About the Authors

Arianna Ghirardi

Affiliation Department of Statistics and Quantitative Methods, Division of Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy

Lorenza Scotti

Affiliation Department of Statistics and Quantitative Methods, Division of Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy

Antonella Zambon

Affiliation Department of Statistics and Quantitative Methods, Division of Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy

Gianluca Della Vedova

Affiliation Department of Informatics, Systems and Communications, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy

Luca Cavalieri D'oro

Affiliation Operative Unit of Epidemiology, Local Health Unit of Monza, Monza-Brianza, Italy

Francesco Lapi

Affiliations Department of Epidemiology, Regional Agency for Healthcare Services of Tuscany, Florence, Italy, Department of Preclinical and Clinical Pharmacology, University of Florence, Florence Italy, Centre for Clinical Epidemiology, Jewish General Hospital, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Francesco Cipriani

Affiliation Department of Epidemiology, Regional Agency for Healthcare Services of Tuscany, Florence, Italy

Achille P. Caputi

Affiliation Department of Medicine and Pharmacology, University of Messina, Messina, Italy

Alberto Vaccheri

Affiliation Regional Centre for Drug Evaluation and Information (CREVIF), Department of Pharmacology, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

Dario Gregori

Affiliation Department of Public Health and Microbiology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy

Rosaria Gesuita

Affiliation Center of Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Medical Information Technology, Polytechnic University of Marche, Ancona, Italy

Annarita Vestri

Affiliation Department of Experimental Medicine and Pathology, University “La Sapienza”, Rome, Italy

Tommaso Staniscia

Affiliation Department of Medicine and Aging, University “G. d'Annunzio”, Chieti-Pescara, Italy

Giampiero Mazzaglia

Affiliation Department of Epidemiology, Regional Agency for Healthcare Services of Tuscany, Florence, Italy

Giovanni Corrao

giovanni.corrao@unimib.it

Affiliation Department of Statistics and Quantitative Methods, Division of Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy

on behalf of the BEST Investigators

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

¶ Membership of the BEST Investigators is listed in the Acknowledgments.

Analyzed the data: AG. Wrote the paper: AG GC. Study planning: GM GC AZ. Statistical support: GC AZ LS. Informatic support: GDV. Data extraction: LCD DG RG AV TS FC. Results interpretation under the pharmacological and clinical prospective: GM FL RG APC AV LCD. Results interpretation: AG LS AZ GDV LCD FL FC APC AV DG RG AV TS GM GC.