The preservation and evaluation of cultural heritage increasingly demand methodologies capable of navigating complexity, expert subjectivity, and participatory foresight. This study examines the Delphi method as a robust tool for cultural heritage research, particularly for contexts marked by plural values, limited empirical data, and evolving stakeholder constellations. Drawing from the method’s philosophical foundations and recent evolutions (including fuzzy, policy, and e-Delphi variants) we propose a narrative framework for Delphi-based heritage assessments. Based on a review of eleven Delphi studies across the arts and heritage fields, we identify common methodological patterns, design innovations, and challenges related to expert selection, consensus-building, and transparency. We also highlight the method’s potential to engage diverse knowledge systems and to map dissensus rather than enforce artificial agreement. The paper concludes by discussing the implications of Delphi for interdisciplinary research, inclusive governance, and the co-construction of knowledge in sustainable cultural development.

BACKGROUND:Epidermolysis bullosa (EB) is a rare inherited disorder characterized by skin and mucosal fragility, with severe implications for physical, psychological, and social well-being. Research on quality of life (QoL) in EB remains limited, particularly in Italy, where systematic patient-reported outcome measures are lacking. To address this gap, Fondazione REB ETS developed a patient-centered QoL questionnaire (QoL-REB) constructed directly by patients and caregivers, with support from clinicians and researchers. METHODS:We conducted a cross-sectional online survey between March and April 2024, recruiting Italian EB patients and caregivers through Fondazione REB and Debra Italia mailing lists. Participants completed the QoL-REB questionnaire, which assesses seven dimensions of QoL: physical health, autonomy, emotional well-being, family dynamics, social interactions, work/school life, and care experience. Responses were rated on a 4-point scale, with overall QoL assessed on a 0-10 scale. RESULTS:Forty-seven individuals with EB (38 adults, 9 minors; 55% female) participated, representing multiple EB subtypes, predominantly dystrophic EB (62.4%). Mean overall QoL was rated 6/10. Pain, itching, and reduced mobility emerged as the most frequent physical challenges. Over 70% of adults reported limited autonomy in daily activities, while children experienced difficulties with walking, dressing, and sports participation. Emotional distress was common, with patients expressing concerns about future prospects, body image, and dependence on others; 43% reported a need for psychological support. Family burden was evident, with both adults and minors perceiving themselves as a strain on relatives. Social limitations, workplace and school difficulties, and dissatisfaction with healthcare services-particularly a lack of EB-specific expertise in non-reference centers-were also reported. CONCLUSIONS:This first Italian patient-led assessment highlights the pervasive and multidimensional burden of EB on QoL. Findings underscore the need for integrated, patient-centered care models that combine medical, psychological, and social support. The QoL-REB questionnaire provides a novel, comprehensive tool to capture the lived experience of EB and may serve as a framework for international adaptation and implementation.

This paper examines collectible design as an emergent hybrid domain at the intersection of art, design, and luxury. Using a two-round Delphi method with expert participants (curators, collectors, designers, and market professionals), we elicited and synthesized judgments in a context marked by ambiguous boundaries and information asymmetries. The study identifies consensus on core value drivers (e.g., authorship, uniqueness, narrative, and aesthetic resonance) and on the central role of expert mediation and field-configuring events in conferring legitimacy. Building on these insights, we introduce symbolic infrastructure as a layered framework (linking evaluative devices, institutional platforms, and identity work) that explains how collectible design stabilizes as a field. The resulting conceptual model specifies directional relationships among category definitions, valuation practices, collector identity, and institutional mechanisms, offering testable propositions for quantitative and mixed-methods research. This paper advances valuation theory, the sociology of cultural markets, and cultural economics by clarifying how novel symbolic fields emerge, structure meaning, and gain legitimacy, while demonstrating the suitability of the Delphi method for theorizing under conditions of limited standardization.

This work aims to investigate wheter Italian life sciences companies strategically communicate their commitment to gender equality through their corporate websites. The analysis, based on 55 companies, verifies if contextual factors—such as company size, financial performance, leadership gender, and the presence of inclusive workplace policies—predict the existence of a dedicated web page on gender equality and inclusivity. Logistic regression analysis revealed that the presence of a female CEO is the only significant predictor. In contrast, company size, revenue, and internal D&I policies showed no significant influence, suggesting a gap between internal action and external communication.

