Volume 34, no. 5, May 2021. A survey on Italian nursing home for elderly during COVID-19 pandemics: what implications for public health? Use of new mobile and gaming technologies for the assessment and rehabilitation of persons with ataxia. Stop smoking: a video clip promoting the tobacco tool-free number 800554088 of the Italian National Institute of Health - ISS (EN)

Abstracts:

A survey on Italian nursing home for elderly during COVID-19 pandemics: what implications for public health?
The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic shows that residential care setting is the epicenter of this tragedy. The National Observatory of Dementia at the Italian National Institute of Health has conducted from 24 March to 5 May 2020 a survey in the 3,417 nursing home for the elderly. 1,356 (41.3%)  structures replied to the survey; in 393 (29%) of these, the SARS-CoV-2 virus has been documented. The results show that out of 9,154 people who died from February 1st to day of participation in the survey, 7.4% were affected by COVID-19 and 33.8% had flu-like symptoms. An integrated public health approach is urgent to understand the real dimensions of the phenomenon.

Use of new mobile and gaming technologies for the assessment and rehabilitation of persons with ataxia
Currently, there are no available disease-modifying pharmacological treatments for most ataxias. Thus, effective rehabilitative strategies are crucial to help improve symptoms and quality of life. The National Center for Disease Prevention and Health Promotion of the Italian National Institute of Health, in collaboration with the Department of Neurosciences, performed a review of the evidence on PubMed, Web of Science, and the Cochrane databases, on the use of videogames, exergames, and apps for the rehabilitation, diagnosis, and assessment of people with ataxias. Despite the small number of trials, all evidence reported an improvement of motor outcomes and quality of life, showing how promising these technologies are in the treatment of ataxias.

Stop smoking: a video clip promoting the tobacco tool-free number 800554088 of the Italian National Institute of Health
The National Center for Drug Addiction and Doping of the Italian National Institute of Health has made a video clip with the aim of spreading the toll-free number against smoking (800554088), managed by the ISS. The video was financially supported by the National Centre for Disease Prevention and Control of the Ministry of Health (CCM) and it is mainly aimed at young people and adolescents who are continuing to feed the catchment area of the tobacco epidemic. The video clip, named Stop, what you’re doing, was realized by the inter-school choir “Il coro che non c’è” (The choir that doesn’t exist) with the aim of raising awareness and promoting individual and collective change in tobacco consumption. The video won the "Youth Contest: ENSP Next - Towards a tobacco free generation" as the most liked proposal on Social networks.