Knowledge, attitudes and behaviors of the Italian population towards Neisseria meningitidis, Streptococcus pneumoniae and HPV diseases and vaccinations: A cross-sectional multicentre study.

Objectives: This study addressed knowledge of Streptococcus pneumoniae, Neisseria meningitidis and human papillomavirus (HPV), and attitudes and behaviours towards vaccines against them.

Study Design: This is a cross-sectional, multicentre study.

Methods: Data were collected through a questionnaire administered to 530 adults who accessed four Departments of Prevention of the Italian National Health Service in 2013.

[Cardiovascular screening].

Objective: To evaluate, through active call, lifestyles of an asymptomatic population in order to identify hyperglycaemic subjects and/or high-blood pressure sufferers to dispatch to their GP to perform suitable checking, and subjects to invite to a cardiovascular disease prevention programme because of their lifestyles.

Setting And Participants: Between April 2011 and March 2013, all healthy residents in 6 Local Health Authorities of Regione Veneto aged 45-59 years were invited to join a cardiovascular disease prevention programme.

Design: All participants were evaluated through an administered lifestyle questionnaire.

Safety and tolerability of 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine in the elderly.

Background: In September 2011 the European Medical Agency authorized the use of 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV13) in adults aged ≥50 years. The same occurred in the US in December 2011 when the Food and Drug Administration approved the use of PCV13 in the same target age-group with indication for the prevention of invasive pneumococcal diseases and community acquired pneumonia sustained by the serotypes contained in the vaccine. The Liguria Region, in Italy, implemented in 2013 an active and free of charge immunization strategy with PCV13 among adults affected by specific risk conditions and the elderly aged ≥70 years.

Acceptance and safety of the intradermal influenza vaccine among the elderly in Italy: an on-field national study.

Introduction: An observational multicenter study was carried out in Italy, to evaluate the acceptability and safety of the new intradermal (ID) influenza vaccine (Intanza Sanofi Pasteur SA, Lyon, France) among subjects aged≥60 years, compared with that of other intramuscular (IM) influenza vaccines. Compliance with the use of the ID vaccine by healthcare professionals was also assessed.

Methods: A previously validated and self-administered questionnaire, Vaccinees' Perception of Injection (VAPI®), consisting of 21 questions, mainly focused on four dimensions (bother, arm movements, sleep, and acceptability), was administered to >1,600 individuals with spontaneous access to outpatient clinics, located in Northern, Central, and Southern Italy, to evaluate the acceptance of the vaccines.

Air pollution and related respiratory diseases: the experience of a local health authority in Liguria (north Italy).

Background: Numerous epidemiological studies have shown that air pollution due to both industry and heavy traffic has short- and long-term effects on health. The study was carried out in an industrial area with heavy urban and motorway traffic in the Province of Genoa (Italy).

Methods: The study was carried out from June 2005 to July 2008.