381,590 papers found

RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES: In this review article, we present the definition and useful concepts of evidence-based medicine (EBM). The principles of EBM are provided and major steps of practicing EBM are described. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We emphasize the importance of the Cochrane Collaboration (see http://www.cochrane…

Homeopathy remains one of the most controversial subjects in therapeutics. This article is an attempt to clarify its effectiveness based on recent systematic reviews. Electronic databases were searched for systematic reviews/meta-analysis on the subject. Seventeen articles fulfilled the inclusion/exclusion criteria. Si…

Pneumococcal (PC) infections are common and dangerous. Polysaccharide PC vaccine is recommended in some countries for use in adults who have an increased risk of PC infection. Randomised studies of the clinical effect of polysaccharide PC vaccine in healthy adults reported a protective effect, which, in general, was no…

Contemporary aspects of research methods in sport and exercise psychology are discussed in this wide-ranging review. After an introduction centred on trends in sport and exercise psychology methods, the review is organized around the major themes of quantitative and qualitative research. Our aim is to highlight areas t…

When combining the results of independent studies it often happens that some studies are potentially aberrant either in quality or in actual values. Because aberrant studies are often at the extremes, we may wish to trim some of the largest and smallest effects. In such a case the use of p-values may well serve as a di…

The "evidence" in EBM must be of high quality in order to be useful, but this is not always the case. Even the "gold standard" of evidence-based medicine, the randomised clinical trial, is bedevilled by low inclusion rates and potentially important recruitment biases. "Real world" trials often do not give the same resu…

OBJECTIVE: To explain the concepts and application of Bayesian modelling and how it can be applied to the analysis of dental research data. BASIC DESIGN: Methodological in nature, this article introduces Bayesian modelling through hypothetical dental examples. SETTING: The synthesis of RCT results with previous evide…

Meta-analysis facilitates the transfer of knowledge from nurse researchers to clinicians. In this article, the benefits and criticisms of meta-analysis for nursing are identified along with the specific problems a meta-analyst may encounter in conducting a quantitative analysis and synthesis of the literature. Problems…

We review recent research on the prevalence, causes, and effects of diagnostic comorbidity among the most common groups of child and adolescent psychiatric disorders; anxiety disorders, depressive disorders, attention deficit hyperactivity disorders, oppositional defiant and conduct disorders, and substance abuse. A me…

We present a methodology for combining trials some of which report continuous outcome measures and others binary outcomes created by a dichotomy of the continuous measurement. This was motivated by a series of controlled clinical trials investigating the effect of prophylactic use of oxytocics on postpartum blood loss…

The aim of this study was to develop a quality of study tool rate the methodological quality of individual primary randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to be included in a meta-analysis. A Delphi-technique using several rounds of questions to seek consensus, among trialists, on criteria important in a RCT was used. Eigh…

IMPORTANCE OF GUIDELINES: Guidelines to medical practice are of vital importance because of the fast and uncontrolled introduction of new technologies, increasing amounts of information, including contradictory results, high levels of inappropriate care and increased financial pressure. Thus guidelines can help solve c…

Twenty-four normal right-handed male subjects classified hierarchical visual stimuli (small letters arranged to form larger letters), which were presented separately to each cerebral hemisphere. Previous studies using similar paradigms have yielded mixed evidence for the specialization of local, analytic processing in…