estimated at about €80 million with a per person cost of €522. About 18% of the total cost was due to rehabilitation treatments. In multivariate analysis the variables that correlated better with higher total health care costs were: older age, injury severity, presence of spinal lesion. Patients requiring rehabilitation were: the elderly, patients suffering from a spinal cord injury and leg injuries. This study provides consistent health care cost estimates of RTI using administrative databases and it shows a picture of functional outcomes after RTI. Further research is needed for the estimation of other components of the total cost of RTI.

Impact of p16(INK4a) immunohistochemistry staining on interobserver agreement on the diagnosis of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia.

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to compare the interobserver Cohen κ on H&E staining and on H&E plus p16(INK4a) staining of all cervical biopsy specimens in a population-based screening program. METHODS: All the colposcopy-guided biopsies generated by the routine screening of 23,258 women aged 25 to 64 years were stained with H&E and H&E plus p16. Biopsy specimens were reviewed by six external experts. RESULTS: The four diagnoses were available in 441 cases. The interobserver κ values were 0.52 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.45-0.58) and 0.48 (95% CI, 0.42-0.56) with H&E and H&E + p16, respectively, when using a five-group classification (normal, CIN 1, CIN 2, CIN 3, and cancer); adopting a two-group classification (≤CIN 1 and ≥CIN 2), the values were 0.75 (95% CI, 0.66-0.82) and 0.70 (95% CI, 0.61-0.79), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The use of p16 on all cervical biopsy specimens in a screening program showed virtually no effect on reproducibility of the histologic diagnosis.

Prognostic value of p16-INK4A protein in women with negative or CIN1 histology result: a follow-up study.

P16-INK4A overexpression has been proposed as a prognostic marker to manage the follow up of women with positive cytology and/or HPV test but without high-grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN2+). This study measures the relative risk (RR) of CIN2+ of p16 positive versus negative in these women. All the women referred to colposcopy from October 2008 to September 2010 with negative or CIN1 colposcopy-guided biopsy were included in the study; women surgically treated or having a CIN2-3 were excluded. All baseline biopsies were dyed with hematoxylin and eosin and p16. Women were followed up according to screening protocols, with cytology or colposcopy at 6 or 12 months. CIN2/3 RRs and 95% confidence intervals (95%CI) were computed. Of 442 eligible women, 369 (83.5%) had at least one follow-up episode. At baseline, 113 (30.6%) were CIN1, 248 (67.2%) negative, and 8 (2.2%) inadequate histology; 293 (79.4%) were p16-negative, 64 (17.3%) p16 positive and 12 (3.2%) not valid. During follow up, we found ten CIN2 and three CIN3; of these, six were p16 positive (sensitivity 46%, 95% CI 19-75). The absolute risk among p16 positives was 9.4/100 compared to 1.7/100 of the p16 negatives (RR 5.5; 95% CI 1.7-17.4). The risk was also higher for CIN1 than for histologically negative women (RR 4.4; 95% CI 1.3-14.3). The RR for p16 in CIN1 did not change (RR 5.2; 95% CI 0.6-47.5). P16 overexpression is a good candidate for modulating follow-up intensity after a negative colposcopy but is limited by its low prospective sensitivity.

How socioeconomic status influences road traffic injuries and home injuries in Rome.

Road traffic injuries (RTI) and home injuries (HI) are a relevant public health problem, especially among people living in deprived areas. The objective of this study was to explore the relationship between morbidity, hospitalisation, mortality from RTI and HI, and socioeconomic status (SES) of the area of residence. RTI and HI surveillance based on the Emergency Information System, the Hospital Information System and the Mortality Registry of Lazio region are the three sources of this study to create a unique surveillance system. For each subject, the SES index (5 levels) of its census tract of residence was obtained. The study population included emergency department admissions (year 2005) of residents in Rome, Italy. Incidence Rate Ratios (IRRs) have been estimated using Poisson Regression. The rates of RTI and HI emergency department visits were higher among the most deprived level of SES (IRR = 1.27, 95% CI: 1.24-1.30; IRR = 1.33, 95% CI: 1.29-1.37, respectively) compared to the most privileged ones; a similar result was found for hospitalisation (IRR = 1.19, 95% CI: 1.08-1.32; IRR = 1.11, 95% CI: 1.01-1.22). A strong relation was found between RTI mortality rates and poor level of SES. The study concluded that RTI and HI incidence were associated to sociodemographic factors.