The present study examines the state of gender equality and inclusion in Italian life sciences companies. An ad hoc questionnaire was developed and distributed to human resources professionals from various firms with the objective of gathering insights on gender equality practices. Our primary data have been combined with available information from the AIDA database. This included information on the size of the companies in terms of the number of employees and sales revenues. To assess the degree of ' commitment to sustainability and gender equality, we analysed their websites. Three statistical indicators were constructed and combined into a practical synthetic index. This index may be used in future research to quantify and measure each company's overall propensity towards gender equality and inclusion.

BackgroundMigraine is a highly underestimated and burdensome disease. Real-world studies evidence that migraine is more frequent and severe in women than men. However, to this day, no diagnostic-therapeutic pathways exist to satisfy the specific needs of female patients.MethodsIn this study, migraine experts, specialists in women’s health, patient, and decision makers, analyzed the diagnostic and therapeutic options for women with migraine across various ages and health conditions within the Italian healthcare system. A Delphi approach was used to formulate statements and achieve a consensus.ResultsGaps in clinical practice were identified, and strategies to accommodate women’s needs were proposed. The experts agreed that a socio-behavioral intervention should be planned before any pharmacological treatment in pediatric/adolescent female patients and that the assessment of migraine with aura is considered crucial for adult women requiring contraceptive therapy. Acupuncture emerged as an effective treatment for pregnant and breastfeeding women, and hormone-replacement therapy selection in menopausal patients requires careful consideration to mitigate safety risks. The experts highlighted the absence of literature and guidelines for the management of migraine in women undergoing assisted reproductive procedures or oncological treatment. In light of these observations, the experts advocated the establishment of multidisciplinary collaborations between neurologists/headache specialists and other healthcare professionals, including general practitioners, pediatricians, gynecologists, and oncologists. Comprehensive migraine education for all healthcare professionals potentially involved in managing the disease, including pharmacists, was emphasized. Efforts to increase migraine awareness among women should be prioritized.ConclusionThe insights gained from this Italian consensus study should serve to develop an improved, female-specific pathway to diagnose and treat migraine.

Spondyloarthritis (SpA) is the most frequent extraintestinal manifestation in patients with inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). When IBD and spondyloarthritis coexist, musculoskeletal and intestinal disease features should be considered when planning a therapeutic strategy. Treatment options for IBD and SpA have expanded enormously over the last few years, but randomized controlled trials with specific endpoints focused on SpA are not available in the IBD setting. To address this important clinical topic, the Italian Group for the Study of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IG-IBD) and the Italian Society of Rheumatology (SIR) jointly planned to draw updated therapeutic recommendations for IBD-associated SpA using a pseudo-Delphi method. This document presents the official recommendations of IG-IBD and SIR on the management of IBD-associated SpA in the form of 34 statements and 4 therapeutic algorithms. It is intended to be a reference guide for gastroenterologists and rheumatologists dealing with IBD-associated SpA.

In this work, we show a narrative review conserning instruments to measure the quality of Life in Health Care from a patients point of view. In particular, we pay attention on the construction of questionnaire and on the choice of the areas/settings (physical, emotional, social, functional, economical,...).

Patient quality of life (QoL) is a pivotal parameter, which is often used by clinicians to evaluate how treatments and therapies influence patients’ functionality and emotional state, aiming to ameliorate interventions and their outcomes. Currently, the majority of questionnaires assessing the QoL are designed with the main contribution of clinicians and, therefore, include items that are cantered on the disease rather than on its multifaceted impact on people’s life. The failure to truly grasp the patients’ perspective, their needs, aspirations, perceptions and emotional state, is a major drawback that sets medical care on clinical parameters alone. We aimed to bridge this gap by establishing an innovative patient-designed QoL index to provide a new, unbiased tool considering the patients’ perception of their own well-being. Based predominantly on patients’ contribution, we defined specific areas (physical, emotional, social, functional, economical) and the respective characterizing features, and applied a pseudo-Delphi methodology combined with customer-satisfaction techniques. For each feature, the degree of agreement and the importance were assessed on a Likert scale. A synthetic QoL index was created by weighting the importance of each item. The methodology tested led to the development of a valid patient-designed QoL index, providing a way forward that could potentially be applied to many different conditions. The areas and the features included are indeed common to all patients, irrespective of their disease. We found that the process of methodology development enhanced the patients’ awareness of their subjective experience with the disease, and enabled them to better present their situation to the clinicians. The patient-designed QoL index provides a descriptive model that can be helpful to patients, clinicians and third parties and that can be further integrated with clinical details to obtain an overall view of the course of treatment for each patient.

