Refueling a Quiet Fire: Old Truthers and New Discontent in the Wake of COVID-19.

This article investigates the factors that contributed to the proliferation of online COVID skepticism on Twitter across Italian municipalities in 2020. We demonstrate that sociodemographic factors were likely to mitigate the emergence of skepticism, whereas populist political leanings were more likely to foster it. Furthermore, pre-COVID anti-vaccine sentiment, represented by "old truthers" on Twitter, amplified online COVID skepticism in local communities.

The interplay between excess weight and hyper-glycemia on NCDs in Italy: results from a cross-sectional study.

Purpose: To evaluate the prevalence of chronic comorbidities according to BMI classes and assess the interplay between excess body weight and blood glucose abnormalities in increasing the risk of major chronic diseases.

Methods: The study is based on data from the Health Search/IQVIA Health LPD Longitudinal Patient Database, an Italian general practice registry, with data obtained from electronic clinical records of 800 general practitioners throughout Italy. Data relative to the year 2018 were analyzed.

A pleiotropy scan to discover new susceptibility loci for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.

Pleiotropic variants (i.e., genetic polymorphisms influencing more than one phenotype) are often associated with cancer risk.

Lifetime costs of overweight and obesity in Italy.

We use longitudinal electronic clinical data on a large representative sample of the Italian population to estimate the lifetime profile costs of different BMI classes - normal weight, overweight, and obese (I, II, and III) - in a primary care setting. Our research reveals that obese patients generate the highest cost differential throughout their lives compared to normal weight patients. Moreover, we show that overweight individuals spend less than those with normal weight, primarily due to reduced expenditures beginning in early middle age.