HPV type distribution in invasive cervical cancers in Italy: pooled analysis of three large studies.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to describe the prevalence of HPV types in invasive cervical cancers in Italy from 1996 to 2008. METHODS: A pooled analysis of the three largest case series typed to date was performed. HPV typing was performed on paraffin-embedded slices. Molecular analyses were performed in four laboratories. Multivariate analyses were performed to test the associations between calendar time, age, and geographical area and the proportion of types 16/18. RESULTS: Out of 574 cancers, 24 (4.2%) were HPV negative. HPV 16 and 18 were responsible for 74.4% (378/508) and 80.3% (49/61) of the squamous cancers and adenocarcinomas, respectively. Other frequent types were 31 (9.5%), 45 (6.4%), and 58 (3.3%) for squamous cancers and 45 (13.3%), 31, 35, and 58 (5.0%) for adenocarcinomas. The proportion of HPV 16 and/or 18 decreased with age (p-value for trend <0.03), while it increased in cancers diagnosed in more recent years (p-value for trend < 0.005). CONCLUSIONS: The impact of HPV 16/18 vaccine on cervical cancer will be greater for early onset cancers. In vaccinated women, screening could be started at an older age without reducing protection.

[Human Papilloma Virus (HPV), cervical cancer incidence and screening uptake: differences among Northern, Central and Southern Italy]. / Epidemiologia del Papilloma virus umano (HPV), incidenza del cancro della cervice uterina e diffusione dello screening: differenze fra macroaree in Italia.

OBJECTIVE: this article presents a review of evidences about Human Papillomavirus (HPV) and cervical cancer in Italy, highlighting geographical differences. DESIGN: two systematic reviews recently published were updated, one collecting studies on the prevalence of HPV types in Italy in the general population and the other collecting prevalence of HPV types in cervical pathologic samples.The search was updated to 31.10.2010 and performed exclusively in MedLine and references in retrieved papers. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: the prevalence of HPV types has been related with the incidence of cervical cancer and the spread of Pap tests and screening programs. RESULTS: the prevalence high risk HPV types is 8%in studies with population-based random sample, with no significant difference between Centre-North and South-Islands, however, the prevalence is slightly higher in the South than the Centre-North for women up to 54 years of age, whereas in older women the ratio is reversed. HPV 16 is the most common type, while HPV 18 is less frequent, 5% and 1% respectively. The average of HPV 16 positivity is 64% and 68% in CIN2/3 and invasive cancer respectively, while the average of HPV 18 is 7% and 11% in CIN2/3 and invasive cancer respectively. There are no significant differences by geographical area.The incidence of invasive cervical cancer in Italy has been decreasing in recent years changing from 9.2 to 7.7 per 100,000 inhabitants in 10 years. The incidence is lower in South-Islands. Pap test coverage is over 80% in Centre-North and less than 60%in South-Islands. CONCLUSIONS: cervical cancer incidence is lower in Southern Italy, while the Pap test coverage is much higher in Centre-Northern Italy. This paradox, until now, has been interpreted as a consequence of a lower HPV prevalence in Southern than Northern regions. Recent studies on HPV prevalence do not confirm this hypothesis. Our interpretation is that in Southern Italy we are facing an epidemiologic scenario in transition where the low cancer incidence is the consequence of a low HPV prevalence in the previous decades, but new generations are experiencing a higher prevalence of HPV and will probably have higher risk of cervical cancer. The consequence may be an epidemic of cervical cancer in the next decades, if adequate screening programs are not implemented.

