Dec. 10, 2009 Despite free public healthcare, Italy's poor are
more likely to end up in hospital with avoidable conditions, new
research shows. This pattern, reported today in the online open
access journal BMC Public Health, mirrors findings from a number
of different healthcare systems around the world, although to
date fewer studies have been completed in Europe. A research
team led by Nera Agabiti at the Department of Epidemiology, ASL
RM/E Rome (Italy) used hospital discharge data from the year
2000 from Rome, Bologna, Turin and Milan. They focussed on
patients with six chronic conditions: diabetes, hypertension
(without procedures), congestive heart failure (without
procedures), angina pectoris (without procedures), chronic
obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and asthma. These
ambulatory care sensitive conditions (ACSCs) are disorders where
hospitalisation is potentially preventable with the right care
and medication. Hospitalisation rates for ACSCs are also
increasingly used as an indicator of primar