Health profile of the PASSI surveillance system according to the second self-audit data.

Background: The surveillance system PASSI (Progresses in ASSessing adult population health in Italy) is centrally coordinated by the Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS) and carried on by Local Health Units (LHU) from all the 21 Italian Regional Health Authorities since 2008. PASSI monitors the main behavioural health-related risk factors among the adult population in order to better orient and further elaborate interventions for the prevention of major chronic diseases.

Study Design: Basing on outcomes from the first pilot study in 2011, we conducted a second self-audit to investigate and map levels of conformity with recognized implementation standards by the protocol for PASSI local management in the 21 Italian Regional Health Authorities.

Prevalence of Severe Obesity among Primary School Children in 21 European Countries.

Background: The World Health Organization (WHO) European Childhood Obesity Surveillance Initiative (COSI) was established more than 10 years ago to estimate prevalence and monitor changes in overweight and obesity in children aged 6-9 years. Since then, there have been five rounds of data collection in more than 40 countries involving more than half a million children. To date, no comparative studies with data on severe childhood obesity from European countries have been published.

Association between Characteristics at Birth, Breastfeeding and Obesity in 22 Countries: The WHO European Childhood Obesity Surveillance Initiative - COSI 2015/2017.

Background: In Europe, although the prevalence of childhood obesity seems to be plateauing in some countries, progress on tackling this important public health issue remains slow and inconsistent. Breastfeeding has been described as a protective factor, and the more exclusively and the longer children are breastfed, the greater their protection from obesity. Birth weight has been shown to have a positive association with later risk for obesity.

Breastfeeding Prevalence at Time of Vaccination: Results of a Pilot Study in 6 Italian Regions.

Background: In Italy, there is no widespread standardized national monitoring system for breastfeeding practices.

Research Aims: To estimate breastfeeding indicators according to World Health Organization recommendations and associated socioeconomic factors, highlighting the potential and limitations of vaccination centers as sources of data.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in the vaccination centers of 13 Local Health Districts in Italy.

Exploring causality of the association between smoking and Parkinson's disease.

Background: The aim of this paper is to investigate the causality of the inverse association between cigarette smoking and Parkinson's disease (PD). The main suggested alternatives include a delaying effect of smoking, reverse causality or an unmeasured confounding related to a low-risk-taking personality trait.

Methods: A total of 715 incident PD cases were ascertained in a cohort of 220 494 individuals from NeuroEPIC4PD, a prospective European population-based cohort study including 13 centres in eight countries.

LRP10 genetic variants in familial Parkinson's disease and dementia with Lewy bodies: a genome-wide linkage and sequencing study.

Background: Most patients with Parkinson's disease, Parkinson's disease dementia, and dementia with Lewy bodies do not carry mutations in known disease-causing genes. The aim of this study was to identify a novel gene implicated in the development of these disorders.

Methods: Our study was done in three stages.

Intercepting Parkinson disease non-motor subtypes: A proof-of-principle study in a clinical setting.

The construct of non-motor symptoms (NMS) subtyping in Parkinson Disease (PD) is emerging as a line of research in the light of its potential role in etiopathological interpretation of PD heterogeneity. Different approaches of NMS subtyping have been proposed: an anatomical model suggests that NMS aggregate according to the underpinning pathology; other researchers find aggregation of NMS according to the motor phenotype; the contribution of genetic background to NMS has also been assessed, primarily focusing on cognitive impairment. We have analyzed NMS burden assessed through an extensive clinical and neuropsychological battery in 137 consecutive non-demented PD patients genotyped for MAPT haplotypes (H1/H1 vs H2 carriers) in order to explore the applicability of the "anatomo-clinical", "motor" or "genetic" models for subtyping PD in a clinical setting; a subsequent independent analysis was conducted to verify a possible cluster distribution of NMS.

Use of neuropsychological tests for the diagnosis of dementia: a survey of Italian memory clinics.

Aim: Providing an overview of the neuropsychological tests used in Italian memory clinics (defined as Centers for Cognitive Disorders and Dementias-CCDD in Italy) for the diagnosis of cognitive disorders and dementias.

Methods: A total of 501 CCDD, out of all 536 active CCDD, were surveyed between February 2014 and August 2015 to verify the characteristics of the centres who performed a comprehensive neuropsychological assessment (NPA), defined as the administration of at least one test for verbal and visual episodic memory, attention, constructional praxis, verbal fluency and executive functions (minimum core tests-MCTs), as part of the diagnostic process.

Results: A total of 45.

A 34-year longitudinal study on long-term cardiac outcomes in DM1 patients with normal ECG at baseline at an Italian clinical centre.

Cardiac conduction and/or rhythm abnormalities (CCRA) are the most frequent and life-threatening complications in DM1. In order to determine prevalence, incidence, characteristics, age of onset and predictors of CCRA, CCRA progression and sudden cardiac death (SCD) in DM1, we collected ECG/24hECG-Holter data from a yearly updated 34-year database of a cohort of 103 DM1 patients without cardiac abnormalities at baseline, followed for at least 1 year. Fifty-five patients developed CCRA [39 developed conduction abnormalities (CCA) and 16 rhythm abnormalities (CRA)], which progressed in 22.