Early and mid-term clinical outcome of emergency PCI in patients with STEMI due to unprotected left main coronary artery disease.

OBJECTIVES: Evaluation of acute and mid-term outcomes of patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) undergoing emergency PCI due to unprotected left main coronary artery (ULMCA) disease. BACKGROUND: STEMI patients due to ULMCA disease represent a rare, high risk group. Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) may be the preferred strategy of myocardial revascularization but there are few data about this topic. METHODS: We analyzed 30-day and mid-term mortality of 58 patients with STEMI and ULMCA disease as culprit lesion treated in our centre by emergency PCI between 2000 to 2010. RESULTS: Mean age was 67.3 ± 11.5 years. Thirty (51.7%) patients had cardiogenic shock on admission. PCI success was achieved in 54 patients (93.1%). Mean follow-up was 15.8 ± 10.9 months (median 14, range 6-45). Thirty-day and mid-term mortality rates were 39.7% and 44%. Backward binary logistic regression model identified cardiogenic shock at presentation (OR 12.6, 95% CI 2.97-53.6, P < 0.001), age ≥75 years (OR 5.9, 95% CI 1.3-26.5, P = 0.019) and post-PCI TIMI flow grade <3 (OR 2.9, 95% CI 1.8-5.7 P = 0.02) as independent predictors of 30-day mortality. Cox proportional hazard ratio (HR) identified shock at presentation (HR 5.2, 95% CI 1.8-14.3, P < 0.002), age ≥75 years (HR 3.9, 95% CI 1.8-8.7, P < 0.001), post-PCI TIMI flow grade <3 (HR 4.9, 95% CI 1.6-14.6; P < 0.005) as independent predictors of mid-term mortality. CONCLUSIONS: In patients with STEMI and ULMCA as culprit lesion, emergency PCI is a valuable therapeutic strategy. Early and mid-term survival depends on cardiogenic shock, advanced age, and PCI failure. Patients surviving the first month have good mid-term prognosis.

Can we use the pharmacy data to estimate the prevalence of chronic conditions? a comparison of multiple data sources.

BACKGROUND: The estimate of the prevalence of the most common chronic conditions (CCs) is calculated using direct methods such as prevalence surveys but also indirect methods using health administrative databases.The aim of this study is to provide estimates prevalence of CCs in Lazio region of Italy (including Rome), using the drug prescription's database and to compare these estimates with those obtained using other health administrative databases. METHODS: Prevalence of CCs was estimated using pharmacy data (PD) using the Anathomical Therapeutic Chemical Classification System (ATC).Prevalences estimate were compared with those estimated by hospital information system (HIS) using list of ICD9-CM diagnosis coding, registry of exempt patients from health care cost for pathology (REP) and national health survey performed by the Italian bureau of census (ISTAT). RESULTS: From the PD we identified 20 CCs. About one fourth of the population received a drug for treating a cardiovascular disease, 9% for treating a rheumatologic conditions.The estimated prevalences using the PD were usually higher that those obtained with one of the other sources. Regarding the comparison with the ISTAT survey there was a good agreement for cardiovascular disease, diabetes and thyroid disorder whereas for rheumatologic conditions, chronic respiratory illnesses, migraine and Alzheimer's disease, the prevalence estimates were lower than those estimated by ISTAT survey. Estimates of prevalences derived by the HIS and by the REP were usually lower than those of the PD (but malignancies, chronic renal diseases). CONCLUSION: Our study showed that PD can be used to provide reliable prevalence estimates of several CCs in the general population.

