"The power imbalance was blown out the window": developing and implementing creative workshops to enhance communication of statistics in patient and public involvement in clinical trials.

BACKGROUND: Despite the importance of statistical and numerical aspects in key decisions related to clinical trials and their impact in patient's care, patient and public involvement remains underdeveloped in this field. Communication is a barrier to enable successful involvement of patients and the public in numerical aspects. Treatment important differences, a crucial numerical aspect in trials, is considered a priority for patient and public involvement. Creative methods have been proposed to improve communication of technical concepts with members of the public; and to democratise and improve inclusivity in patient and public involvement in health research. METHODS: Working with creative professionals, public partners, and statisticians, we aimed to develop, pilot and implement creative workshops to promote a shared understanding of treatment important differences; and co-develop creative prototypes that could be used to communicate the statistical concept to a wider audience in the future. Three 2 to 4 h creative workshops based in the UK were delivered. The first two workshops included 22 participants. They were online and worked as pilots to refine the final in-person workshop via participant feedback and discussion. The final workshop focused on treatment important differences, and we collected information from participants on expectations, subjective numeracy, and experience. RESULTS: The final workshop included 13 participants (5 creative professionals, 4 public partners, and 4 clinical trial statisticians). Participants reported creative workshops helped improve communication of treatment important differences between stakeholders reaching a common understanding of their meaning; and helped democratise knowledge exchange. Each group developed a creative prototype to communicate about treatment important differences with a wider audience, including a song, game, and a cartoon. Participants recommended the format to improve communication of other statistical or complex concepts between stakeholders. CONCLUSIONS: Creative workshops can promote shared understanding of complex, statistical concepts and co-development of creative outputs amongst stakeholders. Future work should explore generalisability of the intervention, and what outcomes might be important to consider when implementing creative workshops in patient and public involvement practice.

Patient and public involvement in clinical trials helps improve their relevance. Decisions related to numbers in trials consider information related to patients and their clinical experience, but patients and the public are rarely involved in these decisions. One barrier to achieve this is communication: numbers can be challenging to discuss. Creative methods (including writing, dancing, drawing) have been suggested as a potential way to improve communication of numbers with a wide audience. Working with creative professionals, public partners, and statisticians we developed, piloted, and implemented a creative workshop focusing on improving communication by reaching a common understanding between participants of a specific numerical concept related to clinical trials and where patient and public involvement is crucial. The creative workshop aimed to facilitate mutual learning between creative professionals, members of the public, and statisticians; and to promote co-development of creative outputs to describe the same numerical concept to a wider audience. Workshop participants felt the creative workshops improved communication of the numerical concept and helped everyone feel heard. Workshop participants were particularly interested in visual methods to support communication, and recommended creative workshops should be used to improve communication of other statistical and complex concepts.

Sustainable oral healthcare: what is it and how do we achieve it?

In recent years, there has been an increase in interest in what environmental sustainability means for healthcare, including oral health and dentistry. To help facilitate discussions among key stakeholders in this area, the Scottish Dental Clinical Effectiveness Programme held a workshop in November 2022. The purpose of this workshop was to explore current thinking on the subject of sustainability as it relates to oral health and to help stakeholders identify how to engage with the sustainability agenda. This paper presents an overview of the presentations and discussions from the workshop and highlights potential avenues for future work and collaboration.

The impact of migration on body weight: a review / O impacto da migração no peso corporal: uma revisão / El impacto de la migración sobre el peso corporal: una revisión

Immigrants may be more vulnerable to obesity as a result of the immigration process. The aim of this article is to summarize current knowledge about the impact of immigration on body mass index (BMI). A systematic review was performed in accordance with PRISMA guidelines through a database search of scientific articles (last updated in August 2014). Thirty-nine articles were included and assessed. Results varied according to ethnic background, country of origin and host country. A consistent positive association between BMI and time since immigration was found among Hispanic, European and African immigrants. Less than half of the studies observed a positive association among Asian immigrants. The quality of the majority of the studies assessed was poor, reflecting a need to improve methodology and concept definition. Immigration appears to have a deteriorative effect on BMI. Underlying causes may include changes in nutrition and physical activity, psychological and social factors, and genetic susceptibility and these aspects should be included as moderator variables in future studies.

A obesidade pode ser uma das características mais alteráveis no processo de migração. Pretendeu-se resumir a informação sobre o impacto da migração no índice de massa corporal (IMC). Realizou-se uma revisão sistemática da literatura de acordo com as diretrizes PRISMA, por meio de pesquisa eletrônica (última atualização em agosto de 2014). Foram incluídos e avaliados qualitativamente 39 artigos. A associação entre migração e evolução de IMC varia de acordo com o grupo étnico e países de origem/acolhimento. Imigrantes hispânicos, europeus e africanos apresentam relação consistente e positiva entre IMC e tempo de migração. Os imigrantes asiáticos apresentam associação positiva em menos da metade dos estudos. No geral, a qualidade dos estudos é fraca e há necessidade de melhorar conceitos e métodos. Parece existir um efeito deteriorativo da migração no IMC. Alterações nutricionais, de atividade física, fatores psicossociais e suscetibilidade genética podem ser motivos subjacentes a incluir como variáveis moderadoras em estudos futuros.

La obesidad puede ser una de las características más variables en el proceso de migración. En este estudio se pretendieron actualizar los conocimientos acerca de la relación entre migración e índice de masa corporal (IMC). Además, se procedió a una revisión sistemática de la literatura, de acuerdo con las directrices PRISMA, por búsqueda electrónica (actualizada en agosto de 2014). Se incluyeron 39 artículos y se analizaron cualitativamente. Los resultados variaron según el grupo étnico, el país de origen y acogida. Los inmigrantes hispanos, africanos y europeos mostraron una relación consistente y positiva entre el IMC y el tiempo de migración. Los inmigrantes asiáticos mostraron una asociación positiva en menos de la mitad de los estudios. Puede haber un efecto negativo de la migración sobre el IMC. Cambios nutricionales y de actividad física, factores psicosociales y la susceptibilidad genética pueden ser razones subyacentes que deben ser incluidas como variables moderadoras en estudios futuros.