Fabrizio Guerra

Human papillomavirus and cancerous diseases of the head and neck: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

The increasing incidence of head and neck cancer (HNSCC) highlights the need to better understand the role of human papillomavirus (HPV) in the development of these cancers. The aims of this study were to conduct a systematic review and a meta-analysis concerning observational studies on the association between HPV infection and HNSCC and to quantify this association, thereby obtaining a reliable estimation of the risk of HPV infection in the development of head and neck cancer. Literature searches were performed using PubMed and Scopus databases. StatsDirect 2.7.8 program was used for the analysis. We found 15 case-control studies, 63 prevalence studies, and no cohort studies. The pooled odds ratio (OR) for all the included case-control studies resulted in a value of 1.63 (95% CI 1.27-2.09; P < 0.0001). The highest pooled OR resulted from the analysis of all the studies that examined HPV 16 genotype in association oral cavity (OR 5.36; 95% CI 1.4-20). The strong evidence of association between HPV infection and HNSCC highlights the importance of the introduction of specific tests in the cancer prevention practices to evaluate the presence of the virus, especially in the oral cavity, and the possibility of an extension of the vaccine anti-HPV in the male population too.

Reliability of adapted version of Italian Label tobacco Impact Index for the adolescent: ALII

OBJECTIVEnThe aim of this study is to assess the reliability of the Adolescent Label Impact Index (ALII) , it is an adolescent adapted version of Italian LII of the tobacco products warnings.nnnMATERIAL AND METHODSnA sample including students aged 13-15 years was considered. The ALII is constructed by 4 items: salience, harm, quitting and forgo. The questionnaire was self-administered to study participants twice with 3 days between each administration (T1 and T2) to measure reliability. The internal consistency using Cronbachs alpha and Corrected Item-Total Correlations (CITC) and the test-retest reliability applying Pearsons correlation were computed.nnnRESULTSnCronbachs alpha ranges from 0.625 at T1 to 0.715 at T2. The salience resulted the item with the lowest CITC value (=0.281). The Pearsons coefficient was r=0.909 (p<0.001).nnnCONCLUSIONSnThe instruments is low in cost and easy to administer and analyses in a setting people aged 13-15 years. The ALII shown an acceptable consistency and excellent stability over time. However, attention has to be paid when the ALII is administered to the no smoking teens and who has never seen the tobacco product labels to allow an appropriate interpretation of the data collected.