Assessment of transparency indicators in space medicine.

Space medicine is a vital discipline with often time-intensive and costly projects and constrained opportunities for studying various elements such as space missions, astronauts, and simulated environments. Moreover, private interests gain increasing influence in this discipline. In scientific disciplines with these features, transparent and rigorous methods are essential. Here, we undertook an evaluation of transparency indicators in publications within the field of space medicine. A meta-epidemiological assessment of PubMed Central Open Access (PMC OA) eligible articles within the field of space medicine was performed for prevalence of code sharing, data sharing, pre-registration, conflicts of interest, and funding. Text mining was performed with the rtransparent text mining algorithms with manual validation of 200 random articles to obtain corrected estimates. Across 1215 included articles, 39 (3%) shared code, 258 (21%) shared data, 10 (1%) were registered, 110 (90%) contained a conflict-of-interest statement, and 1141 (93%) included a funding statement. After manual validation, the corrected estimates for code sharing, data sharing, and registration were 5%, 27%, and 1%, respectively. Data sharing was 32% when limited to original articles and highest in space/parabolic flights (46%). Overall, across space medicine we observed modest rates of data sharing, rare sharing of code and almost non-existent protocol registration. Enhancing transparency in space medicine research is imperative for safeguarding its scientific rigor and reproducibility.

Objective and subjective assessment of Dupuytren's contracture.

This paper describes the evaluation options of Dupuytren's contracture by subjective and objective methods. There are various classification schemes named after their authors, including graphical representation for objective evaluation of the disease. Subjective assessment was performed in the form of a questionnaire for patients. The QuickDASH with a small specification for Dupuytren's contracture is the most commonly used questionnaire. The Southampton Dupuytren's Scoring Scheme questionnaire appears to be a higher specification. The classifications allow evaluation of treatment success to determine prognosis of the disease. The analysis of articles is based on PubMed search from the years 1967-2022, with 28 relevant articles were retrieved. Based on this analysis, the Tubiana classification appears to be the most appropriate one for patients with Dupuytren's contracture. Of patient questionnaires, the Southampton Dupuytren's Scoring Scheme meets these parameters.

The use of heart rate variability in esports: A systematic review.

Heart rate variability (HRV) is a psychophysiological measure of particular interest in esports due to its potential to monitor player self-regulation. This study aimed to systematically review the utilisation of HRV in esports. Consideration was given to the methodological and theoretical underpinnings of previous works to provide recommendations for future research. The protocol was made available on the Open Science Framework. Inclusion criteria were empirical studies, examining HRV in esports, using esports players, published in English. Exclusion criteria were non-peer-reviewed studies, populations with pre-existing clinical illness other than Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD), opinion pieces or review papers. In November 2022 a search of Web of Science, PubMed, and EBSCOHost identified seven studies using HRV in esports. Risk of bias was assessed using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool. Narrative review identified two primary uses of HRV in esports; stress response and IGD. A lack of theoretical and methodological underpinning was identified as a major limitation of current literature. Further investigation is necessary before making recommendations regarding the use of HRV in esports. Future research should employ sound theoretical underpinning such as the use of vagally mediated HRV and the robust application of supporting methodological guidelines when investigating HRV in esports.

Health-Related Quality of Life, Stress, Caregiving Burden and Special Needs of Parents Caring for a Short-Statured Child-Review and Recommendations for Future Research.

Children with short stature can experience a range of burdens due to their chronic condition. However, little is known about parents' experiences dealing with their child's short stature and the potential caregiving burdens and concerns they may face. We aim to review the literature on health-related quality of life (HRQOL), caregiving burden, and special needs among parents caring for a child with isolated growth hormone deficiency (IGHD) or idiopathic short stature (ISS). Using pre-defined inclusion and exclusion criteria, we systematically searched for literature using PubMed and Web of Science from its inception to December 2022. We identified 15 articles assessing HRQOL, special needs, or caregiving burdens in parents of IGHD/ISS children. The main problems included concerns about the future, organizational issues, side effects from growth hormone treatment, and social stigmatization. Furthermore, two studies assessed parents' special needs to cope with caregiving stress, mainly the dialogue between them and their families or parent support groups. This review outlines parental burdens, needs, and resources when caring for an IGHD/ISS child. Furthermore, it provides information about previously used measures appraising parents' special needs and underlines the need for disease-specific measurements.