A case-control study on risk factors of domestic accidents in an elderly population.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the combined influence of several lifestyle, health and housing factors in the occurrence of home injuries (HIs) among the elderly. The subjects were recruited from 10 hospitals in Rome, Italy. This study is a paired case-control study. Cases included subjects, aged 65-85 years, who visited the Emergency Department for an HI and were subsequently hospitalised (15 September 2004-30 June 2005). Controls were the subjects of the same gender, age (±3 years) and area of residence of cases. A conditional logistic regression model was used for analysing the variables obtained. In this study, we enrolled 107 hospitalised cases. It was found that the living room was the place where 33% of the accidents occurred. Eighty-seven per cent of the accidents were falls, and 33% of the accidents were the immediate consequence of sudden malaise. One-half of the cases reported one or more leg fractures. The variables that were independently associated with HI were poor household illumination, poor emotional status, regular physical activities and housekeeping activities. We conclude that this study shows the areas of intervention to target HI prevention activities.

Distribution of high and low risk HPV types by cytological status: a population based study from Italy.

BACKGROUND: HPV type distribution by cytological status represents useful information to predict the impact of mass vaccination on screening programs. METHODS: women aged from 25 to 64 who attended cervical cancer screening in five different Italian regions were tested for HPV infection with Hybrid Capture II (HCII) low and high risk probes. Women repeating Pap-test upon unsatisfactory or positive results, or as a post-treatment and post-colposcopy follow-up analysis, were excluded from our study. High risk (HR) HPV positive samples were typed using GP5+/GP6+ primed PCR, followed by Reverse Line Blot for 18 high/intermediate risk HPV types, while low risk (LR) HPV positive samples were tested with type specific primers for HPV6 and HPV11. RESULTS: 3410 women had a valid HCII and Pap-test. The prevalence of HR and LR infections was 7.0% and 3.6%, 29.1% and 13.7%, 68.1% and 31.9%, 60.0% and 0.0%, 65.0% and 12.0%, for negative, ASC-US, L-SIL, ASC-H and H-SIL cytology, respectively. The fraction of ASC-US+ cytology due to HPV 16 and 18 ranged from 11.2 (HPV 16/18 alone) to 15.4% (including HPV 16/18 in co-infection with other virus strains), and that due to HPV 6 and 11 ranged from 0.2% (HPV 6/11 alone) to 0.7% (including HPV 6/11 in co-infection with other LR virus strains). CONCLUSIONS: mass vaccination with bivalent or quadrivalent HPV vaccine would modestly impact on prevalence of abnormal Pap-test in screening.

Prevalence of human papillomavirus types in high-grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasia and cancer in Italy.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this multicentric study was to identify human papillomavirus (HPV) type distribution in invasive cervical cancer and high-grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasia 2/3 (CIN2/3) in Italy. METHODS: Cases were sampled through the electronic databases at the pathology units of eight centers in six regions from central and southern Italy. HPV types were detected from paraffin-embedded tissue samples and cervical specimens through amplification of HPV DNA with GP5+/GP6+ primers, followed by genotyping with reverse line blot (RLB). Untyped HPV-positive samples were sequenced. HPV-negative samples underwent nested PCR, followed by either RLB or sequencing. Finally, the remaining HPV-negative samples were amplified with primers targeting the virus E6 to E7 regions. RESULTS: From 1,162 cases initially selected, 722 samples were further analyzed: 144 CIN2, 385 CIN3, 157 invasive squamous carcinomas, and 36 adenocarcinomas. Samples (6.9%) were HPV negative. The proportion of HPV16/18 was 60.8%, 76.6%, and 78.8% in CIN2, CIN3, and invasive cancers, respectively (P trend = 0.004). There was a significant decreasing trend of HPV16/18 with age in invasive cancers, going from 92% in women <35 years to 73% in women >55 years (P = 0.036). The proportion of coinfections was 16.8%, 15.5%, and 10.0% in CIN2, CIN3, and invasive cancers, respectively (P trend = 0.07). CONCLUSIONS: The proportion of invasive cancers caused by HPV16/18 decreases with age at diagnosis. IMPACT: The absolute risk of an invasive cancer due to non-HPV16/18 in women under 35 is extremely low. This finding might prompt us to rise the age at which public HPV screening for vaccinated women should start.

Triage and Injury Severity Scores as predictors of mortality and hospital admission for injuries: a validation study.

