ABSTRACT
Global Burden of Disease identifies the makeup of diets as a significant risk factor for mortality and morbidity, with 11 million deaths and 255 million disability-adjusted life years attributable to dietary risk factors. 690 million people lack sufficient food and economic projections suggest that COVID-19 pandemic may add an additional 83 to 132 million people to the ranks of the undernourished, as the outbreak has exacerbated the global food flaws and insufficiencies, impacting the most vulnerable populations. Diets and related food systems also contribute to significant environmental degradation and climate change. Demand for animal-source foods is also increasing, particularly in emerging economies, which entails risks for the environment. 1.3 billion tons of food are wasted globally yearly, utilizing 38% of total energy consumption in the global food system. The real cost of acquiring enough nutrient-rich food to meet national dietary guidelines for a healthy diet exceeds available income for ∼38% of the world's population. A balanced diet that meets food-based dietary guidelines calls for even larger quantities of more costly food groups than would be needed just for nutrient adequacy, owing to their many functional attributes beyond just the essential nutrients that they contain. Faced with this scenario, there is urgent need for an appropriate strategy to increase people's awareness of the relationship between specific food choices and health and to facilitate the educational environment on this issue. Actual examples of current strategies for communication and promotion of healthy and sustainable diets will be discussed. With awareness and knowledge, clear and precise information, a supportive social environment, available and accessible healthy and sustainable food items, and the implementation of related policies, individuals have a great potential to achieve healthiness and environmental sustainability by choosing healthier and more sustainable foods.
ABSTRACT
AMICA is an argument mining-based search engine, specifically designed for the analysis of scientific literature related to COVID-19. AMICA retrieves scientific papers based on matching keywords and ranks the results based on the papers' argumentative content. An experimental evaluation conducted on a case study in collaboration with the Italian National Institute of Health shows that the AMICA ranking agrees with expert opinion, as well as, importantly, with the impartial quality criteria indicated by Cochrane Systematic Reviews. © 2022 International Joint Conferences on Artificial Intelligence. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
The COVID 19 disease is frequently associated with significant disability related to intensive care unit-acquired weakness, decontitioning, myopathies and neuropathies. However there are no data on the results of a specific rehabilitative treatment in this group of patients. The aim of our work was to evaluate the effectiveness f a personalized rehabilitative therapy in group of post-COVID patients (A, 47 patients, average age 65.3±11.6 y, 27 M,) comparing the results with a group of postcardiosurgical patients COVID 19 negative (B, 47 patients, average age 63.5±10.3 y, 29 M) evaluating the degree of clinical complexity (Rehabilitation Complexity Scale, RCS-E V13) and the degree of autonomy recovery (Six-minute walking test SMWT, Barthel Index, BI) pre and post-treatment. In Group A patients the Rehabilitation program is associated with a significant improvement in autonomy recovery (BI admission 29.7±20 vs discharge 72.7±28.6 p<0.005, SMWT admission 146±25 vs 318±18 m, p<0.005) and in clinical complexity (RCS admission 10.9±1.1 vs discharge 5.3, p<0.05). At admission the comparison between Group A vs B has show: 1. a reduced pre-rehabilitation hospital stay (days) in Group Vs A (B 8.2±2 vs 31±5 0.005) 2. a similar degrre of clinical complexity (RCS scale A 10.9±1.1 vs 1.6±11.2 p ns) 3. a greater loss autonomy in post-COVID patients (BI scale A 29.7±20 vs B 47.7±19, p 0.05;SMWT A 145±25 m vs B 255±18 m, p 0.05) After a similar period of rehabilitation (A 29.7±12.8 days vs B 29.6±10 days, p ns) we observed in both Groups: 1. a reduction of clinical complexity ((RCS scale A 5.3±2 vs 6.6±2 p ns 2. an improvement of degree of autonomy recovery ((BI scale A 72.7±28 vs B 47.7±19, p ns;SMWT A 385±18 m vs B 410±25m, p ns) Conclusions: Post-COVID patients show a greater loss of autonomy than post-cardiosurgery patients. Rehabilitative treatment has proven effective in ensuring adequate functional recovery with similar results to those obtained in the population of cardiological subjects COVID 19 negative.
ABSTRACT
Issue Preparedness can be considered the Achilles heel in Western Coutries to adequately fight Sars-CoV-2 pandemy. The Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS) has been challenged to give rapid technical and scientific advices to the State and Regions on a huge variety of Sars-CoV-2 aspects related to public health. Description of the problem Rapid and timely accumulation of knowledge and empirical evidence is critical for policymakers and emergency managers to maximally inform their decisions through scientific evidence and to better guide and mobilise the expertise of academics and general practitioners towards effective solutions. Results An ad hoc “Scientific Literature working group” at ISS in the period 23/03 - 31/05 screened a total of 4,568 pre-prints and 15,590 peer reviewed papers extracted from PubMed, arXiv.org, medRxiv and bioRxiv, which gave rise to the following deliverables: a) a daily pre-prints alert selection delivered to ISS President for the routine national Scientific Technical Committee meetings on Sars-CoV-2 chaired by Italian Civil Protection (still ongoing), and, b) a weekly open access issue of Covid Contents publications (8 volumes, https://www.iss.it/en/covid-contents), as summary of most interesting peer-reviewed papers for public health professions. Lessons The needed cross-cutting approach is leading to: interdisciplinarity enhancement within the ISS;coverage of broad expertise areas and interest of health care providers;cross-linkage between the different aspects/disciplines involved in this pandemic and share of experiences. Key messages Committed Institutions have the responsibility to support practitioners and decision makers to understand relevant aspects of medical, physical, occupational and public safety, in case of emergency. The Silos culture has to be overcome. There is nothing more powerful in any Institution than having all researchers rowing fiercely in the same direction.