Further assessment of the clinical relevance of anatomical structures through PubMed and other measures.

A previous paper has demonstrated a statistically significant moderate correlation between the number of citations obtained from PubMed and a Delphi study for 251 anatomical structures of the Head and Neck region, suggesting that clinical significance is a major driver of research involving anatomical structures. This raises the possibility that these ranks could be an objective measure of clinical relevance of individual anatomical structures. In the present study, we revisited the rankings of the PubMed results from the previous paper and compared it with a Delphi study for 450 musculoskeletal structures. PubMed ranks were derived using different search parameters; a PubMed search with quotations yielded a moderate, statistically significant correlation coefficient of 0.639 with the musculoskeletal dataset. Additionally, we developed a Python tool, PDF Term Search, to calculate the frequency of anatomical terms in four authoritative textbooks, and these frequencies exhibited moderate significant correlations ranging (0.549-0.646) with our PubMed-derived ranks. We further explored strategies to improve the accuracy of our PubMed results by addressing limitations identified in the previous paper. We refined the syntax of search queries for 500 anatomical structures, resulting in marked improvement in the correlation coefficients with the musculoskeletal dataset, demonstrating clear avenues for future iterations of PubMed-derived ranks. We also created a spreadsheet of 2181 anatomical structures ranked using PubMed, published Delphi studies, and authoritative texts, providing a resource for anatomical educators who are adjusting their curricula to better train future healthcare practitioners.

Compliance with ecological momentary assessment programmes in the elderly: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

OBJECTIVE: Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) refers to the repeated sampling of information about an individual's symptoms and behaviours, enabling the capture of ecologically meaningful real-time information in a timely manner. Compliance with EMA is critical in determining the validity of an assessment. However, there is limited evidence related to how the elderly comply with EMA programmes or the factors that are associated with compliance. DESIGN: Systematic review and meta-analysis. DATA SOURCES: PubMed, Embase, the Cochrane Library and Web of Science were searched up to 17 July 2022. ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA: We included observational studies on EMA in the elderly reported in English. DATA EXTRACTION AND SYNTHESIS: Two investigators independently performed screening and data extraction. Discrepancies were resolved by discussion or a third investigator. A systematic review was carried out to characterise the basic characteristics of the participants and EMA programmes. Random-effects meta-analysis was conducted to assess overall compliance and to explore factors associated with differences in compliance among the elderly. RESULTS: A total of 20 studies with 2047 participants were included in the systematic review and meta-analysis. Meta-analysis showed that the combined compliance rate was 86.41% (95% CI: 77.38% to 92.20%; I2=96.4%; p<0.001). Subgroup analysis revealed high levels of heterogeneity in terms of the methods used to assess population classification, assessment method and assessment frequency, although these may not be the sources of heterogeneity. Meta-regression analysis showed that population classification and assessment period might have a significant impact on heterogeneity (p<0.05). Egger's test indicated significant publication bias (p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Compliance with EMA programmes is high in the elderly. It is recommended that scholars design reasonable EMA programmes according to the health status of the elderly in the future.

PreprintMatch: A tool for preprint to publication detection shows global inequities in scientific publication.

Preprints, versions of scientific manuscripts that precede peer review, are growing in popularity. They offer an opportunity to democratize and accelerate research, as they have no publication costs or a lengthy peer review process. Preprints are often later published in peer-reviewed venues, but these publications and the original preprints are frequently not linked in any way. To this end, we developed a tool, PreprintMatch, to find matches between preprints and their corresponding published papers, if they exist. This tool outperforms existing techniques to match preprints and papers, both on matching performance and speed. PreprintMatch was applied to search for matches between preprints (from bioRxiv and medRxiv), and PubMed. The preliminary nature of preprints offers a unique perspective into scientific projects at a relatively early stage, and with better matching between preprint and paper, we explored questions related to research inequity. We found that preprints from low income countries are published as peer-reviewed papers at a lower rate than high income countries (39.6% and 61.1%, respectively), and our data is consistent with previous work that cite a lack of resources, lack of stability, and policy choices to explain this discrepancy. Preprints from low income countries were also found to be published quicker (178 vs 203 days) and with less title, abstract, and author similarity to the published version compared to high income countries. Low income countries add more authors from the preprint to the published version than high income countries (0.42 authors vs 0.32, respectively), a practice that is significantly more frequent in China compared to similar countries. Finally, we find that some publishers publish work with authors from lower income countries more frequently than others.

