5,082,344 papers found

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Different methods to examine research gaps have been described, but there are still no standard methods for identifying, prioritizing, or reporting research gaps. This study aimed to describe the methods used to identify, prioritize, and display gaps in health research. METHODS: A scoping re…

BACKGROUND: The authors aimed to describe how often and by what means investigators assessed the risk of bias of clinical trials in systematic reviews of oral health interventions and to identify factors associated with risk of bias assessments. METHODS: The authors selected therapeutic oral health systematic reviews…

BACKGROUND: Systematic review and meta-analysis (SRMA) are increasingly employed in environmental health (EH) epidemiology and, provided methods and reporting are sound, contribute to translating science evidence to policy. Ambient air pollution (AAP) is both among the leading environmental causes of mortality and morb…

OBJECTIVES: To critically appraise the measurement properties of standardized health-related quality of life (HRQOL) instruments for colorectal cancer (CRC) patients and to provide recommendations on the choice of HRQOL instruments. STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING: Systematic review of English language literature published b…

OBJECTIVES: To contrast the analgesic effect of duloxetine with antidepressants reported in other published randomized clinical trials (RCTs) and review articles in patients with chronic low back pain (CLBP). METHODS: In this narrative review, the results of 13 RCTs and 5 systematic reviews examining the analgesic eff…

INTRODUCTION: Ovarian cancer is a leading gynecological malignancy mortality globally. Clinical outcomes in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are poor, largely due to late-stage presentation and limited accessing to effective treatment options. Referral pathways also delay diagnosis and compromise delivery of guideline-concorda…

UNLABELLED: This umbrella review aimed to determine the effectiveness of nonpharmacological interventions in pulmonary ventilation and their impact on respiratory function. An individual with impaired ventilation displays visible variations manifested in their respiratory frequency, breathing rhythm ratio (I:E), thorac…

OBJECTIVES: Hyoscine butylbromide (HBB) is commonly used off-label in labor wards. However, a Cochrane review raised concerns about the quality of evidence on HBB in childbirth, leading to the World Health Organization's (WHO's) disapproval of HBB for intrapartum care. Since then, newer non-Cochrane systematic reviews…

OBJECTIVES: We set out to map the quantitative and qualitative systematic review evidence available to inform the optimal prescribing of drugs that can cause dependency (benzodiazepines, opioids, non-benzodiazepine hypnotics, gabapentinoids and antidepressants). We also consider how this evidence can be used to inform…

BACKGROUND: We completed a scoping review on the barriers and facilitators to use of systematic reviews by health care managers and policy makers, including consideration of format and content, to develop recommendations for systematic review authors and to inform research efforts to develop and test formats for system…

BACKGROUND: Systematic reviewers seek to comprehensively search for relevant studies and summarize these to present the most valid estimate of intervention effectiveness. The more resources searched, the higher the yield, and thus time and costs required to conduct a systematic review. While there is an abundance of ev…

BACKGROUND: Non-prescription (over-the-counter, or OTC) analgesics (painkillers) are used frequently. They are available in various brands, package sizes, formulations, and dose. They can be used for a range of different types of pain, but this overview reports on how well they work for acute pain (pain of short durati…

OBJECTIVES: Beyond health impacts, Extreme Weather Events (EWEs) disrupt health services and systems, an aspect often overlooked in favour of individual health outcomes. This systematic review of reviews aimed to systematically map the diverse impacts of EWEs on health services and systems, offering essential informati…

BACKGROUND: Effective pain management is crucial in pediatric gastrointestinal surgeries due to the significant postoperative pain response. The adverse effects of opioids have prompted a shift toward other often multimodal approaches. Regional anesthesia plays an important role in reducing opioid use. The quadratus lu…

BACKGROUND: The subclavian arteries are two major arteries of the upper chest, below the collar bone, which come from the arch of the aorta. Endovascular treatment for stenosis of the subclavian arteries includes angioplasty alone, and with stenting. There is insufficient evidence to guide the use of stents following a…

This 2019 focused update to the American Heart Association pediatric basic life support guidelines follows the 2019 systematic review of the effects of dispatcher-assisted cardiopulmonary resuscitation (DA-CPR) on survival of infants and children with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. This systematic review and the prima…

Systematic reviews of economic evaluations are useful for synthesizing economic evidence about health interventions and for informing evidence-based decisions. Areas covered: As there is no detailed description of the methods for performing a systematic review of economic evidence, this paper aims to provide an overvie…

AIM: To develop evidence-based recommendations for the diagnosis and management of gout in Australia and New Zealand as part of the multi-national 3e Initiative. METHOD: Using a formal voting process, a panel of 78 international rheumatologists selected 10 key clinical questions pertinent to the diagnosis and manageme…

OBJECTIVES: Consistency in routines for reporting injury has been a focus of development efforts in sports epidemiology for a long time. To gain an improved understanding of current reporting practices, we applied the Injury Definitions Concept Framework (IDCF) in a review of injury reporting in a subset of the field.…

Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) represent an important risk for patients and have a significant economic impact on health systems. ADRs are the fifth most common cause of hospital death, with a burden estimated at 197,000 deaths per year in the EU. This has a societal cost of <euro>79 billion per year. Because of this st…