Articles

Correction to: How can clinicians, specialty societies and others evaluate and improve the quality of apps for patient use?

Since the publication of this article [1] it has come to my attention that it contains an error in which the y-axis in Fig. 1 was inverted, thus incorrectly displaying a weak negative correlation rather than a...

Authors: Jeremy C. Wyatt

Distinct mortality patterns at 0–2 days versus the remaining neonatal period: results from population-based assessment in the Indian state of Bihar

The objectives of this study were to understand the differences in mortality rate, risk factors for mortality, and cause of death distribution in three neonatal age sub-groups (0–2, 3–7, and 8–27 days) and ass...

Authors: Rakhi Dandona, G. Anil Kumar, Debarshi Bhattacharya, Md. Akbar, Yamini Atmavilas, Priya Nanda and Lalit Dandona

Health professions digital education on clinical practice guidelines: a systematic review by Digital Health Education collaboration

Clinical practice guidelines are an important source of information, designed to help clinicians integrate research evidence into their clinical practice. Digital education is increasingly used for clinical pr...

Authors: Lorainne Tudor Car, Aijia Soong, Bhone Myint Kyaw, Kee Leng Chua, Naomi Low-Beer and Azeem Majeed

Beyond the hype of big data and artificial intelligence: building foundations for knowledge and wisdom

Big data, coupled with the use of advanced analytical approaches, such as artificial intelligence (AI), have the potential to improve medical outcomes and population health. Data that are routinely generated f...

Authors: Josip Car, Aziz Sheikh, Paul Wicks and Marc S. Williams

Building the case for actionable ethics in digital health research supported by artificial intelligence

The digital revolution is disrupting the ways in which health research is conducted, and subsequently, changing healthcare. Direct-to-consumer wellness products and mobile apps, pervasive sensor technologies a...

Authors: Camille Nebeker, John Torous and Rebecca J. Bartlett Ellis

GWAS and enrichment analyses of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease identify new trait-associated genes and pathways across eMERGE Network

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a common chronic liver illness with a genetically heterogeneous background that can be accompanied by considerable morbidity and attendant health care costs. The pa...

Authors: Bahram Namjou, Todd Lingren, Yongbo Huang, Sreeja Parameswaran, Beth L. Cobb, Ian B. Stanaway, John J. Connolly, Frank D. Mentch, Barbara Benoit, Xinnan Niu, Wei-Qi Wei, Robert J. Carroll, Jennifer A. Pacheco, Isaac T. W. Harley, Senad Divanovic, David S. Carrell…

The uncertainty with using risk prediction models for individual decision making: an exemplar cohort study examining the prediction of cardiovascular disease in English primary care

Risk prediction models are commonly used in practice to inform decisions on patients’ treatment. Uncertainty around risk scores beyond the confidence interval is rarely explored. We conducted an uncertainty an...

Authors: Alexander Pate, Richard Emsley, Darren M. Ashcroft, Benjamin Brown and Tjeerd van Staa

Why we need a small data paradigm

There is great interest in and excitement about the concept of personalized or precision medicine and, in particular, advancing this vision via various ‘big data’ efforts. While these methods are necessary, th...

Authors: Eric B. Hekler, Predrag Klasnja, Guillaume Chevance, Natalie M. Golaszewski, Dana Lewis and Ida Sim

Medication management support in diabetes: a systematic assessment of diabetes self-management apps

Smartphone apps are becoming increasingly popular for supporting diabetes self-management. A key aspect of diabetes self-management is appropriate medication-taking. This study aims to systematically assess an...

Authors: Zhilian Huang, Elaine Lum, Geronimo Jimenez, Monika Semwal, Peter Sloot and Josip Car

Validations of verbal autopsies – comment on ‘automated versus physician assignment of cause of death for verbal autopsies: randomized trial of 9374 deaths in 117 villages in India’

Authors: Michel Garenne

Hospitalisation rates and predictors in people with dementia: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Hospitalisation is often harmful for people with dementia and results in high societal costs, so avoidance of unnecessary admissions is a global priority. However, no intervention has yet reduced admissions of...

Authors: Hilary Shepherd, Gill Livingston, Justin Chan and Andrew Sommerlad

Sex differences in the association between diabetes and risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer, and all-cause and cause-specific mortality: a systematic review and meta-analysis of 5,162,654 participants

Studies have suggested sex differences in the mortality rate associated with diabetes. We conducted a meta-analysis to estimate the relative effect of diabetes on the risk of all-cause, cancer, cardiovascular ...