Comparison of Availability of Trial Results in ClinicalTrials.gov and PubMed by Data Source and Funder Type.

This study examines the dissemination of trial results by data source (ie, ClinicalTrials.gov and PubMed) and funder type (ie, industry and nonindustry).

Assessing How Social Exposures Are Integrated in Exposome Research: A Scoping Review.

BACKGROUND: Exposome research aims to describe and understand the extent to which all the exposures in human environments may affect our health over the lifetime. However, the way in which humans interact with their environment is socially patterned. Failing to account for social factors in research exploring the exposome may underestimate the magnitude of the effect of exposures or mask inequalities in the distribution of both exposures and outcomes. OBJECTIVES: We aimed to describe the extent to which social factors appear in the exposome literature, the manner in which they are used in empirical analyses and statistical modeling, and the way in which they are considered in the overall scientific approach. METHODS: We conducted a scoping review of the literature using three databases (PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science) up to January 2022. We grouped studies based on the way in which the social variables were used in the analyses and quantified the type and frequency of social variables mentioned in the articles. We also qualitatively described the scientific approach used by authors to integrate social variables. RESULTS: We screened 1,001 records, and 73 studies were included in the analysis. Fifty-five (∼75%) used social variables as exposures or confounders or both, and a wide array of social variables were represented in the articles. Individual-level social variables were more often found, especially education and race/ethnicity, as well as neighborhood-level deprivation indices. Half of the studies used a hypothesis-free approach and the other half, a hypothesis-driven approach. However, in the latter group, of 35 studies, only 8 reported and discussed at least one possible social mechanism underlying the relationship observed between the social variable and the outcome. DISCUSSION: Social factors in exposome research should be considered in a more systematic way, considering their role in structuring both the specific external and the internal exposome. Doing so could help to understand the mechanisms of construction and, potentially, alleviate social inequalities in health and mitigate the emergence of new ones. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP11015.

Academic Tracker: Software for tracking and reporting publications associated with authors and grants.

In recent years, United States federal funding agencies, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF), have implemented public access policies to make research supported by funding from these federal agencies freely available to the public. Enforcement is primarily through annual and final reports submitted to these funding agencies, where all peer-reviewed publications must be registered through the appropriate mechanism as required by the specific federal funding agency. Unreported and/or incorrectly reported papers can result in delayed acceptance of annual and final reports and even funding delays for current and new research grants. So, it's important to make sure every peer-reviewed publication is reported properly and in a timely manner. For large collaborative research efforts, the tracking and proper registration of peer-reviewed publications along with generation of accurate annual and final reports can create a large administrative burden. With large collaborative teams, it is easy for these administrative tasks to be overlooked, forgotten, or lost in the shuffle. In order to help with this reporting burden, we have developed the Academic Tracker software package, implemented in the Python 3 programming language and supporting Linux, Windows, and Mac operating systems. Academic Tracker helps with publication tracking and reporting by comprehensively searching major peer-reviewed publication tracking web portals, including PubMed, Crossref, ORCID, and Google Scholar, given a list of authors. Academic Tracker provides highly customizable reporting templates so information about the resulting publications is easily transformed into appropriate formats for tracking and reporting purposes. The source code and extensive documentation is hosted on GitHub (https://moseleybioinformaticslab.github.io/academic_tracker/) and is also available on the Python Package Index (https://pypi.org/project/academic_tracker) for easy installation.

Factors determining membership in community-based health insurance in West Africa: a scoping review.