BACKGROUND: Many emergency departments use a rating system to establish priority based on urgency: "triage". The aim of this study was to evaluate the validity of triage in predicting hospitalization and mortality compared to that of the ICD-9-CM based Injury Severity Score (ISS). SOURCES: The Emergency Information System 2000, the Hospital Information System 2000-2001 and the Mortality Register 2000-2001, of the Lazio Region. Case selection: Emergency department visits for traumas that occurred on the road or at home. OUTCOMES: Hospitalization and 30-day mortality. For each case, trauma diagnoses from the ICD-9-CM were given a corresponding ISS value. We performed logistic models, including age, sex and, alternatively, triage or ISS. We compared discrimination measures and calibration of the models. RESULTS: Out of 264,709 emergency department visits, 22,249 (8.4%) were followed by a hospitalization and 655 (0.2%) died within 30 days. ISS scores were calculated for 72,179 (27%) cases. Of the most urgent triage (840 patients), 78.3% (658) were hospitalized and 9% (76) died, while among patients with ISS > or = 16 value (1276) 36.4% (464) of were hospitalized and 1.8% (23) died. Measures of discrimination and calibration showed similar results. The triage model had a better fitness in predicting hospitalization probability for home accidents (Hosmer-Lemeshow statistic: chi(2)(triage)=5.5 vs chi(2)(ISS)=34.3) and had a better performance for road accidents (ROC(triage)=0.71 vs ROC(ISS)=0.66). There were no differences between the models in predicting the probability of death. CONCLUSIONS: The agreement between the two scales confirms the validity of triage as a clinical management tool in the emergency department, and as a proxy of trauma severity.

Prevalence of HPV high and low risk types in cervical samples from the Italian general population: a population based study.

BACKGROUND: This multicenter study describes the type-specific prevalence of HPV infection in the general population from central and southern Italy, comparing the data with previously published Italian studies. METHODS: Women aged from 25 to 65 who attended cervical cancer screening in five different Italian regions were tested for HPV infection with Hybrid Capture II (HCII) low and high risk probes. Women repeating Pap-test upon unsatisfactory or positive results, or as a post-treatment and post-colposcopy follow-up analysis, were excluded from our study. High risk (HR) HPV positive samples were typed using GP5+/GP6+ primed PCR, followed by Reverse Line Blot for 18 high/intermediate risk HPV types, while low risk (LR) HPV positive samples were tested with type specific primers for HPV6 and HPV11. RESULTS: 3817 women had a valid HCII test: 350 of them (9.2%) were positive for HR probes, 160 (4.2%) for LR probes, while 57 women were positive for both. Multiple infections were detected in 97 HR HPV positive women. The most common types were HPV 16 (3%), 31 (1.2%), 51 (1%). HPV6 ranked fifth (0.6%), HPV18 ranked tenth (0.5%) and HPV11 sixteenth (0.3%).In Sardinia the prevalence of high-risk infection was 13%, significantly higher than the mean value (p < 0.00005).The distribution of the most frequent types did not significantly differ by centre (p = 0.187) and age (p = 0.085). CONCLUSIONS: Because cervical cancer incidence and Pap test coverage is lower in southern than in northern Italy, a lower prevalence of high-risk infections in the general population was expected in the south. However, prevalence detected in this study for the south of the country is slightly but significantly higher than the rest of Italy. The consequence may be an epidemic of cervical cancer in the next decades if adequate screening programs are not implemented there.

An integrated surveillance system of road traffic injuries in the Lazio region of Italy: results of a 5-year study (2001-2005).

Road traffic injuries represent a relevant public-health problem. In the Lazio region of Italy, a surveillance system was activated. The aim of this work is to describe the surveillance system and report the health information in terms of temporal trends for the 5-year period 2001-2005. We identified all emergency department (ED) visits in the emergency database and then linked them with hospital discharges and mortality registry. From the integrated database, we calculated the rates of emergency room visits, of hospital admissions, and of mortality, reporting the temporal trends. Between 2001 and 2005 the rate of ED visits was 3151 per 100,000 inhabitants. Hospitalisation rates showed a significant decreasing trend. The surveillance identified 22% more deaths in the study period than reported by the official statistics. The surveillance revealed a decreasing trend for hospital admissions and a decline in deaths in 2003 concurrent to the introduction of the driver's licence point system.

