Publication productivity of Allied Health Professions in an Italian Local Health Authority: prevalence and bibliometric analysis.

BACKGROUND AND AIM OF THE WORK: Despite Allied Health Professions (AHPs) represent a substantial part of workforce within the health system and they might give a relevant contribution to research, literature on publication productivity of AHPs working in non-research/academic institutions is scarce. The aim of this investigation was to provide point prevalence of AHPs working in a non- research/academic setting who have written at least one article published in indexed journals, in order to describe their scientific productivity. METHODS: A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out of AHPs working in large Local Health Authority in Italy, who published in journals indexed in Scopus and/or PubMed. H-index, publications and citations number, journal name, publication year, and journal Impact Factor were extracted. RESULTS: Fifty-two AHP workers were identified as authors, having published 105 articles between 1993 and 2019. The number of papers increased over the years (p < .001). Published papers in journals with Impact Factor were 67.6% (n = 71) of the total, with a median Impact Factor = 2.676 (range = 0.583 - 59.102). The median number of citations was 4 (range = 0 - 99). The prevalence among units ranged from 0.8% to 5.0%, 2.9% in the whole department. There were not significant differences in number of articles (p = .138), citations received (p = .337), and H-Index (p = .661) among units. CONCLUSIONS: In the Local Health Authority under investigation, publication productivity of AHPs workers was found to be low, although it is increasing over time, with no significant differences among units. Further investigations should be carried out to link these results with authors' information and organizational characteristics to study the relationship between authors' profiles and publication productivity.

Waist-to-height ratio and its associations with body mass index in a sample of Tuscan children in primary school.

BACKGROUND: Visceral obesity in children increases the risk of developing cardiovascular diseases. To evaluate overweight children, in addition to Body Mass Index (BMI), waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) can be used to predict cardiometabolic risk. The goal of this study is to describe WHtR in a sample of Tuscan children. METHODS: A sample of children living in the province of Pistoia, Tuscany, was measured for the following anthropometric parameters: weight, height, and waist circumference. BMI and WHtR were calculated. For the latter indicator, a threshold of 0.5 was considered as a cardiovascular risk predictor. The subjects were classified into underweight, normal weight, overweight, and obese using Cole's cut-offs. RESULTS: The number of children enrolled were 1575 (821 males; 754 females), aged 6-11 years. Of them, 64.3% were normal weight, 4.9% underweight, 22.3% overweight, and 8.5% obese. Moreover, 12.8% had a WHtR ≥0.5 (85.7% males; 88.7% females). The average WHtR value was 0.45 ± 0.045, and was significantly different as per gender (F = 0.45 vs. M = 0.46). WHtR was significantly correlated with BMI (r = 0.766). CONCLUSION: The average WHtR value was in line with previous studies conducted among children of similar age groups. Large-scale perspective studies are needed to validate the Italian WHtR cut-offs for children.

Nutritional status of 8-year-old rural and urban Italian children: a study in Pistoia, Tuscany.

In this study, performed in the province of Pistoia (Italy), we tested whether 8-year-old children living in rural areas differed from their urban peers as far as nutritional status, dietary habits and physical activity are concerned. The study sample was randomly selected to include 50% of the children attending the third elementary class in the province of Pistoia during 2002. A total of 1006 children underwent an anthropometric evaluation and an assessment of dietary habits and physical activity by means of specific questionnaires. Of these children, 927 were born in Italy and are described in this report. The relationship between body mass index (BMI<5th percentile versus 5thor=95th percentile) and the environment (urban versus rural) was of borderline significance (P=0.051). However, the percentage of children with BMI>or=85th percentile was greater in rural (24%) than in urban (18%) areas (P=0.012). The choice of foods and the physical activity of rural children mirrored those of urban children. These data sound as an alarm in view of the current epidemics of obesity that are invading Italy and other Mediterranean countries.