This was revealed by the annual survey on adolescent lifestyles carried out by Laboratorio Adolescenza, Istituto Iard, Fondazione De Gasperis and Aimac on 8,500 students
In a scenario monopolized by Covid, some of the most serious and widespread pathologies, such as cancer and cardiovascular disease, they lose relevance in the eyes of adolescents, with the consequence that the risks are underestimated and skepticism about prevention grows. The data emerges from theannual survey on adolescent lifestyles living in Italy made by Adolescent Laboratory And IARD research institute, in collaboration – for this specific aspect – with De Gasperis Foundation of Milan And AIMaC (Italian Association of Cancer Patients).
The survey sample
In the survey – which involved a representative national sample of 8,500 students aged between 12 and 19 and a Milanese sample of over 2,000 cases – some questions were asked to understand which, according to adolescents, was the most widespread disease and which one that causes the greatest mortality among cancer, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and Covid 19. The question (obviously without Covid) had already been asked in the 2019 edition of the same survey, which allowed an interesting comparison taking into account – with full awareness of the researchers – that the inclusion of Covid-19 would certainly have changed the reported percentages. to other pathologies. “But the goal – he explains Carlo Buzzi, sociologist of the University of Trento and scientific director of the survey – it was precisely to understand how the decline resulting from the inclusion of Covid would be distributed among other pathologies ».
Declining perception
The results obtained relating to high school students only describe a very complex situation: if we refer to perception of the spread of different pathologies, the percentage attributed to Covid-19 (26% national figure versus 27.7% Milan figure) significantly lowered the figure relating to cancer (40.0% in 2019 – 26.2% in 2020). If instead we refer to the perception of diseases as a cause of mortality, to “pay the price” of Covid were mainly cardiovascular diseases which pass, in the indication by girls and boys, from 30.6% to just over 16%, while “keeps” the tumor certified, before and after Covid, around 66%.
Distrust of the possibility of preventive action
But there is another fact that is worrying in the past-present comparison and concerns thea perception that adolescents have regarding the effectiveness of prevention against these two important pathologies. With regard to cardiovascular diseases, the percentage of adolescents who believe that there are tools and behaviors suitable to prevent them has decreased significantly (66.7% in 2019 vs 55.4% today). Similar fate for the tumor where the percentage of those who believe that something can be done to prevent it fell – by making a homogeneous comparison on a representative national sample of secondary school students – from 61% (2017 figure) to 37% (2021 figure). And here, the researchers explain, the decline is not given by the “conflict” with Covid, because the answer was independent. More likely it derives from a generalized mistrust determined by the overall situation in which we have found ourselves living in recent years.
Oncological pathologies
That Covid had monopolized everyone’s attention was inevitable and understandable, but in the slow path towards a return to normality (albeit continually challenged by the disturbing whirlwind of “variants” we are witnessing) we must begin to put back some important “Stake” in communication, especially as regards health in general. “There is not only Covid 19 – he comments Laura Del Campo, director of AIMaC – and unfortunately we will sadly realize, much sooner than we can imagine, of the very serious impact that the blocking or slowing down of fundamental community prevention activities will have, such as cancer screening and where possible, as in the case of HPV, vaccination. The HPV, a typical adolescent vaccination, is a wake-up call, because in the Covid year, a bit like all other vaccinations, vaccination coverage dropped. Our commitment, in this phase of crisis we are going through, is precisely to reverse the trend and, through responsible and accurate information aimed specifically at adolescents, to make girls and boys understand the importance of prevention in general and of HPV vaccination in particular.
Cardiovascular diseases
Also on the face of cardiovascular diseases there is certainly the need for a communicative effort, because the combination of the two underestimations (that of heart disease as a cause of mortality and that of the opportunities offered by prevention) risks translating into a disincentive for adolescents to pay attention to those behaviors (smoking, sedentary lifestyle, poor diet) which are among the causes of heart disease. «The picture revealed by the survey – he says Benito Benedini, president of the A. De Gasperis Foundation – can only be a push to increase awareness and prevention interventions aimed at adolescents at all levels. In this direction, our Foundation has already been carrying out the School Project in collaboration with the Cardio Center of the Niguarda Hospital, aimed precisely at teaching adolescents how important it is to pay attention from an early age so that the heart can continue to function at its best and for as long as possible.
The new law on defibrillators
Further help in this sense – Benedini underlines – could come from the implementation of the Law 116/2021 “Provisions on the use of semi-automatic and automatic defibrillators” which promotes the spread and use of Automatic External Defibrillators (AEDs) even in places, such as schools and sports clubs, with a high concentration of adolescents. The law also provides, through the collaboration and direct intervention of health facilities and organizations such as ours, the training of adolescents themselves, from middle school, on basic cardiopulmonary resuscitation techniques and on the use of the semi-automatic and automatic defibrillator. An extraordinary opportunity to provide them with correct information also on the spread and danger of heart diseases, and on the opportunity to prevent them ». Unfortunately, the survey data also shows the persistence of an old stereotype: today in Italy people die more from cardiovascular disease than from cancer, but in the imagination of young people (and probably not only young people) cancer is always the most dangerous disease. And if – as Benito Benedini says – we have to sensitize young people to pay attention to the “heart” more than they do, just as – as Laura Del Campo underlines – we must cancel the perception of the tumor as an inevitably fatal pathology, because today there are many more people who recover from cancer than those who die.
December 2, 2021 (change December 2, 2021 | 11:19)
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