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Background: The identification of risk factors for SARS-CoV-2 infection and mortality in patients with dementia is a key aspect to support clinical decisions and public health interventions. Objective: To assess the incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 related death in a cohort of patients with dementia residing in the Lazio region and to investigate predicting factors for both infection and mortality. Methods: This population-based study used information from administrative databases and the SARS-CoV-2 infection surveillance system. Patients with dementia (age ≥65) were enrolled as of December 31, 2019 and followed-up until February 28, 2021. Cumulative risk of infection and death within 60 days of infection onset, and age-standardized incidence (SIR) and mortality (SMR) ratios were calculated. Logistic regression models were applied to identify factors associated with infection and mortality. Results: Among 37,729 dementia patients, 2,548 had a diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 infection. The crude risk of infection was 6.7%. An increase in risk of infection was observed both in women (SIR 1.72; 95% CI 1.64–1.80) and men (SIR 1.43; 95% CI 1.33–1.54). Pneumonia, cerebrovascular and blood diseases, femur fracture, anxiety, antipsychotic and antithrombotic use were associated with an increased risk of infection. The crude risk of death was 31.0%, the SMRs 2.32 (95% CI 2.05–2.65) for men, and 2.82 (95% CI 2.55–3.11) for women. Factors associated with mortality included: male gender, age ≥85, symptoms at the diagnosis, antipsychotic and systemic antibiotics treatment. Conclusion: These findings emphasize the need of close and tailored monitoring of dementia patients to reduce the impact of COVID-19 on this fragile population.

BackgroundThe pandemic may undermine the equity of access to and utilisation of health services for conditions other than COVID-19. The objective of the study is to evaluate the indirect impact of COVID-19 and lockdown measures on sociodemographic inequalities in healthcare utilisation in seven Italian areas.MethodsIn this multicentre retrospective study, we evaluated whether COVID-19 modified the association between educational level or deprivation and indicators of hospital utilisation and quality of care. We also assessed variations in gradients by sex and age class. We estimated age-standardised rates and prevalence and their relative per cent changes comparing pandemic (2020) and pre-pandemic (2018–2019) periods, and the Relative Index of Inequalities (RIIs) fitting multivariable Poisson models with an interaction between socioeconomic position and period.ResultsCompared with 2018–2019, hospital utilisation and, to a lesser extent, timeliness of procedures indicators fell during the first months of 2020. Larger declines were registered among women, the elderly and the low educated resulting in a shrinkage (or widening if RII ConclusionsThe socially patterned reduction of hospital utilisation may lead to a potential exacerbation of health inequalities among groups who were already vulnerable before the pandemic. The healthcare service can contribute to contrast health disparities worsened by COVID-19 through more efficient communication and locally appropriate interventions.

to describe trends of overall and intensive care hospitalization for COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic in Italy until June 2021, and to compare the results between foreign and Italian population.retrospective observational study.hospital discharges of 28 million people living in Lombardy, Piedmont, Emilia-Romagna (Northern Italy), Toscana and Lazio (Central Italy) occurred between 22.02.2020 and 02.07.2021 in the hospitals located in each considered Region.two weekly outcomes were examined: 1. the overall number of COVID-19 hospitalizations; 2. the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations in intensive care units.a higher COVID-19 overall and intensive care unit hospitalization was found among the foreign population compared to Italians. The association emerged only after the adjustment for age, and it was consistent among all Regions, though less marked in Lombardy. The association varied across epidemic phases.the issue of vulnerability of migrants to the risk of severe COVID-19 calls for a diversity-sensitive approach in prevention. The specific country of origin and the prevalence of preventable co-morbidities that are often underestimated in the migrant populations, and related to COVID-19 complications, should be taken into consideration in future analyses.