BACKGROUND: In many low-income countries, households bear most of the health care costs. Community-based health insurance (CBHI) schemes have multiplied since the 1990s in West Africa. They have significantly improved their members' access to health care. However, a large proportion of users are reluctant to subscribe to a local CBHI. Identifying the major factors affecting membership will be useful for improving CBHI coverage. The objective of this research is to obtain a general overview of existing evidence on the determinants of CBHI membership in West Africa. METHODS: A review of studies reporting on the factors determining membership in CBHI schemes in West Africa was conducted using guidelines developed by the Joanna Briggs Institute. Several databases were searched (PubMed, ScienceDirect, Global Health database, Embase, EconLit, Cairn.info, BDPS, Cochrane database and Google Scholar) for relevant articles available by August 15, 2022, with no methodological or linguistic restrictions in electronic databases and grey literature. RESULTS: The initial literature search resulted in 1611 studies, and 10 studies were identified by other sources. After eliminating duplicates, we reviewed the titles of the remaining 1275 studies and excluded 1080 irrelevant studies based on title and 124 studies based on abstracts. Of the 71 full texts assessed for eligibility, 32 additional papers were excluded (not relevant, outside West Africa, poorly described results) and finally 39 studies were included in the synthesis. Factors that negatively affect CBHI membership include advanced age, low education, low household income, poor quality of care, lack of trust in providers and remoteness, rules considered too strict or inappropriate, low trust in administrators and inadequate information campaign. CONCLUSIONS: This study shows many lessons to be learned from a variety of countries and initiatives that could make CBHI an effective tool for increasing access to quality health care in order to achieve universal health coverage. Coverage through CBHI schemes could be improved through communication, improved education and targeted financial support.

Artificial intelligence and health inequities in primary care: a systematic scoping review and framework.

OBJECTIVE: Artificial intelligence (AI) will have a significant impact on healthcare over the coming decade. At the same time, health inequity remains one of the biggest challenges. Primary care is both a driver and a mitigator of health inequities and with AI gaining traction in primary care, there is a need for a holistic understanding of how AI affect health inequities, through the act of providing care and through potential system effects. This paper presents a systematic scoping review of the ways AI implementation in primary care may impact health inequity. DESIGN: Following a systematic scoping review approach, we searched for literature related to AI, health inequity, and implementation challenges of AI in primary care. In addition, articles from primary exploratory searches were added, and through reference screening.The results were thematically summarised and used to produce both a narrative and conceptual model for the mechanisms by which social determinants of health and AI in primary care could interact to either improve or worsen health inequities.Two public advisors were involved in the review process. ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA: Peer-reviewed publications and grey literature in English and Scandinavian languages. INFORMATION SOURCES: PubMed, SCOPUS and JSTOR. RESULTS: A total of 1529 publications were identified, of which 86 met the inclusion criteria. The findings were summarised under six different domains, covering both positive and negative effects: (1) access, (2) trust, (3) dehumanisation, (4) agency for self-care, (5) algorithmic bias and (6) external effects. The five first domains cover aspects of the interface between the patient and the primary care system, while the last domain covers care system-wide and societal effects of AI in primary care. A graphical model has been produced to illustrate this. Community involvement throughout the whole process of designing and implementing of AI in primary care was a common suggestion to mitigate the potential negative effects of AI. CONCLUSION: AI has the potential to affect health inequities through a multitude of ways, both directly in the patient consultation and through transformative system effects. This review summarises these effects from a system tive and provides a base for future research into responsible implementation.

Factores socioeconómicos y rendimiento académico en estudiantes de enfermería. Revisión bibliográfica integrativa / Socioeconomic factors and academic performance in nursing students. Integrative litera-ture review

La formación exitosa de profesionales de la enfermería es una necesidad para la sociedad contemporánea. Así, la investigación tuvo el objetivo de establecer las regularidades reportadas por diferentes autores acerca de la forma en que los factores socioeconómicos interactúan con el rendimiento académico en diversos contextos formativos de profesionales de la enfermería. Las autoras realizaron una revisión integrativa. La búsqueda se hizo en las bases de datos: WOS, PubMed y BVS, resultando 461 fuentes iniciales, quedando 14 seleccionas al final, de las que, la mayoría tenía enfoque cuantitativo, corte transversal, de tipo descriptivo o correlacional, publicadas entre 2016 y 2021, en su mayor parte genera-das en países africanos y latinoamericanos. El rendimiento académico en estudiantes de enfermería se está influenciado por factores socioeconómicos, tales como: etnia, tener empleo, problemas económicos, insuficiente apoyo familiar, demasiado uso de las tecnologías de la información y las comunicaciones, dificultades psicológicas y estilo de vida poco saludable

