[Contact with death or illness and career choice in non-medical healthprofessions and business students: a cross-sectional analysis].

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.

[Mortality amenable to health care services and health inequalities among Italian Regions].

Objectives: to investigate differences in amenable mortality among Italian Regions using the lists of causes of death conceived by Nolte and McKee, and Tobias and Yeh, and assess whether these differences are in part attributable to the list used. We also estimated the contribution of amenable mortality to the gaps in all-cause mortality among North, Centre and South of Italy.

Design: cross-sectional study.

Amenable mortality as a performance indicator of Italian health-care services.

Background: Mortality amenable to health-care services ('amenable mortality') has been defined as "premature deaths that should not occur in the presence of timely and effective health care" and as "conditions for which effective clinical interventions exist." We analyzed the regional variability in health-care services using amenable mortality as a performance indicator. Convergent validity was examined against other indicators, such as health expenditure, GDP per capita, life expectancy at birth, disability-free life expectancy at age 15, number of diagnostic and laboratory tests per 1,000 inhabitants, and the prevalence of cancer and cardiovascular diseases.

Socio-economic factors associated with infant mortality in Italy: an ecological study.

Introduction: One issue that continues to attract the attention of public health researchers is the possible relationship in high-income countries between income, income inequality and infant mortality (IM). The aim of this study was to assess the associations between IM and major socio-economic determinants in Italy.

Methods: Associations between infant mortality rates in the 20 Italian regions (2006-2008) and the Gini index of income inequality, mean household income, percentage of women with at least 8 years of education, and percentage of unemployed aged 15-64 years were assessed using Pearson correlation coefficients.

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.

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.

Temperature related mortality and ambulance service interventions during the heat waves of 2003 in Ticino (Switzerland).

Objectives: This study investigates a potential increase in mortality and in the demand for ambulance emergency services among the elderly in particular, in Ticino in the summer of 2003.

Methods: Mortality rates and emergency ambulance interventions rates were compared with records from the previous years. We considered the whole population, aged 65 and over, as well as 75 and over.

[The physician/population ratio in Switzerland: the impact of its regional variation on mortality, health expenditures and user's satisfaction].

An opinion survey conducted in 1997 in the various Swiss "cantons" produced the following findings: 1. The satisfaction of the population concerning the provision of ambulatory care does not increase when the physician/population ratio increases. It is not clear whether a decrease of "oversupply" gives raise, at least in the short term, to a feeling of dissatisfaction.

Women's perception of the benefits of mammography screening: population-based survey in four countries.

Background: Screening programmes are often actively promoted to achieve high coverage, which may result in unrealistic expectations. We examined women's understanding of the likely benefits of mammography screening.

Methods: Telephone survey of random samples of the female population aged > or =15 years in the US, UK, Italy, and Switzerland using three closed questions on the expected benefits of mammography screening.

Does provision of an evidence-based information change public willingness to accept screening tests?

OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether the willingness of the general population to undergo a screening test of questionable effectiveness for pancreatic cancer is influenced by the quality and the extent of the information provided. DESIGN: Randomised study. SETTING: Switzerland.