The research group is interested in the epidemiological pattern and related risk-factors and prevention interventions regarding communicable and noncommuncable, chronic diseases widely spread in the Brescia area. Particularly, several infectious and non-infectious risk factors and prognostic factors for chronic liver disease, including cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma, have been investigated in a large series of descriptive and analytical studies. Further research investigated the aetiology of other cancers with particular interest in the role of lifestyle and environmental factors. Recent studies have been carried out on the natural history and risk factors for disease diffusion and progression as regards HIV, hepatitis B and C viral infection and SARS-CoV-2. A study on the protective role of vaccination against severe COVID-19 in patients hospitalized for this disease is in progress.
At the same time, various studies have been performed by the research group on the diffusion and the biological and clinical effects of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), which have been recognized as human carcinogens and endocrine disruptors, in the Brescia area, due to a wide environmental pollution by a factory producing these chemicals for decades, in the past century. Both cohort and case-control studies have been performed to assess the role of these compounds in the development of various types of cancer, endocrine and metabolic diseases, and cardiovascular and Alzheimer disease, some of which are still in progress. Furthermore, the research group is performing a study of the prevalence of, and risk factors for the development of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and steatohepatitis (NASH), which are among the most common causes of chronic liver disease, together with alcoholic steatosis, in our country at present, based on the data collected by a sample of general practitioners (GPs) in the Brescia province.
An analystical and intervention study has been performed to evaluate the role of various risk factors for infertility in a sample of healthy young men and on the short-medium term effects of a lifestyle intervention on their semen quality, through a randomized controlled trial.
Finally, a cohort study on the mental health of high school students in Brescia province, from 14 to 19 years of age, is in progress to evaluate the role of familiar, social and school risk factors for mental diseases in adolescents, using internationally validated questionnaires.
date/time interval:
(January 1, 2003 - )