Methodology, evidence-based medicine, science

BACKGROUND: Preterm infants have imperfect neurological development, uncoordinated sucking-swallowing-breathing, which makes it difficult to realize effective oral feeding after birth. How to help preterm infants achieve complete oral feeding as soon as possible has become an important issue in the management of preterm infants. Non-nutritive sucking (NNS), as a useful oral stimulation, can improve the effect of oral feeding in preterm infants. This review aimed to explore the effect of NNS on oral feeding progression through a meta-analysis...

System Thinking is an actual construct supported by several scientific evidence that offer a perspective on how phenomena relate. Rhythm methodology, teaching-learning, and enjoyment in physical education are the main system elements we hypothesize interacting closely to determine direct or mediated effects on motor creativity and rhythmic perceptive capacity. Seventy-six elementary and middle school students (8.9 ± 2.1 years) were randomly assigned to two groups: a) an intervention group that received a physical education lesson based on rhythmic methodology and b) a control group that received conventional lessons without specific rhythmic interventions...

OBJECTIVES: (i) To identify peer reviewed publications reporting the mental and/or physical health outcomes of Deaf adults who are sign language users and to synthesise evidence; (ii) If data available, to analyse how the health of the adult Deaf population compares to that of the general population; (iii) to evaluate the quality of evidence in the identified publications; (iv) to identify limitations of the current evidence base and suggest directions for future research. DESIGN: Systematic review...

This study aims to systematically review the clinical features and outcome indicators in randomized controlled trial(RCT) of traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) intervention in septic kidney injury and provide a reference for optimizing clinical study design and building the core outcome set(COS) of TCM treatment of septic kidney injury. Computer searches were conducted on PubMed, Cochrane Library, EMbase, Web of Science, CNKI, Wanfang, VIP, and SinoMed to find published RCT of TCM intervention in septic kidney injury in the past five years, extract the basic characteristics, intervention measures, outcome indicators, and other data of included studies, and conduct descriptive analysis...

This study systematically collected, analyzed, and evaluated randomized controlled trial(RCT) in the treatment of diabetic foot ulcer(DFU). The aim as provide references for future studies and to enhance the application of clinical evidence. The RCT of DFU treated with Chinese Patent Medicine was obtained and analyzed using the AI-Clinical Evidence Database of Chinese Patent Medicine(AICED-CPM). The analysis was supplemented with data from CNKI, Wanfang, VIP, SinoMed, PubMed, EMbase, Cochrane Library, and Web of Science...

OBJECTIVES: The objectives of this scoping review are to discuss, firstly, the positive aspects of wearing face masks during training (such as a barrier to COVID-19 transmission, air pollutant exposure, and adding load on respiratory resistance flow); secondly, the negative aspects (adverse effects on body temperature and hypoxia risks); and thirdly, the training responses of wearing face masks on aerobic and anaerobic performance. NEWS: Besides social distancing and hand hygiene, wearing a face mask is proposed to be the prime advocacy for virus containment...

BACKGROUND: The past decade has seen an exponential growth of minimally invasive surgical procedures. Procedures such as hip arthroscopy have rapidly grown and become the standard of care for patients with Femoroacetabular Impingement Syndrome (FAIS). Although, the results of such procedures are encouraging, a large proportion of patients do not achieve optimal outcomes due to chronicity and deconditioning as a result of delay in diagnosis and increased waiting times amongst other factors...

OBJECTIVES: To systematically assess the quality of clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) for Helicobacter pylori (HP) infection and identify gaps that limit their development. STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING: CPGs for HP infection were systematically collected from PubMed, Embase, the Cochrane Library, the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, and six online guideline repositories. Three researchers independently used the AGREE Ⅱ tool to evaluate the methodological quality of the eligible CPGs...

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Diminished ovarian reserve (DOR) results in reduced fertility. Kuntai capsule, a Chinese patent medicine, which can nourish the heart and kidneys, has shown promising efficacy in its treatment. However, there is no enough clinical evidence to confirm the efficacy and safety of Kuntai capsule. AIM OF THE STUDY: This review aims to evaluate Kuntai capsule's potential benefits and detriments for diminished ovarian reserve. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Databases namely China National Knowledge Infrastructure, WANFANG Database, Chinese Science and Technology Journal Database, Chinese Biomedical Literature Database, PubMed, Cochrane Library, and Embase were searched from their inception to July 2023...

BACKGROUND: Artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as a transformative force across the health sector and has garnered significant attention within sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) due to polarizing views on its opportunities to advance care and the heightened risks and implications it brings to people's well-being and bodily autonomy. As the fields of AI and SRHR evolve, clarity is needed to bridge our understanding of how AI is being used within this historically politicized health area and raise visibility on the critical issues that can facilitate its responsible and meaningful use...