Researchers have demonstrated that interviewer supportive behaviors positively affect children's abilities to provide information about their experiences in many circumstances, but there is some evidence that supportiveness effects may be influenced by children's temperament. The associations among interviewer support, child temperament, and children's propensity to disclose adult transgressions during free recall remain unclear. Children (N = 132) 5 to 9 years old partook in an event where an adult confederate committed six transgressions. The children were interviewed a few days later; half by a supportive interviewer and half by a neutral interviewer. Within two to three months of their participation, the children's teachers completed a questionnaire to describe each child's temperament. While interviewer support did not predict these children's disclosure of transgressions, dimensions of child temperament and individual factors did. Specifically, children's disclosure tendencies were predicted by how socially flexible and task-oriented they were. Additionally, the interviewers' questioning behavior was impacted by children's level of reactivity. Taken together with other research, the results provide further evidence that behaviors of both the interviewers and the children in the interview process are relevant to facilitating children's disclosures of sensitive information.

Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB) is a group of genetic conditions that cause fragile and blistering skin. Although there are different types of EB, which differ in severity, their signs and symptoms overlap. As a result of this disorder, patients face an unbearable burden in their lives, and their Quality of Life (QoL) is negatively affected at every life cycle stage. Nevertheless, the assessment of the quality of life of these patients is scanty. This project aims to develop a patient-centered questionnaire to assess the QoL of EB patients. This tool will be a valid aid for clinicians to understand patients better and identify the areas that need more attention; moreover, it will allow them to follow the patients over time and evaluate the impact of any treatments. The methodological process to develop the questionnaire consisted of two phases: firstly, a critical review of scientific literature was performed; secondly, a pseudo-Delphi study was carried out. A multidisciplinary panel (including patients, caregivers, and clinicians) actively participated in round tables to discuss the main areas of interest. Starting from this initial set of areas and through the repetition of Delphi (up to three rounds), a gradual refinement of the statements was carried out to define a list of items to be included in an easy-to-use but meaningful questionnaire. The final patient-centered questionnaire is thus able to measure the QoL beyond the physical symptoms and the clinical evolution of the disease, encompassing functional autonomy, psycho-emotional state, social relations and the working field.

Benedan, Laura Monti, Gianna SerafinaAdolescent gambling is internationally considered a serious public health concern, although this phenomenon is less explored than adult gambling. It is also well known that the early onset age of gambling is a risk factor for developing gambling problems in adulthood. This study examined 7818 adolescents enrolled in 16 public high schools in Lombardy, a Northwest Italy region, between March 2017 and April 2018 and it is part of a larger study aimed at investigating dysfunctional behaviours of adolescents, with the purpose of identifying the factors that increase the risk of vulnerability and the protection factors able to reduce the incidence of pathological phenomena. The objective of the present study was to investigate the susceptibility of adolescents in high school to develop gambling problems, explained by some individual and social factors, and by the association with the use of substances, such as alcohol and tobacco and other risk-taking behaviours. Various modelling methods were considered from an imbalanced learning perspective, as the prevalence rate of high school students in the sample with problem gambling is equal to 6.1%.

Preschool children are particularly prone to suggestion. Here, we examined the extent to which temperament variables and internalising and externalising problems influenced preschoolers' suggestibility. Children aged between 3 and 5 years (N = 140) completed the Video Suggestibility Scale for Children (Scullin & Ceci, 2001), and their kindergarten teachers completed two questionnaires: the EAS Temperament Survey for Children, and the Child Behaviour Checklist. As expected, age and free recall performance were both negatively related to susceptibility to misleading questions. Attentional difficulty was the only individual difference variable that added predictive value to this model. None of our individual difference variables were related to the extent to which children changed their responses in the face of negative feedback. We propose that attentional difficulties might be a particularly strong correlate of suggestibility when children are very young, and we outline the implications of this finding for forensic interviewers who solicit preschoolers' accounts.