Authors: Yafeng Wang, Adrienne O’Neil, Yurui Jiao, Lijun Wang, Jingxin Huang, Yutao Lan, Yikun Zhu and Chuanhua Yu

Next-generation sequencing identifies monogenic diabetes in 16% of patients with late adolescence/adult-onset diabetes selected on a clinical basis: a cross-sectional analysis

Monogenic diabetes (MgD) accounts for 1–2% of all diabetes cases. In adults, MgD is difficult to distinguish from common diabetes causes. We assessed the diagnosis rate and genetic spectrum of MgD using next-g...

Authors: Xavier Donath, Cécile Saint-Martin, Danièle Dubois-Laforgue, Ramanan Rajasingham, François Mifsud, Cécile Ciangura, José Timsit and Christine Bellanné-Chantelot

The TABLET trial: limitations and implications

Authors: Chrysoula Dosiou and Alex Stagnaro-Green

Landmark models to define the age-adjusted risk of developing stage 1 type 1 diabetes across childhood and adolescence

Autoimmune diseases are often preceded by an asymptomatic autoantibody-positive phase. In type 1 diabetes, the detection of autoantibodies to pancreatic islet antigens in genetically at-risk children is progno...

Authors: Verena Sophia Hoffmann, Andreas Weiß, Christiane Winkler, Annette Knopff, Manja Jolink, Ezio Bonifacio and Anette-G. Ziegler

Observational study: 27 years of severe malaria surveillance in Kilifi, Kenya

Many parts of Africa have witnessed reductions in Plasmodium falciparum transmission over the last 15 years. Since immunity to malaria is acquired more rapidly at higher transmission, the slower acquisition of im...

Authors: Patricia Njuguna, Kathryn Maitland, Amek Nyaguara, Daniel Mwanga, Polycarp Mogeni, Neema Mturi, Shebe Mohammed, Gabriel Mwambingu, Caroline Ngetsa, Kenedy Awuondo, Brett Lowe, Ifedayo Adetifa, J. Anthony G. Scott, Thomas N. Williams, Sarah Atkinson, Faith Osier…

The global impact and cost-effectiveness of a melioidosis vaccine

Every year, 90,000 people may die from melioidosis. Vaccine candidates have not proceeded past animal studies, partly due to uncertainty around the potential market size. This study aims to estimate the potent...

Authors: Nantasit Luangasanatip, Stefan Flasche, David A. B. Dance, Direk Limmathurotsakul, Bart J. Currie, Chiranjay Mukhopadhyay, Tim Atkins, Richard Titball and Mark Jit

Assessing the disease burden of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in the real world – big data and big numbers

Authors: Jörn M. Schattenberg and Mattias Ekstedt

Tobacco smoking and risk of 36 cardiovascular disease subtypes: fatal and non-fatal outcomes in a large prospective Australian study

Tobacco smoking is a leading cause of cardiovascular disease (CVD) morbidity and mortality. Evidence on the relation of smoking to different subtypes of CVD, across fatal and non-fatal outcomes, is limited.

Authors: Emily Banks, Grace Joshy, Rosemary J. Korda, Bill Stavreski, Kay Soga, Sam Egger, Cathy Day, Naomi E. Clarke, Sarah Lewington and Alan D. Lopez

A multi-centre, UK-based, non-inferiority randomised controlled trial of 4 follow-up assessment methods in stroke survivors

Recovery following a stroke is a long and ongoing process. Post-stroke follow-up after leaving the hospital is recommended. Methods for follow-up patients include face-to-face, via the telephone, post or onlin...

Authors: Jonathan Hewitt, Anna Pennington, Alexander Smith, Stephanie Gething, Michelle Price, James White, Richard Dewar and Ben Carter

Gastroenteritis aggressive versus slow treatment for rehydration (GASTRO): a phase II rehydration trial for severe dehydration: WHO plan C versus slow rehydration

World Health Organization rehydration management guidelines (plan C) for severe dehydration are widely practiced in resource-poor settings, but never formally evaluated in a trial. The Fluid Expansion as a Sup...

Authors: Kirsty A. Houston, Jack Gibb, Peter Olupot-Olupot, Nchafatso Obonyo, Ayub Mpoya, Margaret Nakuya, Rita Muhindo, Sophie Uyoga, Jennifer A. Evans, Roisin Connon, Diana M. Gibb, Elizabeth C. George and Kathryn Maitland

DIABRISK-SL trial: further consideration of age and impact of imputations

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Early interventions may help to delay or prevent onset of cardiometabolic endpoints of clinical importance to T2DM patients.