to describe differences in the incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infections between Italians and foreigners residing in seven Italian Regions during the different phases of the pandemic and by gender.retrospective observational study.all confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infections from 02.02. 2020 to 16.07.2021 in the seven Regions under study were included. Italian resident population calculated by the National Institute of Statistics as of 01.01.2020 was used to calculate the rates. The considered period is divided into 5 sub-periods (phases).number of confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infections in the five phases of the pandemic and crude rates by citizenship (Italian vs foreign). Distribution of infections by age group and by week. Crude and age-adjusted incidence rates ratios (IRR) were calculated, by Region, gender, and phase of the pandemic.an epidemic curve delay was observed in foreigners in the first phase of the epidemic, in particular in the northern Regions, the most affected in that phase. The first phase of the epidemic was characterized by a greater proportion of cases occurred in people aged over 60 years than the other phases, both in Italians and in foreigners. The incidence among foreigners is higher during the summer of 2020 (intermediate period: June-September 2020) and during the last period (May-July 2021) in all Regions. The overall figure shows a lower incidence among foreigners than Italians, except for males in Tuscany.the lower incidence rates among foreigners should be interpreted with caution as the available data suggest that it is at least partly attributable to less access to diagnostic tests. Regional differences found in the study deserve further research together with the effect of gender and country of origin.

to analyze the difference of the SARS-CoV-2 infection impact between Italian and foreigner subjects, evaluating the trend of infections and access to diagnostic tests (molecular or antigenic swabs for the detection of SARS- CoV-2) in the two different populations, inducing the detection of new positive cases in the population.retrospective population study for the period February 2020-June 2021.Italian and foreign resident population on 1st January of the years 2020 and 2021 in the Regions participating to the project: Piedmont, Lombardy, Veneto, Emilia-Romagna (Northern Italy), Tuscany, Lazio (Central Italy), and Sicily (Southern Italy).in the two populations, for every week and aggregated by macropandemic period were calculated: • the test rate (people tested on the population); • the swab positivity rate (positive subjects on those who are tested); • the new positives (positive subjects on study population); • the percentage of foreigners among the new positive cases. The ratio of the value of the indicators in the foreign and Italian populations (with 95% confidence interval) was calculated to evaluate the association between nationality (Italian vs not Italian) and outcome. The analyses were conducted at the regional level and at pool level.the trend of new positives by nationality (Italian vs not Italian) has a similar tendency in the different pandemic waves. However, the incidence of new positives during pandemic waves among foreigners is lower than in Italians, while it tends to increase during intermediate periods. Except for the summer periods, foreigners are less tested than Italians, but the percentage of new positives out of the total of new ones tested is higher among foreigners compared to Italians. The relative weight of new positives among foreigners tends to increase in periods with the greatest risk of inflow of SARS-CoV-2 for foreigners.the epidemic trends in the two populations are similar, although foreigners tend to show lower incidence values, probably in part because they are tested less frequently. Furthermore, in foreigners compared to Italians, there is a greater risk of contracting SARS-CoV-2 infection, especially in periods of relaxation of containment Coronavirus measures, reopening of national borders, production and commercial activities.

ObjectivesTo analyse the association between individual and contextual socioeconomic position (SEP) with health status and to investigate the role of SEP and baseline health status on survival.DesignCross-sectional and cohort study.SettingRome, Italy.Participants, primary and secondary outcomesWe selected the 25–99 year-olds included in the Rome 2011 census cohort. As a measure of health status on the census reference date (09 October 2011), we used the presence of chronic or rare conditions from the Disease-Related Co-payment Exemption Registry, a database implemented to provide free care to people with chronic or rare diseases. We used logistic regression to analyse the association between both individual (educational attainment) and contextual SEP (neighbourhood real estate price quintiles) with baseline health status. We analysed the role of SEP and the presence of chronic or rare conditions on 5-year survival (until 31 December 2016) using accelerated failure time models with Weibull distribution, reporting time ratios (TRs; 95% CI).ResultsIn middle-aged, subjects with low SEP (either individual or contextual) had a prevalence of chronic conditions comparable with the prevalence in high SEP individuals 10 years older. Adjusted logistic models confirmed the direct association between SEP and baseline health status in both women and men. The lowest educated were up to 67% more likely to have a chronic condition than the highest educated, while the difference was up to 86% for lowest versus highest contextual SEP. Low SEP and the presence of chronic conditions were associated with shorter survival times in both sexes, lowest versus highest educated TR was TR=0.79 for women (95% CI: 0.77 to 0.81) and TR=0.71 for men (95% CI: 0.70 to 0.73). The contextual SEP shrunk survival times by about 10%.ConclusionInequalities were present in both baseline health and survival. The association between SEP and survival was independent of baseline health status.

