Improving the quality of care for people with chronic diseases: translating recommendations to practice.

Introduction: Aim of this paper is to present a guide for translating to practice an evidence-based set of Quality Criteria and Recommendations (QCR) to promote the implementation of policies and practices in the field of health promotion, disease prevention and care for people with chronic diseases.

Methods: The guide is based on real-world experiences of eight European pilot actions using QCR as a framework for practice design, development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. All partners implemented their respective practices by following the same agreed process.

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and soccer: an internet survey of 29 Italian players.

Objectives: Previous epidemiological studies reported a significantly higher risk of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) in Italian male soccer players. As a consequence, sports newspapers and news agencies focused on this issue and spread the news of 51 male soccer players with a reported diagnosis of ALS.

Design: We searched news on male Italian national soccer players with a reported diagnosis of ALS quoted from January 1, 1950 to July 31, 2016 in at least two Internet web sites or in books by journalists.

An update on the Italian Twin Register: advances in cohort recruitment, project building and network development.

The Italian Twin Register has been in place for more than 10 years. Since its establishment, it has been focusing, on the one hand, on a continuous update of the existing information, and on the other hand, on new phenotypes and sample collection. Demographic data on about 140,000 twins have been updated using the municipality registries.

[Prescription drugs and the elderly: results of the Argento study].

Objective: To evaluate prescription drug use in the elderly and in particular, to determine the number and types of medications taken, whether and to what extent drugs that are contraindicated in this age group are being used, and what type of prescription check may be performed by primary care physicians.

Design: A survey was performed in a sample of non-institutionalised elderly subjects (= 65 years). These were selected by cluster sampling in 11 of 20 Italian regions and were interviewed in the home by trained interviewers using a standardised questionnaire.

[Use of neuropsychological tests in the Cronos Project].

Within the Cronos Project, 503 Alzheimer's disease units were activated throughout the country. In June/July 2002 a questionnaire was sent to all Alzheimer's disease units to collect data on neuropsychological tests utilised in the diagnostic process of dementias. Only 196 of Alzheimer's disease units that have responded to the questionnaire (196/392) declare to utilize neuropsychological test while 97.

[The characteristics of Alzheimer's Disease Units in relation to neuropsychological tests].

The Cronos Project is a post-marketing surveillance study implemented by the Italian Ministry of Health and the National Institute of Health whose main objectives are to characterise the population of Alzheimer's disease patients treated with acetylcholinesterase inhibitors and monitor effectiveness and drug safety in the field practice. In this project 503 Alzheimer's disease units were activated located throughout the country. The characteristics of these Alzheimer's disease units are presented for setting (territorial, university, hospital, extra-hospital), health personnel employed, examinations offered (CT and MRI scans and laboratory tests), counselling activities and relationship with caregiver associations in relation to neuropsychological tests.

A cohort study of effectiveness of acetylcholinesterase inhibitors in Alzheimer's disease.

Objectives: To characterise the population of Alzheimer's disease patients treated with acetylcholinesterase inhibitors, to analyse effectiveness and drug safety in the clinical practice, and to identify variables that may predict the response to therapy.

Methods: From September 2000 to December 2001, a total of 5,462 patients diagnosed with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease were enrolled at the time of their first prescription of the study drugs and followed up for an average of 10.5 months.

The cerivastatin withdrawal crisis: a "post-mortem" analysis.

In August 2001, cerivastatin was removed from European and USA markets because of a higher risk of rhabdomyolysis associated with its use in comparison with other statins. The objective of this study was to compare cholesterol-lowering drug use in Italy before and after the withdrawal of cerivastatin from the market, and to evaluate if the withdrawal influenced patients compliance and physicians prescribing habits. After August 2001, 48% of cerivastatin users discontinued any statin treatment.