Authors: Efstathia Gkioni, Ketevan Glonti, Susanna Dodd and Carrol Gamble

Automated versus physician assignment of cause of death for verbal autopsies: randomized trial of 9374 deaths in 117 villages in India

Verbal autopsies with physician assignment of cause of death (COD) are commonly used in settings where medical certification of deaths is uncommon. It remains unanswered if automated algorithms can replace phy...

Authors: Prabhat Jha, Dinesh Kumar, Rajesh Dikshit, Atul Budukh, Rehana Begum, Prabha Sati, Patrycja Kolpak, Richard Wen, Shyamsundar J. Raithatha, Utkarsh Shah, Zehang Richard Li, Lukasz Aleksandrowicz, Prakash Shah, Kapila Piyasena, Tyler H. McCormick, Hellen Gelband…

Effect of body mass index on pregnancy outcomes in a freeze-all policy: an analysis of 22,043 first autologous frozen-thawed embryo transfer cycles in China

Abnormal BMI is associated with discouraging IVF outcomes in fresh autologous or oocyte donor cycles, whether or not such a relation also holds true for women undergoing frozen-thawed embryo transfer (FET) rem...

Authors: Jie Zhang, Hongfang Liu, Xiaoyan Mao, Qiuju Chen, Yong Fan, Yitao Xiao, Yun Wang and Yanping Kuang

Suicide attempts in US adults with lifetime DSM-5 eating disorders

Rates of suicide are increasing in the US. Although psychiatric disorders are associated with suicide risk, there is a dearth of epidemiological research on the relationship between suicide attempts (SAs) and ...

Authors: Tomoko Udo, Sarah Bitley and Carlos M. Grilo

HIV epidemiology among female sex workers and their clients in the Middle East and North Africa: systematic review, meta-analyses, and meta-regressions

HIV epidemiology among female sex workers (FSWs) and their clients in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is poorly understood. We addressed this gap through a comprehensive epidemiological assessment.

Authors: Hiam Chemaitelly, Helen A. Weiss, Clara Calvert, Manale Harfouche and Laith J. Abu-Raddad

Optimising trial designs to identify appropriate antibiotic treatment durations

For many infectious conditions, the optimal antibiotic course length remains unclear. The estimation of course length must consider the important trade-off between maximising short- and long-term efficacy and ...

Authors: Koen B. Pouwels, Mo Yin, Christopher C. Butler, Ben S. Cooper, Sarah Wordsworth, A. Sarah Walker and Julie V. Robotham

A scoping review on the roles and tasks of peer reviewers in the manuscript review process in biomedical journals

Although peer reviewers play a key role in the manuscript review process, their roles and tasks are poorly defined. Clarity around this issue is important as it may influence the quality of peer reviewer repor...

Authors: Ketevan Glonti, Daniel Cauchi, Erik Cobo, Isabelle Boutron, David Moher and Darko Hren

The effects of antipsychotic medications on microbiome and weight gain in children and adolescents

Atypical antipsychotics, also known as second-generation antipsychotics, are commonly prescribed as treatment for psychotic disorders in adults, as well as in children and adolescents with behavioral problems....

Authors: Tali Bretler, Hagar Weisberg, Omry Koren and Hadar Neuman

Defining responders to therapies by a statistical modeling approach applied to randomized clinical trial data

Personalized medicine is the tailoring of treatment to the individual characteristics of patients. Once a treatment has been tested in a clinical trial and its effect overall quantified, it would be of great v...

Authors: Francesca Bovis, Luca Carmisciano, Alessio Signori, Matteo Pardini, Joshua R. Steinerman, Thomas Li, Aaron P. Tansy and Maria Pia Sormani

Postmarketing commitments for novel drugs and biologics approved by the US Food and Drug Administration: a cross-sectional analysis

Postmarketing commitments are clinical studies that pharmaceutical companies agree to conduct at the time of FDA approval, but which are not required by statute or regulation. As FDA increasingly adopts a life...

Authors: Joshua D. Wallach, Anita T. Luxkaranayagam, Sanket S. Dhruva, Jennifer E. Miller and Joseph S. Ross

Estimated nationwide impact of implementing a preemptive pharmacogenetic panel approach to guide drug prescribing in primary care in The Netherlands

Pharmacogenetics (PGx) is currently implemented in hospitals to optimize therapy with high-risk drugs. However, many drugs with dosing recommendations from the Dutch Pharmacogenetics Working Group and the Clin...

