[The health determinants in young children: testing a new surveillance system in Italy]. / I determinanti di salute nella prima infanzia: la sperimentazione di un nuovo sistema di sorveglianza in Italia.

In recent years, the scientific community has stressed the need to invest in the first 1,000 days of life - the time spanning between conception and the 2nd birthday - because it is during this period that the foundations of health are laid and whose effects will be present throughout the life and may influence the next generation. Taking this into account, in 2013 the National Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (CCM) of the Italian Ministry of Health promoted and financed a project to test a surveillance system of the main determinants of health concerning the child between the conception period and the 2nd years of life which are included in the National Programme "GenitoriPiù": folic acid before and during pregnancy, abstention from tobacco and alcohol during pregnancy and lactation, breastfeeding, infant sleep position, vaccination attitude, and early reading. The Project, started in January 2014 and ended in August 2016, has piloted the design, testing, and evaluation of the surveillance system with the view to national extension and the repeatability over time. The surveillance system has been designed to collect data through a questionnaire compiled by mothers in vaccination centres, in order to produce indicators which will enable territorial and intertemporal comparisons to be made. The project has shown the feasibility of this system, identifying favourable conditions and possible difficulties, and its ability to collect important information on children's health.

The Role of Emotional Competences in Parents' Vaccine Hesitancy.

The role of parents' emotional competencies on vaccine hesitancy and decision making has been seldom examined. Two studies investigated the relationship between parents' attitudes towards childhood vaccines and self-reported behavior (Study 1) and between parents' emotional competence and attitudes towards vaccines (Study 2). In Study 1, predictors of temporal, partial, or complete vaccine refusal (having voluntarily postponed/forgone some/all vaccines) were examined in 2778 parents. In Study 2, psychological predictors of the attitude towards vaccines were examined in 593 parents, using the Profile of Emotional Competence and the valence of mental images spontaneously associated with the term "vaccine". In Study 1, attitudes were aggregated in three independent factors (concerns about vaccine safety; diseases prevented by vaccines; and naturalistic views) that independently predicted vaccine refusal. In Study 2, a significant mediational analysis showed a positive indirect effect of intrapersonal emotional competences on attitudes towards vaccines, through mental images associated with the word "vaccine". Parents' intrapersonal emotional competences affected all dimensions of attitudes towards vaccines, suggesting that being able to manage, identify, and recognize one's own emotions is central to vaccine acceptance. These findings suggest that intervention strategies, rather than stressing the pro-social benefits of vaccinating, should focus on aspects related to one's own emotions.