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Big Data are a top subject in international research articles and a vast debate is taking place on their actual capability of being used to complement or even substitute official statistics surveys and social indicators in particular. In this paper we analyse the metadata of the Scopus database of academic articles on Big Data and we show that most of the existing and intensively growing literature is focused on software and computational issues whilst articles that are specifically focused on statistical issues and on the procedures to build social indicators from Big Data are a much smaller share of this vast production. Nevertheless the works that focus on these topics show promising results because in developed countries Big Data seem to be a good information base to create reliable proxies of social indicators, whereas in developing countries their use (for instance using satellite images) may be a viable alternative to traditional surveys. However, Big Data based social indicators deeply suffer of a number of open issues that affect their actual use: they do not correspond to any sampling scheme and they are often representative of particular segments of the population; they generally are private process-produced data whose access by national statistical offices is rarely possible although the intrinsic value of the information contained in Big Data has a social importance that should be shared with the whole community; Big Data lack the socio-economic background on which social indicators have been founded and their help to policy makers in their decision process is a fully open point. Therefore Big Data may be a big opportunity for the definition of traditional or new social indicators but their statistical reliability should be further investigated and their availability and use should be internationally coordinated

This paper studies whether geographic barriers can influence nonadherence to prescription drugs and its effect on patients' health. We used a multivariate probit model estimated by maximum simulated likelihood that considers individual unobserved heterogeneity, which may characterize the relationship between adherence, medical care utilization, and health outcome. We used administrative data from Liguria, Italy, the region with the highest rate of individuals over the age of 65 in Europe. Our sample included older individuals affected by cardiovascular diseases, which remain one of the leading causes of death in most OECD countries. Our results showed that geographic barriers to pharmacies negatively influence patients' adherence. According to our results, patients' nonadherence to pharmacological therapy is responsible for an increased probability of patients' mortality and the overuse of other medical services, namely, hospitalizations and emergency department visits. Nonadherence may thus represent a potential source of waste for the health care system.

Switzerland's mandatory health insurance system provides coverage for a standard benefits package for all residents. However, adult dental care is covered only in case of accidents and inevitable dental illnesses, while routine dental care is almost completely financed out-of-pocket. In general, unmet health needs in Switzerland are low, but unmet dental needs are significant, when compared with other countries in Europe. Recent popular initiatives in Switzerland have aimed to introduce a mandatory insurance model for dental care through a mandatory contribution of 1% of gross salaries toward dental care insurance. In three cantons, the proposals have collected the required number of signatures and a public referendum is expected to be held in 2017/2018. If implemented, the insurance system is expected to have a significant impact on the dental profession, dental care demand, and the provision of dental services. The contrasting positions of stakeholders for and against the reform reflect a rare situation in which dental care policy issues are being widely discussed at all levels. However, such a discussion is of crucial relevance not only for Switzerland, but also for the whole of Europe, which has significant levels of unmet needs for dental care, especially among vulnerable and deprived individuals, and new solutions to expand dental care coverage are required.

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