Background and Aims Patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) represent a frail population with severe co-morbidities and different degrees of immune dysfunction. These patients might be at higher risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection and might experience severe consequences of COVID-19. In March 2020, the Lazio Regional Dialysis and Transplantation Registry (LRDTR) implemented a questionnaire to obtain information on dialysis patients who have developed SARS-CoV-2 infection. The aims of this study is to evaluate the incidence and the short-term lethality of SARS-CoV-2 infection in the population undergoing dialysis treatment in Lazio Region. Method A cohort of patients treated in the dialysis units of Lazio Region was enrolled. Prevalent dialysis patients at 1/1/2020 and incident patients during the period 01/01/2020-08/01/2020 were included. The LRDTR collects information on dialysis patients from the start of chronic dialysis treatments with biannual update and immediately informing about the end of dialytic treatment (death, renal transplant, etc). Infection was traced in the LRDTR from March 2020 to 08/13/2020. The information on vital status was obtained from LRDTR and the mortality Lazio registry up to 10/30/2020. Poisson models, crude and adjusted for sex and age, were used to estimate incident rate of infection and mortality rate on dialysis patients and on dialysis patients who have developed SARS-CoV-2 infection, and respective confidence intervals of 95% (CI95%). Results During the study period, the estimate of the number of patients undergoing dialysis treatment was 5196 in Lazio Region, 65% were males with mean age of 70 years. Thirty-seven patients were infected with SARS-CoV-2: 70% males, mean age 73 years. These patients were treated in 24 different dialysis units. The cumulative incidence rate of SARS-CoV-2 infection was 0.71% (95% CI 0.52-0.98) and the adjusted incidence rate was 3.3 *100,000 Person Days (PD) (95% CI 2.4-4.7). The distribution of positive swabs by month was: 21 in March 7 in April, 6 in May, 1 in June, 2 in July. Twenty-seven patients had symptoms while 10 patients, who have had contact with infected individuals, had positive swabs in absence of symptoms. Infected and hospitalised dialysis patients were 78%. Of the 29 hospitalized patients: 6 were in sub-intensive care, 16 in intensive care, of these 7 needed intubations, 9 underwent non-invasive ventilation. The adjusted cumulative mortality rate in dialysis patients was 6.8% (95% CI 6.0-7.6), the same measure for SARS-CoV-2 infected patients was 37.4% (95% CI 19.8-70.4) with an average follow-up of 205 PD. The adjusted mortality rate was 3.3 * 10,000PD (95% CI: 2.9-3.7) among dialysis patients and 21.2*10,000PD (95% CI: 11.1-40.7) among infected dialysis patients. Conclusion This study highlights a greater susceptibility of dialysis patients to SARS-CoV-2 infection, with a rate three times higher than that observed in the general population (source: Civil Protection Department). Mortality risk for dialysis patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection is about 6 times higher than in the dialysis patients it suggesting a major impact of infection on this fragile population.

