Introduction: Evidence-based prevention (EBP) is gaining growing interest among the international scientflc community in the field of Occupational Health. In order to ascertain the commitment that has been made in Italy toparticz5ation in EB2 we conducted a systematic review ofscientflc publications on efficacy evaluations in Italy. Methods: We hand-searched journals and interrogated the PubMed database to identj,i5i reports of studies evaluating interventions designed to improve workers health in Italy between 1990 and 2006. The selected articles were classified by institutional category (of the first author), intervention methodology, study design, type of risk factor, and occupational sector. Results: Wefound23 eligible publications in the Italian language and 9 in English. The mostfrequent study-design was pre-/post-intervention evaluation; 3 studies were randomized trials. The interventions were aimed mainly at controlling the effects of chemical hazards and noise; health-care settings were the most frequent. We found only 2 studies (1 in English) evaluating the efficacy of interventions targeting injury prevention. Discussion: The systematic approach of EBP can be applied to most occupational health interventions. These results may contribute to the debate on methodology and outcomes in the scientific community.
The contribution of the Italian scientific community to efficacy studies in Occupational Health (1990-2006)
Mattioli S.;Placidi D.;Mancini G.;
2009-01-01
Abstract
Introduction: Evidence-based prevention (EBP) is gaining growing interest among the international scientflc community in the field of Occupational Health. In order to ascertain the commitment that has been made in Italy toparticz5ation in EB2 we conducted a systematic review ofscientflc publications on efficacy evaluations in Italy. Methods: We hand-searched journals and interrogated the PubMed database to identj,i5i reports of studies evaluating interventions designed to improve workers health in Italy between 1990 and 2006. The selected articles were classified by institutional category (of the first author), intervention methodology, study design, type of risk factor, and occupational sector. Results: Wefound23 eligible publications in the Italian language and 9 in English. The mostfrequent study-design was pre-/post-intervention evaluation; 3 studies were randomized trials. The interventions were aimed mainly at controlling the effects of chemical hazards and noise; health-care settings were the most frequent. We found only 2 studies (1 in English) evaluating the efficacy of interventions targeting injury prevention. Discussion: The systematic approach of EBP can be applied to most occupational health interventions. These results may contribute to the debate on methodology and outcomes in the scientific community.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