INTRODUCTION: Up to 78% of patients who had a stroke develop post-stroke dysphagia (PSD), a significant consequence. Life-threatening aspiration pneumonia, starvation, and water and electrolyte abnormalities can result. Several meta-analyses have shown that repeated transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) improves swallowing in patients who had a stroke; however, the optimum model is unknown. This study will be the first Bayesian network meta-analysis (NMA) to determine the best rTMS modalities for swallowing of patients who had a stroke...

Accelerometers are useful in analyzing lying behavior in farm animals. The effect of the farrowing system on sow lying behavior has been studied around parturition, but not long-term. In a natural environment, sows increase activity 14 days post parturition, which we expected to be also evident in housed sows when they can move freely. The objective of this study was i) to validate the methodology to automatically measure sow lying bouts and duration with accelerometers and ii) to apply it to crated and free farrowing sows 24 hours pre-parturition until weaning...

OBJECTIVE: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a prevalent neurodegenerative condition that significantly impacts both individuals and society. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) as a treatment for AD by summarizing the evidence from systematic reviews (SRs) and meta-analyses (MAs). METHODS: SRs/MAs of rTMS for AD were collected by searching Embase, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, PubMed, CNKI, VIP, Sino-Med, and Wanfang databases...

BACKGROUND: Electronic health records (EHRs) are a valuable resource for data-driven medical research. However, the presence of protected health information (PHI) makes EHRs unsuitable to be shared for research purposes. De-identification, i.e. the process of removing PHI is a critical step in making EHR data accessible. Natural language processing has repeatedly demonstrated its feasibility in automating the de-identification process. OBJECTIVES: Our study aims to provide systematic evidence on how the de-identification of clinical free text written in English has evolved in the last thirteen years, and to report on the performances and limitations of the current state-of-the-art systems for the English language...

OBJECTIVE: To identify, critically appraise and synthesise evidence of the use and effectiveness of the arts for enhancing pre-registration/prelicensure healthcare students' empathy skills. DESIGN: A systematic review of mixed methods literature. DATA SOURCES: A search of six electronic databases was conducted. REVIEW METHODS: Articles describing English language, peer-reviewed, primary research studies reporting empathy as an outcome of an arts-based intervention with pre-registration/prelicensure healthcare students (years 1-7) and published between 2000 and 2024 were eligible for inclusion...

BACKGROUND: There are gaps in the evidence base addressing whether volunteering programs enhance the wellbeing, empowerment, and life satisfaction of individual volunteers. Program impacts are seldom rigorously evaluated, whilst construct meanings remain largely unspecified, especially in the Middle East. This study tested the impacts of We Love Reading, a program training volunteers to read aloud in their local communities. It also mapped local knowledge representation. METHODS: We conducted a mixed-method program evaluation based on a randomized cluster trial with 105 Syrian refugee women from poor households in Amman, Jordan...

The concept of self-states is a recurring theme in various psychotherapeutic and counseling methodologies. However, the predominantly unconscious nature of these self-states presents two challenges. Firstly, it renders the process of working with them susceptible to biases and therapeutic suggestions. Secondly, there is skepticism regarding the observability and differentiation of self-states beyond subjective experiences. In this study, we demonstrate the feasibility of eliciting self-states from clients and objectively distinguishing these evoked self-states through the lens of neutral observers...

A wide variety of control and surveillance programmes that are designed and implemented based on country-specific conditions exists for infectious cattle diseases that are not regulated. This heterogeneity renders difficult the comparison of probabilities of freedom from infection estimated from collected surveillance data. The objectives of this review were to outline the methodological and epidemiological considerations for the estimation of probabilities of freedom from infection from surveillance information and review state-of-the-art methods estimating the probabilities of freedom from infection from heterogeneous surveillance data...

BACKGROUND: The American Nurses Credentialing Center's (ANCC's) Practice Transition Accreditation Program (PTAP) establishes standards for nurse residency programs to elevate and optimize the skills, knowledge, and attitudes of new nurses participating in nurse residency programs. Evidence-based practice (EBP) is foundational to providing safe nursing care. One of the National Academy of Medicine's (NAM's) 2020 goals stated that 90% of clinical decisions would be supported by the best available evidence to attain the best patient outcomes...

BACKGROUND AND AIM: A plateau in oxygen uptake ([Formula: see text]) during an incremental cardiopulmonary exercise test (CPET) to volitional exhaustion appears less likely to occur in special and clinical populations. Secondary maximal oxygen uptake ([Formula: see text]) criteria have been shown to commonly underestimate the actual [Formula: see text]. The verification phase protocol might determine the occurrence of 'true' [Formula: see text] in these populations. The primary aim of the current study was to systematically review and provide a meta-analysis on the suitability of the verification phase for confirming 'true' [Formula: see text] in special and clinical groups...