The successful training of nursing professionals is a necessity for contemporary society. Thus, this research aimed to establish the regularities reported by different authors about the way in which socioeconomic factors interact with academic performance in various training contexts of nursing professionals. The authors conducted an integrative review. The search was made in the databases: WOS, PubMed and VHL, resulting in 461 initial sources, getting 14 selections at the end, most of them had a quantitative approach, they were cross-sectional, descriptive, or correla-tional, and published between 2016 and 2021, mostly generated in African and Latin American countries. Academic performance in nursing students is influenced by socioeconomic factors, such as: ethnicity, having a job, economic problems, insufficient family support, excessive use of information and communication technologies, psychological difficulties, and unhealthy lifestyle

A pandemia de COVID-19 e o seu impacto à saúde planetária / The COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on planetary health

A pandemia de COVID-19 deu ao mundo uma imagem clara do que é uma crise multidimensional em escala planetária, revelando o papel central que ocupa o setor de saúde e as profundas desigualdades no acesso aos cuidados em saúde que existem entre os diferentes países, e dentro de cada um deles. Melhorar os efeitos ambientais do setor e reduzir as emissões de gases de efeito estufa pode não apenas melhorar a saúde de todos, mas também reduzir os custos com os cuidados em saúde. O setor de saúde de cada país libera direta e indiretamente gases de efeito estufa ao fornecer seus serviços e ao comprar produtos, serviços e tecnologias em uma cadeia de fornecimento de carbono intensivo. Educar os profissionais de saúde mais profundamente sobre os efeitos das mudanças climáticas pode levar a práticas clínicas mais sustentáveis, melhorando os resultados para os pacientes e fornecendo um impulso substancial para aumentar os esforços para reduzir as emissões de carbono. O setor da saúde deve assumir a responsabilidade por sua pegada climática respondendo à crescente emergência climática, não apenas prestando assistência aos doentes, feridos ou moribundos como resultado da crise climática e suas causas, mas também fazendo a prevenção primária e reduzindo drasticamente suas próprias emissões.

The COVID-19 pandemic has painted a clear picture of what a multidimensional planetary crisis is, revealing the central role played by the health sector and the deep inequalities in access to health care that exist between and within each country. Decreasing the environmental effects of the health sector and reducing greenhouse gas emission may not only improve people's health, but also reduce health care costs. The health care sectors around the world directly and indirectly release greenhouse gases by providing their services and purchasing products, services, and technologies within a carbon-intensive supply chain. Further educating health care professionals about the effects of climate change may lead to more sustainable clinical practices, improving patient outcomes and providing substantial impetus to increased efforts to reduce carbon emission. The health sector must take responsibility for its climate footprint by responding to the growing climate emergency not only by assisting the sick, injured, or dying from the climate crisis, but also by doing primary prevention and drastically reducing its own carbon emission.

Patient-based benefit-risk assessment of medicines: development, refinement, and validation of a content search strategy to retrieve relevant studies.

Introduction: Poor indexing and inconsistent use of terms and keywords may prevent efficient retrieval of studies on the patient-based benefit-risk assessment (BRA) of medicines. We aimed to develop and validate an objectively derived content search strategy containing generic search terms that can be adapted for any search for evidence on patient-based BRA of medicines for any therapeutic area. Methods: We used a robust multistep process to develop and validate the content search strategy: (1) we developed a bank of search terms derived from screening studies on patient-based BRA of medicines in various therapeutic areas, (2) we refined the proposed content search strategy through an iterative process of testing sensitivity and precision of search terms, and (3) we validated the final search strategy in PubMed by firstly using multiple sclerosis as a case condition and secondly computing its relative performance versus a published systematic review on patient-based BRA of medicines in rheumatoid arthritis. Results: We conceptualized a final search strategy to retrieve studies on patient-based BRA containing generic search terms grouped into two domains, namely the patient and the BRA of medicines (sensitivity 84%, specificity 99.4%, precision 20.7%). The relative performance of the content search strategy was 85.7% compared with a search from a published systematic review of patient preferences in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. We also developed a more extended filter, with a relative performance of 93.3% when compared with a search from a published systematic review of patient preferences in lung cancer.

Heterogeneous effects of eccentric training and nordic hamstring exercise on the biceps femoris fascicle length based on ultrasound assessment and extrapolation methods: A systematic review of randomised controlled trials with meta-analyses.