Authors: P. C. D. Bank, J. J. Swen and H. J. Guchelaar

Performance of the Framingham risk models and pooled cohort equations for predicting 10-year risk of cardiovascular disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis

The Framingham risk models and pooled cohort equations (PCE) are widely used and advocated in guidelines for predicting 10-year risk of developing coronary heart disease (CHD) and cardiovascular disease (CVD) ...

Authors: Johanna A. Damen, Romin Pajouheshnia, Pauline Heus, Karel G. M. Moons, Johannes B. Reitsma, Rob J. P. M. Scholten, Lotty Hooft and Thomas P. A. Debray

Physical activity, multimorbidity, and life expectancy: a UK Biobank longitudinal study

Multimorbidity is an emerging public health priority. Physical activity (PA) is recommended as one of the main lifestyle behaviours, yet the benefits of PA for people with multimorbidity are unclear. We assess...

Authors: Yogini V. Chudasama, Kamlesh K. Khunti, Francesco Zaccardi, Alex V. Rowlands, Thomas Yates, Clare L. Gillies, Melanie J. Davies and Nafeesa N. Dhalwani

A rapid research needs appraisal methodology to identify evidence gaps to inform clinical research priorities in response to outbreaks—results from the Lassa fever pilot

Infectious disease epidemics are a constant threat, and while we can strengthen preparedness in advance, inevitably, we will sometimes be caught unaware by novel outbreaks. To address the challenge of rapidly ...

Authors: Louise Sigfrid, Catrin Moore, Alex P. Salam, Nicola Maayan, Candyce Hamel, Chantelle Garritty, Vittoria Lutje, Brian Buckley, Karla Soares-Weiser, Rachel Marshall, Mike Clarke and Peter Horby

Tissue-infiltrating lymphocytes signature predicts survival in patients with early/intermediate stage hepatocellular carcinoma

Intratumoral immune infiltrates have manifested a robust prognostic signature in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). We hypothesized that a novel tissue-related immune signature (TRIS) could improve ...

Authors: Meng-Xin Tian, Wei-Ren Liu, Han Wang, Yu-Fu Zhou, Lei Jin, Xi-Fei Jiang, Chen-Yang Tao, Zheng Tang, Pei-Yun Zhou, Yuan Fang, Wei-Feng Qu, Zhen-Bin Ding, Yuan-Fei Peng, Zhi Dai, Shuang-Jian Qiu, Jian Zhou…

Three randomized controlled trials evaluating the impact of “spin” in health news stories reporting studies of pharmacologic treatments on patients’/caregivers’ interpretation of treatment benefit

News stories represent an important source of information. We aimed to evaluate the impact of “spin” (i.e., misrepresentation of study results) in health news stories reporting studies of pharmacologic treatme...

Authors: Isabelle Boutron, Romana Haneef, Amélie Yavchitz, Gabriel Baron, John Novack, Ivan Oransky, Gary Schwitzer and Philippe Ravaud

Monitoring progress in reducing maternal mortality using verbal autopsy methods in vital registration systems: what can we conclude about specific causes of maternal death?

Reducing maternal mortality is a key focus of development strategies and one of the indicators used to measure progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. In the absence of medical certificat...

Authors: Ian D. Riley, Riley H. Hazard, Rohina Joshi, Hafizur Rahman Chowdhury and Alan D. Lopez

The XN-30 hematology analyzer for rapid sensitive detection of malaria: a diagnostic accuracy study

Accurate and timely diagnosis of malaria is essential for disease management and surveillance. Thin and thick blood smear microscopy and malaria rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) are standard malaria diagnostics, ...

Authors: Annelies Post, Berenger Kaboré, Isaie J. Reuling, Joel Bognini, Wouter van der Heijden, Salou Diallo, Palpouguini Lompo, Basile Kam, Natacha Herssens, Kjerstin Lanke, Teun Bousema, Robert W. Sauerwein, Halidou Tinto, Jan Jacobs, Quirijn de Mast and Andre J. van der Ven

An integrated approach to processing WHO-2016 verbal autopsy data: the InterVA-5 model

Verbal autopsy is an increasingly important methodology for assigning causes to otherwise uncertified deaths, which amount to around 50% of global mortality and cause much uncertainty for health planning. The ...

Authors: Peter Byass, Laith Hussain-Alkhateeb, Lucia D’Ambruoso, Samuel Clark, Justine Davies, Edward Fottrell, Jon Bird, Chodziwadziwa Kabudula, Stephen Tollman, Kathleen Kahn, Linus Schiöler and Max Petzold

Childhood generalized specific phobia as an early marker of internalizing psychopathology across the lifespan: results from the World Mental Health Surveys

Specific phobia (SP) is a relatively common disorder associated with high levels of psychiatric comorbidity. Because of its early onset, SP may be a useful early marker of internalizing psychopathology, especi...

