The ongoing pandemic scenario, due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), has had a considerable impact on public health all over the world. Italy was one of the most affected countries, as the first European full-blown outbreak occurred there. The exposure of the Italian health care workers to COVID-19 may be an important risk factor for psychological distress. The aim of this cross-sectional study was to describe worries and risk perception of being infected among Italian Health Care Workers (HCWs) during the first wave of the pandemic. In total, 2078 HCWs participated in a web survey (78.8% were females). The highest percentage of respondents were physicians (40.75%) and nurses (32.15%), followed by medical (18.00%), health care support (4.50%) and administrative (4.60%) staff. In a score range between 0 (not worried) and 4 (very worried), our results showed that participants declared that they were worried about the Coronavirus infection with a median score of 3 (IQR 2-3) and for 59.19% the risk perception of being infected was very high. In addition, HCWs reported they suffered from sleep disturbances (63.43%). From the analysis of the psychological aspect, a possible divergence emerged between the perceived need for psychological support (83.85%) and the relative lack of this service among health care providers emerged (9.38%). Our findings highlight the importance of psychological and psychiatric support services not only during the COVID-19 pandemic, but also in other emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) scenarios. These services may be useful for health authorities and policymakers to ensure the psychological well-being of health care professionals and to promote precautionary behaviors among them.

Since the start of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, several treatments have been proposed to prevent the progression of the disease. Currently, three antiviral (molnupiravir, nirmaltrevir/r, remdesivir) and two monoclonal antibodies (casirivimab/imdevimab and sotrovimab) are available in Italy. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate the presence of risk factors associated with disease progression. We conducted a retrospective cohort study, including all patients with a confirmed diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 evaluated between 01/01/2022 ad 10/05/2022 by our Unit of Infectious Diseases in Sassari. We defined disease progression as the necessity of starting O2 therapy. According to AIFA (Italian Medicines Agency) indications, preventive treatment was prescribed in patients with recent symptoms onset (≤five days), no need for oxygen supplementation, and risk factors for disease progression. Subgroup differences in quantitative variables were evaluated using Student’s t-test. Pearson chi-square or Fisher’s exact tests were used to assess differences for qualitative variables. Multivariate logistic regression modelling was performed to determine factors associated with progression. A two-tailed p-value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. All statistical analyses were performed with STATA version 17 (StataCorp, College Station, TX, USA). We included 1145 people with SARS-CoV-2 diagnosis, of which 336 (29.3%) developed severe disease with oxygen supplementation. In multivariate logistic regression analysis, age, dementia, haematologic tumors, heart failure, dyspnoea or fever at first evaluation, having ground glass opacities or consolidation at the first CT scan, and bacteria coinfection were associated with an increased risk of disease progression. Vaccination (at least two doses) and early treatment with antiviral or monoclonal antibodies were associated with a lower risk of disease progression. In conclusion, our study showed that vaccination and early treatment with antiviral and/or monoclonal antibodies significantly reduce the risk of disease progression.

The urinary tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases-2 and insulin-like growth factor-binding protein 7 ([TIMP-2]∙[IGFBP7]) have been introduced to improve risk prediction of severe acute kidney injury (AKI) within 12 hours of measurement. We performed a prospective cohort study to evaluate if the predictive value of [TIMP-2]∙[IGFBP7] for AKI might continue after 12 hours. We enrolled 442 critically ill adult patients from June to December 2016. Urine samples were collected at admission for [TIMP-2]∙[IGFBP7] measurement. Baseline patient characteristics were recorded including patients’ demographics, prior health history, and the main reason for admission to build a logistic regression model to predict AKI. AKI occurrence differed between patients with [TIMP-2]∙[IGFBP7] ≤0.3 and >0.3 (ng/ml)2/1000 (31.9% and 68.10% respectively; p < 0.001). Patients with AKI had higher biomarker values compared to those without AKI (0.66 (0.21–2.84) vs 0.22 (0.08–0.63) (ng/ml)2/1000; p < 0.001). [TIMP-2]∙[IGFBP7] at ICU admission had a lower performance in predicting AKI at any stage within 48 hours and 7 days after measurement (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) equal to 0.70 (95%CI 0.65–0.76), AUC 0.68 (95%CI 0.63–0.73)). In the logistic regression model, 0.1 (ng/ml)2/1000-unit increment was likely to increase the risk of AKI by 2% (p = 0.002).

Purpose This review aimed to assess the effects of COVID-19 pandemic lockdown on mental health to elite athletes. The emotional background influenced their sport career and was examined by questionnaires. Methods We included original studies that investigated psychological outcomes in elite athletes during COVID-19 lockdown. Sixteen original studies (n = 4475 participants) were analyzed. Results The findings showed that COVID-19 has an impact on elite athletes’ mental health and was linked with stress, anxiety and psychological distress. The magnitude of the impact was associated with athletes’ mood state profile, personality and resilience capacity. Conclusion The lockdown period impacted also elite athletes’ mental health and training routines with augmented anxiety but with fewer consequences than the general population thanks to adequate emotion regulation and coping strategies.

The home advantage (HA) affects football competitions, especially due to the presence of crowd support. Even though several studies demonstrated that HA (which is influenced by the crowd) decreased in recent years, the empty stadia caused by COVID-19 restrictions offered unique situations to explore and quantify HA. For this reason, we aimed to assess HA in two seasons of the major Italian Championships. We conducted an observational study with the data from the last three seasons of the Italian football championship A–B series, analyzing a total of 2.964 individual game scores. To quantify the HA, the number of points won at home was calculated as a percentage of the total number of points won, home and away. In every season and for every team classification, HA was found (scored points > 50% in home matches). We reported a difference in HA median score for Serie B. Additionally, a difference was found in Serie A for middle-ranking HA median scores in the two seasons compared (p-value = 0.017), which was similarly found in Serie B (p-value = 0.009). The number of penalties was lower in the season with a crowd compared to one without a crowd (p = 0.001). The HA did not disappear in empty stadiums, so there must be other contributing factors. Additionally, we found that the referees were biased by the presence of the crowd in favor of the home teams, and this result could be considered by the football association during referees’ training and formation.