Health Workers' Burnout and COVID-19 Pandemic: 1-Year after-Results from a Repeated Cross-Sectional Survey.

(1) Background: This study evaluates, one year later, the levels of burnout, anxious-depressive, and post-traumatic symptoms and the general health status in the Health Workers (HWs) involved in the SARS-COVID-19 pandemic in the Novara area. (2) Methods: The survey was sent via a link in an email to doctors, nurses, and other operators during the period between June and August 2021. The survey collected socio-demographic data and contained some self-administered questionnaires. (3) Results: A total of 688 HWs completed the survey, 53% were aged 30-49 years, 68% were female, 76% were cohabiting, 55% had children, 86% reported family habit changes, and 20% had non-COVID related health problems. Only a few of the respondents had a follow-up by a specialist (12%), of which there were even less in recent times (6%). It was observed that the respondents had undergone burnout; a poor state of general mental health (62%); depressive symptoms (70%); post-traumatic symptoms (29%); and less frequently, anxious symptoms (16%). The data of this study are in line with other studies in the literature. (4) Conclusions: The data indicate that psychological-based suffering was no longer markedly concentrated in some specific bands of HWs. In conclusion, it would be essential to enhance HW support strategies.

The Mediating Role of Gender, Age, COVID-19 Symptoms and Changing of Mansion on the Mental Health of Healthcare Workers Operating in Italy during the First Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has tested the performance of hospitals and intensive care units around the world. Health care workers (HCWs) have been used to developmental symptoms, but this was especially true during the COVID-19 pandemic when HCWs have been faced with many other sources of stress and anxiety that can usually be avoided. Moreover, long-term shifts and unprecedented population restrictions have weakened people's ability to cope with stress. The research aims to observe the dynamic interplay between burnout, depression, distress, and anxiety in HCWs working in various settings, with specific a focus on emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and a diminished sense of personal achievement in mediating a worse mental health status during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy. We performed a mediation analysis, which resulted in a strong correlation among depression, psychological distress, health perception and anxiety, and the impact of job burnout on anxiety, depression, and distress. Gender seemed to have a strong correlation with burnout, anxiety, and distress; the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Quality of Life seemed to affect anxiety and depression; the possible changes in job tasks and duties (intended as a change in work area or location and role change)influenced depression and job burnout. Encouraging supportive and educational strategies would be recommended to policymakers.

The Mental Health Impact of 2019-nCOVID on Healthcare Workers From North-Eastern Piedmont, Italy. Focus on Burnout.

The 2019-nCOVID pandemic as a public health emergency has faced healthcare systems with unprecedented challenges. Our study aimed to focus on the mental health impact of the 2019-nCOVID pandemic on healthcare workers (HCWs) from North-Eastern Piedmont, Italy. For this purpose, we performed an online survey which was e-mailed to HCWs at the end of the first peak of the pandemic. We involved both frontline and not-frontline HCWs, employed in the hospital or in healthcare services outside the hospital. The primary outcome of our research was the assessment of burnout, while secondary outcomes included the investigation of anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress symptoms. We observed higher levels of burnout (especially in the Depersonalization and Personal Accomplishment dimensions), in females, in HCWs aged <30 years, in those exposed to changes in their daily and family habits, in those who had to change their duties at work and in residents in training. In our HCWs sample we found lower levels of anxiety and depression than those reported in the literature. The problematic levels of burnout and adverse psychological outcomes observed during the pandemic cannot be underestimated. Given the recurrence in autumn 2020 of a new pandemic peak, which has once again put a strain on the health system and HCWs, it is supported the importance of a careful assessment of HCWs' mental health, and of the possible risk and protective factors both in the work environment and in the extra-work one.

Potential advantage of studying the lymphatic drainage by sentinel node technique and SPECT-CT image fusion for pelvic irradiation of prostate cancer.

PURPOSE: This study aims to investigate the in vivo drainage of lymphatic spread by using the sentinel node (SN) technique and single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT)-computed tomography (CT) image fusion, and to analyze the impact of such information on conformal pelvic irradiation. METHODS AND MATERIALS: Twenty-three prostate cancer patients, candidates for radical prostatectomy already included in a trial studying the SN technique, were enrolled. CT and SPECT images were obtained after intraprostate injection of 115 MBq of 99mTc-nanocolloid, allowing identification of SN and other pelvic lymph nodes. Target and nontarget structures, including lymph nodes identified by SPECT, were drawn on SPECT-CT fusion images. A three-dimensional conformal treatment plan was performed for each patient. RESULTS: Single-photon emission computed tomography lymph nodal uptake was detected in 20 of 23 cases (87%). The SN was inside the pelvic clinical target volume (CTV2) in 16 of 20 cases (80%) and received no less than the prescribed dose in 17 of 20 cases (85%). The most frequent locations of SN outside the CTV2 were the common iliac and presacral lymph nodes. Sixteen of the 32 other lymph nodes (50%) identified by SPECT were found outside the CTV2. Overall, the SN and other intrapelvic lymph nodes identified by SPECT were not included in the CTV2 in 5 of 20 (25%) patients. CONCLUSIONS: The study of lymphatic drainage can contribute to a better knowledge of the in vivo potential pattern of lymph node metastasis in prostate cancer and can lead to a modification of treatment volume with consequent optimization of pelvic irradiation.

[Suicide in Verbano-Cusio-Ossola province: decade 1990-2000]. / Il suicidio nella provincia del Verbano-Cusio-Ossola: il decennio 1990-2000.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of the present study is to provide an epidemiological study about suicide in Verbano-Cusio-Ossola province, between January 1990 and December 2000. DESIGN: The present study is based on the acquisition of data through the examination of model 45, that registers all the cases of violent death and suicide, filed in Verbania Republic Procuration. SETTING: The Verbano-Cusio-Ossola province extends 2,255 Km 2 and counts 161,248 inhabitants. The Procuration in Verbania has territorial jurisdiction on the whole province of our study. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The data obtained were presented in terms of descriptive analysis, evaluation of standardised rates of the province of Verbano-Cusio-Ossola. In order to appreciate the differences in comparison with the mean rates of northern Italy. Standardised Mortality Rates (SMRs) with the confidential intervals (IC 95%) have been used. RESULTS: In the eleven years period considered, 297 cases of suicide were notified at the Court with a rate of 16.74 per 100,000 inhabitants. The trend of suicide in the period examined is heterogeneous with significant differences between males and females. The analysis of SMRs points out that the incidence of suicide is higher in the province of VCO than in Italy in the same decade and that this difference is mostly due to an higher rate of suicide among women. The analysis of social-demographic parameters of the examined population confirms the data from international literature: suicide is more present in elderly, in widowers and in the retired. CONCLUSIONS: The present study means to provide a description of the suicide phenomenon, in a specific geographical and cultural context, in order to point out the problematic sides in a diagnostic-clinical point of view that may be an incentive to a larger preventive care.