Authors: Ymkje Anna de Vries, Ali Al-Hamzawi, Jordi Alonso, Guilherme Borges, Ronny Bruffaerts, Brendan Bunting, José Miguel Caldas-de-Almeida, Alfredo H. Cia, Giovanni De Girolamo, Rumyana V. Dinolova, Oluyomi Esan, Silvia Florescu, Oye Gureje, Josep Maria Haro, Chiyi Hu, Elie G. Karam…

Ethnic differences in prediabetes incidence among immigrants to Canada: a population-based cohort study

Prediabetes appears to be increasing worldwide. This study examined the incidence of prediabetes among immigrants to Canada of different ethnic origins and the age at which ethnic differences emerged.

Authors: Ghazal S. Fazli, Rahim Moineddin, Arlene S. Bierman and Gillian L. Booth

Effects of school neighborhood food environments on childhood obesity at multiple scales: a longitudinal kindergarten cohort study in the USA

School neighborhood food environment is recognized as an important contributor to childhood obesity; however, large-scale and longitudinal studies remain limited. This study aimed to examine this association a...

Authors: Peng Jia, Hong Xue, Xi Cheng and Youfa Wang

Response to Daly-Smith et al.’s commentary on ‘The Daily Mile makes primary school children more active, less sedentary and improves their fitness and body composition: a quasi-experimental pilot study’

We thank Daly-Smith et al. for taking the time to read the results of our pilot research study, describing it as an important and welcome contribution. Nonetheless, the authors argue six points against our con...

Authors: Ross A. Chesham, Josephine N. Booth, Emma L. Sweeney, Gemma C. Ryde, Trish Gorely, Naomi E. Brooks and Colin N. Moran

Commentary on a recent article on the effects of the ‘Daily Mile’ on physical activity, fitness and body composition: addressing key limitations

A recent pilot study by Chesham et al. in BMC Medicine established some initial effects of the Daily Mile™ using a quasi-experimental repeated measures design, with valid and reliable outcome assessments for mode...

Authors: Andy Daly-Smith, Jade L. Morris, Matthew Hobbs and Jim McKenna

Acute kidney injury is associated with impaired cognition and chronic kidney disease in a prospective cohort of children with severe malaria

Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a recognized complication of pediatric severe malaria, but its long-term consequences are unknown.

Authors: Andrea L. Conroy, Robert O. Opoka, Paul Bangirana, Richard Idro, John M. Ssenkusu, Dibyadyuti Datta, James S. Hodges, Catherine Morgan and Chandy C. John

Risks and clinical predictors of cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma diagnoses in adults with diagnosed NAFLD: real-world study of 18 million patients in four European cohorts

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a common condition that progresses in some patients to steatohepatitis (NASH), cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Here we used healthcare records of 18 m...

Authors: Myriam Alexander, A. Katrina Loomis, Johan van der Lei, Talita Duarte-Salles, Daniel Prieto-Alhambra, David Ansell, Alessandro Pasqua, Francesco Lapi, Peter Rijnbeek, Mees Mosseveld, Dawn M. Waterworth, Stuart Kendrick, Naveed Sattar and William Alazawi

The introduction of ‘No jab, No school’ policy and the refinement of measles immunisation strategies in high-income countries

In recent years, we witnessed a resurgence of measles even in countries where, according to WHO guidelines, elimination should have already been achieved. In high-income countries, the raise of anti-vaccinatio...

Authors: Filippo Trentini, Piero Poletti, Alessia Melegaro and Stefano Merler

Claims of causality in health news: a randomised trial

Misleading news claims can be detrimental to public health. We aimed to improve the alignment between causal claims and evidence, without losing news interest (counter to assumptions that news is not intereste...

Authors: Rachel C. Adams, Aimée Challenger, Luke Bratton, Jacky Boivin, Lewis Bott, Georgina Powell, Andy Williams, Christopher D. Chambers and Petroc Sumner

The frailty index is a predictor of cause-specific mortality independent of familial effects from midlife onwards: a large cohort study

Frailty index (FI) is a well-established predictor of all-cause mortality, but less is known for cause-specific mortality and whether familial effects influence the associations. Middle-aged individuals are al...

Authors: Xia Li, Alexander Ploner, Ida K. Karlsson, Xingrong Liu, Patrik K. E. Magnusson, Nancy L. Pedersen, Sara Hägg and Juulia Jylhävä