Eating disorders (EDs) are characterized by behavioral and cognitive aspects that result in a significant impairment of an individual’s well-being. COVID-19 pandemic consequences negatively impacted healthcare services and people’s mental health. Particularly, in developmental ages, difficulties in coping with the situation could have had an impact on eating behaviors. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess EDs’ hospitalization trend before, during and after the pandemic peak to evaluate whether it has been influenced. A retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted on the hospital discharge forms of patients from 5 to 19 years old in Piedmont, which is a region in northern Italy. Overall, hospitalization, age, and gender-specific rates due to EDs that occurred in 2020 and 2021 were compared to those that occurred in 2018–2019. Since 2020, there has been a 55% reduction in overall hospitalizations, while the total proportion of EDs admissions has doubled from 2020 to 2021 (from 13.9‰ to 22.2‰). Significant hospitalization rate increases were observed both in 15–19 and in 10–14 females’ age groups in 2021. Non-significant increases were observed in all males’ age groups. The increase in hospitalizations for EDs should be further investigated, as it might be the tip of an iceberg not yet acknowledged.

Background Emergency department (ED) use among nursing home (NH) residents is an internationally-shared issue that is understudied in Italy. The long term care in Italy is part of the health system. This study aimed to assess trajectories of ED use among NH residents and determinants between demographic, health supply, clinical/functional factors. Methods A pooled, cross-sectional, time series analysis was performed in an Italian region in 2012/2019. The analysis measured the trend of ED user percentages associated with chronic conditions identified at NH admission. A GLM multivariate model was used to evaluate determinants of ED use. The variables collected were sex, age, assistance intensity, destination after discharge from NH, chronic conditions at NH admission, need for daily life assistance, degree of mobility, cognitive impairments, behavioural disturbances and were taken from two databases of the official Italian National Information System (FAR and C2 registries) that were combined to create a unique and anonymous code for each patient. Results A total of 37,311 residents were enrolled; 55.75% (20,800 residents) had at least one ED visit. The majority of the residents had cardiovascular (25.99%) or mental diseases (24.37%). In all pathologies, the percentage of ED users decreased and the decrease accelerated over time. These results were confirmed in the fixed effects regression model (coefficient for linear term (b = − 3.6177, p = 0, 95% CI = [− 5.124, − 2.1114]); coefficient for quadratic term = − 0.7691, p = 0.0046, 95% CI = [− 1.2953, − 0.2429]). Analysis showed an increased odds of ED visits involving males (OR = 1.27, 95% CI 1.24;1.30) and patients affected by urogenital diseases (OR = 1.16, 95% CI [1.031–1.314]). The lowest odds of ED visits were observed among subjects aged > 90 years (OR = 0.64, 95% CI [0.60–0.67]), who required assistance for their daily life activities (OR = 0.86; 95% CI = [0.82, 0.91]), or with serious cognitive disturbances (OR = 0.86; 95% CI = [0.84, 0.89]), immobile (OR = 0.93; 95% CI = [0.89, 0.96]), or without behavioural disturbances (OR = 0.92; 95% CI = [0.90, 0.94]). Conclusions The percentage of ED users has decreased, through support from the Italian disciplinary long-term care system. The demographic, clinical/functional variables associated with ED visits in this study will be helpful to develop targeted and tailored interventions to avoid unnecessary ED use.

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Background Reporting a case of suicide on a newspaper could lead to an emulation effect (Werther effect). It is important to report suicide cases by following specific recommendations implemented by World Health Organization (WHO). This study aimed to analyze articles published on Italian newspapers to quantify the adherence to the WHO recommendations in suicide report. Methods All the articles published in the three most important Italian newspapers from June 2019 to May 2020 that described one or more cases of suicide were included. Two researchers analyzed all the articles through an ad-hoc checklist, constructed on the basis of the WHO recommendations, that included 18 “negative” items (e.g. “presence of suicide-related words in the title”) and nine “positive” items (e.g. “the article reports the contacts of a suicide-prevention hotline”). For each negative item a “-1” point, and for each positive item a + 1 point, was assigned. Multivariable linear regressions were performed to identify factors related with a lower adherence to the WHO recommendations and with higher social engagement of the articles. Results A total of 110 articles were analyzed. In the 73% of the cases, the individual was male. The 14.5% of the suicide cases were homicide-suicide, while 9% were femicide-suicide. The median score of the checklist was -6 (IQR 3). Only 5% of the articles had at least one positive item. The word “suicide” (or related words) were present in 90% of the titles. Multivariable analyses showed that female suicides were associated with a higher score of the checklist (coeff 0.816, p = 0.039). No correlation was retrieved between the score of the checklist and the social media engagement of the articles included. Conclusions Italian newspapers do not follow WHO recommendations on how to report suicide cases, leading to a potential emulation effect. Public health professionals should raise decision makers’ and journalists’ awareness about the importance of these recommendations. Key messages • Since Italian newspapers are not compliant with the recommendations of the World Health Organization on how to report a suicide case, there is the risk of a potential emulation effect. • Specific training for journalists and other professionals in the field of communication should be implemented, to raise the awareness on the importance of the “reporting on suicide” recommendation.

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