OBJECTIVE: To systematically review the effects of eccentric training based on biceps femoris fascicle length using ultrasound assessment and extrapolation methods. DESIGN: Systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials. DATA SOURCES: CENTRAL, CINAHL Plus with full text, PubMed and OpenGrey databases were searched on 6 July 2021. ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA FOR SELECTING STUDIES: Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) lasting at least four weeks and presenting data about biceps femoris (BF) fascicle length (FL) as an outcome. METHOD: Searching databases, screening studies, performing risk of bias assessments and determining the level of evidence (LoE) for each meta-analysis were applied during the study. PRISMA 2020 statement and Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions were used as the guidelines of this systematic review. RESULTS: Eight randomised controlled trials included in meta-analyses. Based on the very low and low LoE, eccentric training has small (g = 0.29, 95% CI [-0.26, 0.85]), moderate (g = 0.72, 95% CI [0.17, 1.28]) and large (g = 2.20, 95% CI [0.99, 3.41]) effect sizes (ES) based on manual linear extrapolation (MLE), panoramic ultrasound scanning and trigonometric equation methods, respectively. Similarly, Nordic hamstring exercise (NHE) has small (g = 0.23 [-1.02, 1.47]), small (g = 0.38, 95% CI [-0.50, 1.27]) and large (g = 1.98, 95% CI [0.52, 3.44]) ES based on the MLE, panoramic ultrasound scanning and trigonometric equation methods, respectively. CONCLUSION: ES of eccentric training, including NHE, vary between the MLE, panoramic ultrasound scanning, and equation methods. The relevant scientific community should have a consensus on measurement standards of the BF FL measurements. Further studies can be conducted to compare the effects of eccentric training based on the ultrasound assessment and extrapolation methods.

Pharmacogenetic testing for adverse drug reaction prevention: systematic review of economic evaluations and the appraisal of quality matters for clinical practice and implementation.

BACKGROUND: Genetic testing has potential roles in identifying whether an individual would have risk of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) from a particular medicine. Robust cost-effectiveness results on genetic testing would be useful for clinical practice and policy decision-making on allocating resources effectively. This study aimed to update a systematic review on economic evaluations of pharmacogenetic testing to prevent ADRs and critically appraise the quality of reporting and sources of evidence for model input parameters. METHODS: We searched studies through Medline via PubMed, Scopus and CRD's NHS Economic Evaluation up to October 2019. Studies investigating polymorphism-based pharmacogenetic testing, which guided drug therapies to prevent ADRs, using economic evaluation methods were included. Two reviewers independently performed data extraction and assessed the quality of reporting using the Consolidated Health Economic Evaluation Reporting Standards (CHEERS) guidelines and the quality of data sources using the hierarchy of evidence developed by Cooper et al. RESULTS: Fifty-nine economic evaluations of pharmacogenetic testing to avoid drug-induced ADRs were found between 2002 and 2018. Cost-utility and cost-effectiveness analyses were the most common methods of economic evaluation of pharmacogenetic testing. Most studies complied with the CHEERS checklist, except for single study-based economic evaluations which did not report uncertainty analysis (78%). There was a lack of high-quality evidence not only for estimating the clinical effectiveness of pharmacogenetic testing, but also baseline clinical data. About 14% of the studies obtained clinical effectiveness data of testing from a meta-analysis of case-control studies with direct comparison, which was not listed in the hierarchy of evidence used. CONCLUSIONS: Our review suggested that future single study-based economic evaluations of pharmacogenetic testing should report uncertainty analysis, as this could significantly affect the robustness of economic evaluation results. A specific ranking system for the quality of evidence is needed for the economic evaluation of pharmacogenetic testing of ADRs. Differences in parameters, methods and outcomes across studies, as well as population-level and system-level differences, may lead to the difficulty of comparing cost-effectiveness results across countries.

Health research funding and its output in Pakistan.

