Epidemiology of Gallstone Disease in Italy: Prevalence Data of the Multicenter Italian Study on Cholelithiasis (M.I.COL.)

Abstract

This study was designed to obtain a general overview of gallstone disease in Italy. A total of 18 cohorts in 10 Italian regions were enrolled in this survey. Four cohorts were excluded from analysis because of a participation rate of less than 50 percent. Field activities started in December 1984 and terminated in April 1987. A precoded questionnaire was administered to each subject by a trained member of the medical staff. Participants underwent an ultrasonographic examination of the upper abdomen and blood sampling. Each research group was provided with an identical ultrasonographic machine. Standardized criteria were established for both the examination and diagnosis. The inter- and intraobserver variation in the ultrasonographic procedure was assessed using a reliability study. The overall kappa score for interobserver agreement was good (0.649), while intraobserver agreement was good or excellent (kappa scores > 0.60) in 75 percent of the observers. A total of 29,739 of the 46,139 (64.4 percent) enrolled subjects were examined. Among those with a clear-cut definition of the gallbladder status, 6.5 percent of the males and 10.5 percent of the females had gallstones. Additional 3.0 and 8.4 percents, respectively, had already undergone cholecystectomy. Prevalence of gallstone disease (gallstones plus cholecystectomy) increased linearly with age in both sexes. Among subjects with gallstones, 76.7 percent of men and 72 percent of women were not aware of having gallstones; 87.0 percent of men and 84.9 percent of women were asymptomatic. This study confirms that gallstone disease is a highly prevalent condition. Gallstones rarely cause symptoms, and subjects are mostly unaware of their presence.

A retrospective review of children with gallstone: Single-center experience from Central Anatolia

“…Unlike adults having an asymptomatic disease over 80% (14,15), children are less likely to present with asymptomatic presentation, ranging between 17%-50% (6,12,16). In the present study, the frequency of asymptomatic disease was concordant with the current literature by comprising 38.7% of the entire study population.…”

The realization of a project aimed at reducing the plasmatic lipid level in a large Italian population improves the mean calcium daily intake: the Brisighella Study

“…The Brisighella Study is an epidemiological study on chronic diseases of social impact in the Northern Italian rural town of Brisighella, promoted in 1972 by Professor G Descovich (Descovish et al, 1974); in 1986 it became part of the WHO European Risk Factors Co-ordinated Analysis (ERICA Project, 1988), of the Multicenter Italian Study of Cholelithiasis (Attili et al, 1995) and, in 1990, of the Risk Factors and Life Expectancy Project (Menotti et al, 1994). The study structure includes different phases and subprojects (Menotti et al, 1994;Descovich et al, 1990a,b;Gaddi et al, 1996).…”

Diet and gallstones in italy: The cross-sectional MICOL results

“…The study protocol has been described in detail elsewhere. 36,37 In brief, field activities started in December 1984 and finished in April 1987. Subjects enrolled in the study, ranging from 30 to 69 years of age, were selected on the basis of electoral roles in 18 operative units, of which 4 were excluded because of a low participation rate.…”

“…36 From this cohort, we excluded from the analysis subjects who had been previously submitted to cholecystectomy (477 males; 1,149 females) and those who were already aware of having GS (241 males; 402 females). A further 33 males and 58 females were excluded because of an incomplete food-frequency questionnaire.…”