Search

Background: Neurological conditions are highly prevalent and disabling, in particular in the elderly. The Italian population has witnessed sharp ageing and we can thus expect a rising trend in the incidence, prevalence and disability of these conditions. Methods: We relied on the Global Burden of Disease 2019 study to extract Italian data on incidence, prevalence and years lived with a disability (YLDs) referred to a broad set of neurological disorders including, brain and nervous system cancers, stroke, encephalitis, meningitis, tetanus, traumatic brain injury, and spinal cord injury. We assessed changes between 1990 and 2019 in counts and age-standardized rates. Results: The most prevalent conditions were tension-type headache, migraine, and dementias, whereas the most disabling were migraine, dementias and traumatic brain injury. YLDs associated with neurological conditions increased by 22.5%, but decreased by 2.3% in age-standardized rates. The overall increase in prevalence and YLDs counts was stronger for non-communicable diseases with onset in old age compared to young to adult-age onset ones. The same trends were in the opposite direction when age-standardized rates were taken into account. Conclusions: The increase in YLDs associated with neurological conditions is mostly due to population ageing and growth: nevertheless, lived disability and, as a consequence, impact on health systems has increased. Actions are needed to improve outcome and mitigate disability associated with neurological conditions, spanning among diagnosis, treatment, care pathways and workplace interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During COVID-19 pandemic, older adults are the segment of the population at higher health risk. Given the important role the risk perception has in influencing both the behaviors and psychological well-being, it appears useful exploring this factor in this segment of the population. Despite different studies already described the factors influencing the risk perception, few focused on older adults. For this reason, we investigated risk perception in 514 people over 60 years during the lockdown. We administered a structured interview collecting socio-demographic information, sources of information used, actions undertaken to avoid contagion, and risk perception. Risk perception related to COVID-19 was significantly lower than the perceived risk associated with other threats, and it was correlated to the number of sources of information used but not to the actions undertaken. Furthermore, we found higher risk perception in who knew infected persons, and a negative correlation between the risk perception and age, with the over 75 perceiving a lower risk of getting infected compared to the younger participants. Our results should be taken as informative for future studies. Indeed, further studies on the older adults and the risk perception during emergencies are needed to better orient both communication and supporting strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The Coma Recovery Scale-Revised (CRS-R) is the recommended tool to assess consciousness in patients with prolonged Disorders of Consciousness (pDoC). However, the time needed to administer it may limit its use. A shorter tool has been validated: the Simplified Evaluation of CONsciousness Disorders (SECONDs). This multicentre study aimed to develop and validate a cross-cultural adaptation of the SECONDs into Italian., Methods: An interdisciplinary expert team, from both Fondazione Don Carlo Gnocchi and Istituto Neurologico Carlo Besta, led the translation processes. Independent certified translators were also involved in a blinded modality. Patients diagnosed with Unresponsive Wakefulness Syndrome (UWS) or Minimally Conscious State (MCS) admitted to 3 Italian rehabilitation units were enrolled. The CRS-R and SECONDs were administered in 5 sessions over two weeks by 3 blinded examiners at each center (3 times, with 2 sessions conducted by the same examiner). Weighted Fleiss' kappa and Spearman correlation coefficients were used to assess intrarater and interrater reliability and concurrent validity., Results: Sixty adults with pDoC were assessed: 23 women; median age: 64 years; 14 trauma, median post-onset time: 2 months. Intrarater and interrater reliability showed almost perfect agreement (kappa coefficients 0.968 and 0.935, respectively; p<0.001). The comparison of CRS-R vs. SECONDs on the same day or the best out of 5 SECONDs/CRS-R led to a substantial to almost perfect agreement both for the total score of the CRS-R and the SECONDs' Additional Index (ρ = 0.772-1.000; p<0.001) and for the consciousness diagnosis (k = 0.784-0.935; p<0.001). The disagreement rate between the overall best diagnosis of the SECONDs and the best CRS-R diagnosis was 6.7%., Conclusion: The Italian version of the SECONDs has been cross-culturally adapted to serve as a shorter assessment tool for the diagnosis of pDoC. Our study shows its excellent reliability and concurrent validity when compared to the CRS-R., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2025 Hakiki et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)