We administered the GSS-2, a standardised measure of suggestibility, to 5- to 12-year-old children to ascertain whether neglected children's responses to leading questions distinguish them from those of their non-neglected counterparts. Neglected children (n = 75) were more likely than an age-matched sample of non-neglected children (n = 75) to yield to leading questions, despite no difference in their ability to recall the test stimuli. Subsequent collection of individual difference data from the neglected sample revealed that this effect could not be attributed to intelligence, language ability, problem behaviours, age at onset of neglect, or time spent in out-of-home care. With respect to social skill, however, suggestibility was positively correlated with communicative skill, and marginally positively correlated with assertion and engagement. While on the surface our social skills findings seem counter-intuitive, it is possible that maltreated children with relative strengths in these areas have learned to comply with adults in their environment as a way to protect themselves or even foster belonging. Our data, while preliminary, raise interesting questions about whether targeted interventions could help these children to more actively participate in decisions about their lives.

The study examined the social skills of 92 Russian children (males=64) adopted by Italian families. The children, aged between 8 and 14years, were compared with a control group of children who grew up with the biological family. Evaluation by both parents and children of the children's social competence were investigated. The results showed that, according to the parents' reports, the adopted children had more problems in social functioning than peers in the control group, along with a greater propensity to use maladaptive behaviors such as Oppositive Behavior, Rule-Breaking Behavior, Aggressive Behavior and Externalization. By contrast, according to the children's assessments, the adopted children were less aggressive and used prosocial behaviors to a greater extent than children raised in the biological family. The views of the parents and the children about the children's aggressive behavior were mutually conflicting.Finally, the influence of adoption related variables on the social competence of children was examined. Contrary to our expectations, there were no significant relationships between social competence and age of adoption, the duration of institutionalization and the time spent in the adoptive family.

Research has shown that most of Russian adoptees who have experienced institutionalization and early social deprivation encounter both general and specific difficulties during middle childhood and preadolescence. In this study we investigated the quality of social behaviors and the implementation of maladaptive behaviors of 66 Russian adopted children (males=47) aged between 8 and 13 years (mean=10.51 sd=1.29), paired with a control group of Italian non-adopted children. Several questionnaires were completed by parents and by children themselves. Parents filled out the CBCL 6/18 (Achenbach & Rescorla, 2001) and the CPRS-R: L (Conners, 2007). Children filled out the Aggressive Behavior Questionnaire (Little, Jones, Henrich & Hawley, 2003) and Prosocial Behavior Questionnaire (Caprara & Pastorelli, 1993). The results showed that, according to parents' reports, adopted children have more social difficulties with peers and they show more frequent maladaptive behaviors than non-adopted children. Conversely, adopted children were declared to be less aggressive than the control group.

Recently the interest in the ability of children to testify in legal contexts has increased. Consequently the issue of reliability of testimony in childhood and all those factors which could cause distortions has been highlighted. Interrogative suggestibility has been found to be an important distortion factor, which is in turn influenced by individual variables. In order to explain the phenomenon, we need to investigate the effects of variables related to individuality, such as socio-psychological factors. This study was designed to assess the relationships of memory and interrogative suggestibility with some temperamental measures by QUIT (Axia, 2002) in school-age children. Participants were 245 Italian children (121 males) ranging in age from 6 to 10 years, recruited from five primary schools in Milan (Italy). The age of 8 years was chosen to split the sample into two groups, since at this age some important cognitive changes happen (for example, ToM development). Analyses showed that only a few of the temperamental factors considered were associated with memory and a vulnerability to suggestive questions. The results will be presented and discussed as to their implications for future research and for their relevance in the context of child testimony.

Studies have found that children who experience rejection are at risk for concurrent and/ or later adjustment problems, with respect to social and emotional functioning. This study aimed to investigate possible links between social-status in school classes and symptoms related to internalizing and externalizing in childhood. Children were recruited in primary and secondary schools in Lombardy, Italy. 1094 participants were selected on the basis of the attribution of social-status by peers. Children's behavior and symptoms were assessed by their parents, teachers and by means of self-evaluations. The following measures were administered: the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL; Achenbach & Rescorla, 2001); the Conners Rating Scale-Revised (CRSR; Conners, 1997); the Depression and Anxiety in Youth Scale (TAD; Newcomer, Barenbaum & Bryant, 1995) and the Form & Function Aggressive Behavior Questionnaire (Little, Jones, Henrich & Hawley, 2003). Results indicated that rejected children reported higher levels of internalizing symptoms, in particular depression and anxiety, as well as externalizing problems such as aggressiveness. Parents and teachers however, tended to only focus on externalizing behaviors, ignoring the internalizing symptoms.