Physician and patient characteristics associated with prescriptions and costs of drugs in the Lazio region of Italy.

OBJECTIVE: Prescribing medications is one of the most important therapeutic activities of a general practitioner (GP) and the quality of such practices is a relevant issue. Our objective was to use regional administrative databases to assess the following: (a) the prevalence of prescription drug use by patient age and gender, (b) different GPs' prescription volumes and average drug expenditure, and (c) how GPs' socio-demographic variables may be considered as predictive factors in their prescribing practices. METHODS: An observational cross-sectional study was carried out in the primary care setting (GPs and paediatricians only) on drug utilization in the period 1st January-31st December 2007. Poisson regression models were run to estimate the incidence rate ratio (IRR) of prevalence adjusted by patients' age. Linear regression models (for GPs and paediatricians separately) were performed to test the possible association between average drug expenditure and physicians' characteristics. RESULTS: The overall prevalence of drug utilization was approximately 65% of the total population and this finding is coherent with other studies. Age was a predictive determinant of average drug expenditure that was significantly higher for the elderly. Younger physicians were more likely to prescribe medications, independent of the presence of any chronic condition in their beneficiaries. Female GPs, those practicing in a group and those practicing in central Rome had a higher average drug expenditure. Results for paediatricians showed that there was a very strong geographical effect that influenced average expenditure. CONCLUSIONS: Prescribing decisions are subject to a myriad of external factors. The present study shows how physicians' characteristics might affect drug prescription in terms of prevalence of use, costs and consumption. Using regional administrative databases it has been possible to analyse the association between doctors' prescribing habits, their socio-demographic factors and characteristics of their catchments areas. However, the variability in age groups in terms of prevalence, consumption and expenditure suggests that a sophisticated method of analysis will be needed in order to implement strategies and interventions able to optimise resource use in the health care sector.

Road traffic injuries in one local health unit in the Lazio region: results of a surveillance system integrating police and health data.

OBJECTIVE: Different sources are available for the surveillance of Road Traffic injuries (RTI), but studied individually they present several limits. In this paper we present the results of a surveillance integrating healthcare data with the data gathered by the municipal police in the southeastern area of Rome (630,000 inhabitants) during the year 2003. METHODS: The Municipal police RTI reports, which list the exact location, circumstances and some risk factor of the crash, were searched in the emergency visit, hospitalization and mortality databases, to integrate them with the information on health consequences. A multivariate analysis was conducted to evaluate risk factors (crash circumstances, age ad gender of the casualty) associated with hospital admission following a RTI. Mapping of RTI locations was created. The locations with higher risk of accidents with severe health consequences and at higher risk for pedestrians were identified. RESULTS: According to police records 4571 RTI occurred in 2003, 75% of which led to emergency department admissions. Sixteen percent of these emergency visits ended in hospitalization, and 44 deaths were reported within 30 days of the event, most of which occurred in young men. The people with the highest risk of hospitalization after an RTI were the cyclists, pedestrians and followed by people on two-wheeled vehicles. The type of crash with the highest risk of hospitalization was head-on collision. Geographical analyses showed four clusters with higher severity of RTI. Specific attention was paid to pedestrian injuries. Analyzing the locations of RTIs involving pedestrians permitted us to rank the most dangerous streets. The roads at high risk for pedestrians identified problems in the bus stop constructions and in the placement of the zebra pedestrian crossings. CONCLUSION: This study proves the feasibility of an integrated surveillance system of RTI by using routinely collected local data. The high-risk locations identified with the geographic analyses method in this study highlighted infrastructural problems, suggesting immediate preventive interventions.