Suchergebnisse

Objective: To ascertain lifetime prevalence of positivity to a screening questionnaire for bipolar disorders (BD) in Sardinian immigrants to Argentina and residents of Sardinia and assess whether such positivity affects quality of life (QoL) in either group. Our hypothesis is that screen positivity for BD may be more frequent in immigrants. Methods: Observational study. Subjects were randomly selected from the membership lists of associations of Sardinian immigrants in Argentina. A study carried out in Sardinia using the same methodology was used for comparison. The Mood Disorder Questionnaire was used to screen for mania/hypomania and the Short-Form Health Survey-12 to measure QoL. Results: A higher prevalence of manic/hypomanic episodes was found in Sardinian immigrants to Argentina (p < 0.0001; odds ratio = 3.0, 95% confidence interval 1.87-4.77). Positivity at screening was associated with a lower QoL both in Sardinian immigrants to Argentina and in residents of Sardinia. Conclusions: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to show a higher lifetime prevalence of manic/hypomanic episodes in a general-population sample of individuals who migrated to a foreign country. Our results are in agreement with the hypothesis that hyperactive/novelty-seeking features may represent an adaptive substrate in certain conditions of social change.

AbstractClimate change (CC) is the most challenging environmental health (EH) concern. Air pollution is closely linked to CC. However, many CC‐health‐related conditions (i.e., allergic diseases, asthma, hypertension, fluid and electrolyte disorders, child and adult obesity, type 2 diabetes, vector‐borne diseases) are not usually counted, either because they do not cause death or require hospital admission/emergency triage. They are the vast majority of health care seeking generally treated by family doctors (FDs) and family pediatricians (FPs). FDs/FPs are often not aware of CC‐health‐impacts. Their potential role in tackling such a global challenge through their local influence on individual and collective attitudes and policies is not considered. Proper FD training could fill these gaps, raise awareness of their role, and implement EH FDs/FPs‐based surveillance networks to collect, analyze, interpret, and report EH data to inform EH‐related Policy. FDs and FPs, organized in sentinel physicians' networks, could play a key role in advising policymakers at the local and regional level in designing interventions adapted to climate‐related issues. Such experiences are rare worldwide and not well known. We will describe and discuss them in detail to share successful local examples.