382,577 papers found

Developing and conducting systematic reviews and meta-analyses is a complex process that requires many judgments and the input from a wide variety of stakeholders. This article presents an introduction on how to develop, conduct, and report these research studies. Veterinary clinicians should seek systematic reviews to…

INTRODUCTION: Balance impairment is a major contributor to falls, reduced mobility and loss of independence in individuals after stroke. Vibration therapy (VT) has been increasingly investigated as a non-invasive intervention to improve postural control and balance in individuals with stroke. However, the reported effe…

In systematic reviews and meta-analyses, publication bias (PB) is one of the serious concerns and mainly induced by selective publication of academic literatures. Although many methods have been proposed to address PB, almost all of them are based on the normal-normal (NN) random-effects model, assuming that data are n…

BACKGROUND: Evidence from the literature suggests that vitamin D has indirect antimicrobial effects and may be associated with a reduced risk of infections. This study aimed to systematically evaluate the association between vitamin D deficiency and the risk of developing surgical site infections (SSIs). METHODS: All…

INTRODUCTION: High blood pressure (BP) in obese populations poses significant cardiovascular risks, yet the comparative effectiveness of various weight loss interventions on BP remains unclear. This systematic review and network meta-analysis (NMA) aims to assess the comparative effectiveness of weight loss interventio…

Sharing, harmonizing, and analyzing participant-level data is of central importance in the rapid research response to emerging pathogens. Individual participant data meta-analyses (IPD-MAs), which synthesize participant-level data from related primary studies, have several advantages over pooling study-level effect est…

Despite the fact that meta-analysis is a widely utilized methodology in synthesis of evidence from clinical trials, traditional methodologies have limitations with regards to informing dose selection, time-course dynamics and quantitative decision-making across the drug-development continuum. To overcome these limitati…

BACKGROUND: Early outcome prediction after spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) is critical for patient management and counseling. Although machine learning (ML) models are increasingly applied, their comparative performance and explainability relative to traditional statistical models remain unclear. OBJECTIVES…

BACKGROUND: Chronic pain is a prevalent condition that severely impacts patients' quality of life and poses a substantial burden on global healthcare systems. Digital health technologies (DHTs) have emerged as a potential solution for chronic pain management by improving accessibility, self-management, and personalized…

OBJECTIVES: To implement a semiautomated approach to facilitate rating the Grading, Recommendation, Assessment, Development and Evaluation certainty of evidence (CoE) for indirect and network meta-analysis (NMA) estimates. METHODS: We developed and implemented algorithms for generating automated ratings for the CoE fo…

INTRODUCTION: Sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSNHL) is an otologic emergency that can profoundly impact patients' auditory function and quality of life. While conventional treatments like corticosteroids offer moderate efficacy, a proportion of patients experience persistent deficits, highlighting the need for effe…

INTRODUCTION: Accurate evaluation of diagnostic tests is essential to guide clinical decision-making. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses of diagnostic test accuracy (DTA) are keys for evidence synthesis; however, traditional approaches, including univariate pooling or simplified summary ROC (SROC) models such as the…

INTRODUCTION: Non-specific chronic low back pain is a leading cause of disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) with a lifetime prevalence of 80%-85%. Although many modalities of treating chronic low back pain are available, pharmacotherapy remains a very important treatment modality, according to many recognised guideli…

BACKGROUND: In network meta-analysis (NMA), the magnitude of difference between treatment effects is typically ignored in the calculation of ranking metrics, such as probability best and surface under the cumulative ranking curve (SUCRAs). This leads to treatment rankings which may not reflect clinically meaningfu…

INTRODUCTION: Gastric cancer is a high-risk cancer with surgical treatments often leading to significant postoperative complications and mortality. Prehabilitation, involving exercise, nutrition and psychological support before surgery, aims to boost patients' physical and mental health. While effective in other cancer…

BACKGROUND: The sedative effect of intraoperative sedation in elderly surgery exerts critical influence on the prognosis. Comparison on the safety and efficacy between dexmedetomidine and midazolam in many clinical randomized controlled trials (RCTs) was inconsistent and suspicious. We aim to comprehensively evaluate t…

BACKGROUND: Physical punishment at home and in schools is widespread around the world. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses have synthesized evidence, mostly from high-income countries (HICs), showing that physical punishment relates to multiple detrimental individual outcomes. Yet, less work has been done to synthesiz…

INTRODUCTION: The COVID-19 global pandemic has posed enormous threats to public health around the world. Vaccines are considered the best therapeutic strategy against the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the adverse reactions of vaccines significantly affect the rates of vaccination and may be more serious in patients with…

BACKGROUND: Meta-analysis is often used to make generalisations across all available evidence at the global scale. But how can these global generalisations be used for evidence-based decision making at the local scale, if the global evidence is not perceived to be relevant to local decisions? We show how an interactive…