Public Health Genomics education in post-graduate schools of hygiene and preventive medicine: a cross-sectional survey

BACKGROUND: The relevance of Public Health Genomics (PHG) education among public health specialists has been recently acknowledged by the Association of Schools of Public Health in the European Region. The aim of this cross-sectional survey was to assess the prevalence of post-graduate public health schools for medical doctors which offer PHG training in Italy. METHODS: The directors of the 33 Italian public health schools were interviewed for the presence of a PHG course in place. We stratified by geographical area (North, Centre and South) of the schools. We performed comparisons of categorical data using the chi-squared test. RESULTS: The response rate was 73% (24/33 schools). Among respondents, 15 schools (63%) reported to have at least one dedicated course in place, while nine (38%) did not, with a significant geographic difference. CONCLUSIONS: Results showed a good implementation of courses in PHG discipline in Italian post-graduate public health schools. However further harmonization of the training programs of schools in public health at EU level is needed. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1472-6920-14-213) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.