Background and purpose Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a complex chronic, autoimmune inflammatory disease involving multidisciplinary assessments and interventions. Access to outpatient specialist and home healthcare services was explored during the pandemic outbreak and the lockdown amongst MS patients in the Lazio region. Adherence to disease‐modifying therapies (DMTs) is also described. Methods A population‐based study was conducted using regional healthcare administrative databases. A validated algorithm was used to identify MS cases over the period 2011–2018. The numbers of specialist and home‐based services were compared between 2019 and 2020. The medication possession ratio was used to measure adherence to DMTs. Results A total of 9380 MS patients were identified (68% women). A decline in the number of outpatient care services between March and June 2020 compared to the previous year was observed, in particular for rehabilitation (−82%), magnetic resonance imaging (−56%) and neurological specialist services (−91%). Important year‐to‐year variations were observed in May and June 2020 in home‐based nursing and medical care (−91%) and motor re‐education services (−74%). Adherence to DMTs was higher in the first 4 months of 2019 compared to the same period of 2020 (67.1% vs. 57.0%). Conclusions A notable disruption of rehabilitative therapy and home‐based services as well as in DMT adherence was observed. Since the pandemic is still ongoing and interruption of healthcare services could have a major impact on MS patients, it is necessary to monitor access of MS patients to healthcare resources in order to ensure adequate treatments, including rehabilitative therapies., During the COVID‐19 outbreak patients with multiple sclerosis experienced a substantial decrease in adherence to disease‐modifying therapies and a remarkable reduction in the number of visits to ambulatory care practices and provision of healthcare services at home. Important year‐to‐year (2019 vs. 2020) variations were observed in May and June 2020 (respectively −90%, −92%) in nursing and medical care provision; even for home‐based motor re‐education the largest variations were observed in June (−74%). This study used healthcare administrative databases that allow healthcare delivery to be monitored and critical points in provision of and access to healthcare to be identified, in order to implement corrective measures.

to describe hospitalisation, access to emergency care, and mortality of people living in marginalized urban areas which include public housing buildings in the North-West suburb of Rome, and to compare the results with those observed among people living in the neighbouring area.cross sectional study.resident population in the XIII and XIV Municipality of Rome, subdivided into five urban areas, in 2011-2018.hospitalisation, access to emergency care, and mortality rates and rates ratios based on hospital discharges and emergency department visits derived from the Health Information Systems and from the Mortality Registry of Lazio Region (Central Italy), stratified by urban areas.the results show a higher use of hospital assistance and emergency care services as well a higher mortality among residents of urban areas characterized by marginalization and social disadvantage in the North-West suburb in Rome, compared to the surrounding area. The association is stronger for the residents of ex-Bastogi, a compound particularly marginalised and socially disadvantaged, where excesses in hospitalisation, emergency care admission, and mortality of +60%, +150%, and +140%, respectively, occurred.the excesses of hospital use, emergency care visits, and mortality observed among the residents of marginalized urban areas suggest the need to reorganize the preventive and primary care services considering the socioeconomic disadvantage in such housing contexts. The use of both qualitative and quantitative approaches allows to understand the complexity of such contexts.

(1) Background: Interest in gender disparities in epidemiology, clinical features, prognosis and health care in chronic kidney disease patients is increasing. Aims of the study were to evaluate the association between gender and vascular access (arteriovenous fistula (AVF) or central venous catheter (CVC)) used at the start of hemodialysis (HD) and to investigate the association between gender and 1-year mortality. (2) Methods: The study includes 9068 adult chronic HD patients (64.7% males) registered in the Lazio Regional Dialysis Register (Jan 2008–Dec 2018). Multivariable logistic regression models were used to investigate the associations between gender and type of vascular access (AVF vs. CVC) and between gender and 1-year mortality. Interactions between gender and socio-demographic and clinical variables were tested adding the interaction terms in the final model. (3) Results: Females were older, had lower educational level and lower rate of self-sufficiency compared to males. Overall, CVC was used in 51.2% of patients. Females were less likely to use AVF for HD initiation than males. 1354 out of 8215 (16.5%) individuals died at the end of the follow-up period. Interaction term between gender and vascular access was significant in the adjusted model. From stratified analyses by vascular access, OR female vs. male (AVF) = 0.65, 95% CI 0.48–0.87 and OR female vs. male (CVC) = 0.88, 95% CI 0.75–1.04 were found. (4) Conclusion: This prospective population-based cohort study in a large Italian Region showed that in females starting chronic HD AVF was less common respect to men. The better 1-year survival of females is more evident among those women with AVF. Reducing gender disparity in access to AVF represents a key point in the management of HD patients.