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Article History

Received: 19 February 2018

Accepted: 5 September 2018

First Online: 10 September 2018

Ethics approval and consent to participate

: The study was carried out in conformity with the regulations on data management of the Regional Health Authority of Emilia-Romagna, and with the Italian law on privacy (Art. 20–21, DL 196/2003) (, published in the Official Journal no. 190 of August 14, 2004) which explicitly exempts the need of ethical approval for anonymous data (Preamble #8). Data were anonymized prior to the analysis at the regional statistical office, where each patient was assigned a unique identifier. This identifier does not allow to trace the patient’s identity and other sensitive data. As anonymized administrative data are used routinely for health-care management, no specific written informed consent was needed to use patient information.

: Not applicable.

: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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