Manuti et al. BMC Public Health 2010, 10:350 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/10/350 Conclusion For most Southern Italians, the healthcare system while universal and free is not doing a good job delivering vital clinical preventive services. Additional material Additional file 1: Indicators of quality of preventive health care delivered to Italian Adults selected from RAND’s Quality Assessment Tools. List of abbreviations PCP: primary care physician; SES: socioeconomic status; BRFSS: Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. Acknowledgements The authors wish to thank all of the men and women who agreed to participate in this study. Authors’ contributions BM collected the data, and contributed to the data analysis and interpretation and wrote the first draft of the article. PR, AB and CGAN contributed to conception and design of the study, collected the data, and contributed to the data analysis and interpretation. 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