BACKGROUND: Health research is very important for formulating evidence-based policies. AIMS: To assess the health research funding and its output in the last 5 fiscal years (2013/14 to 2018) in Pakistan. METHODS: Information about health research funding was retrieved from 3 major local agencies, the Higher Education Commission, the Pakistan Science Foundation and the Pakistan Health Research Council. Details of funding from international donors were retrieved and the number of publications was estimated from Pubmed and Pakmedinet. RESULTS: A total of 1261.6 million Pakistan rupees (Rs) (US$ 8.4 million) was spent on health research in the last 5 fiscal years, the majority from local donors (P < 0.02). Overall funding increased from Rs 104.7 million in 2013-2014 to Rs 349.8 million 2017-2018. In publications data, 24 796 original articles were published, including 16 137 Medline and 8659 non-Medline indexed. Overall there was a gradual increase in the number of publications per year, statistically significant for Medline indexed journals. Research funding had a strong correlation (Cronbach α=0.88) with publications. CONCLUSION: Health research funding directly affects health research output. The funding on health research should be considered an investment rather than expenditure.

Assessment of the effect of vacuum-formed retainers and Hawley retainers on periodontal health: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Recently, increasing attention has been paid to the periodontal health of orthodontic patients in the maintenance stage in clinical practice. The focus of this meta-analysis was to compare the effects of vacuum-formed retainers (VFR) and Hawley retainers (HR) on periodontal health, in order to provide a reference for clinical selection. METHODS: From the establishment of the database until November 2020, a large number of databases were searched to find relevant randomized control trials, including the Cochrane Library databases, Embase, PubMed, Medline via Ovi, Web of Science, Scopus, Grey Literature in Europe, Google Scholar and CNKI. Related literature was manually searched and included in the analysis. Two researchers screened the literature according to relevant criteria. The size of the effect was determined using RevMan5.3 software, and the mean difference and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were used to estimate the results using a random effects model. RESULTS: This meta-analysis included six randomized controlled trials involving 304 patients. The results of the meta-analysis showed that there was no statistical difference in sulcus probing depth status between the VFR group and the HR group, including at 1, 3, and 6 months. Compared with the VFR group, the HR group showed a lower gingival index at 1 month (mean difference = 0.12, 95%CI: 0.06 to 0.19) and 3 months (mean difference = 0.11, 95%CI: 0.06 to 0.17), while there was no statistically significant difference at 6 months (mean difference = 0.10, 95%CI: -0.07 to 0.27). The plaque index of the HR group also showed a good state at 1 month (mean difference = 0.06, 95%CI: 0.01 to 0.12), 3 months (mean difference = 0.12, 95%CI: 0.08 to 0.16), and 6 months (mean difference = 0.19, 95%CI: 0.09 to 0.29). Subgroup analysis of PLI showed that when all teeth were measured, PLI status was lower in the HR group at 6 months (mean difference = 0.32, 95%CI: 0.18 to 0.46). PLI status was also low for the other teeth group (mean difference = 0.15, 95%CI: 0.08 to 0.22). CONCLUSION: Our meta-analysis showed that patients using the Hawley retainer had better periodontal health compared with those using vacuum-formed retainers. However, more research is needed to look at the periodontal health of patients using these two retainers.

Quality assessment tools used in systematic reviews of in vitro studies: A systematic review.

BACKGROUND: Systematic reviews (SRs) and meta-analyses (MAs) are commonly conducted to evaluate and summarize medical literature. This is especially useful in assessing in vitro studies for consistency. Our study aims to systematically review all available quality assessment (QA) tools employed on in vitro SRs/MAs. METHOD: A search on four databases, including PubMed, Scopus, Virtual Health Library and Web of Science, was conducted from 2006 to 2020. The available SRs/MAs of in vitro studies were evaluated. DARE tool was applied to assess the risk of bias of included articles. Our protocol was developed and uploaded to ResearchGate in June 2016. RESULTS: Our findings reported an increasing trend in publication of in vitro SRs/MAs from 2007 to 2020. Among the 244 included SRs/MAs, 126 articles (51.6%) had conducted the QA procedure. Overall, 51 QA tools were identified; 26 of them (51%) were developed by the authors specifically, whereas 25 (49%) were pre-constructed tools. SRs/MAs in dentistry frequently had their own QA tool developed by the authors, while SRs/MAs in other topics applied various QA tools. Many pre-structured tools in these in vitro SRs/MAs were modified from QA tools of in vivo or clinical trials, therefore, they had various criteria. CONCLUSION: Many different QA tools currently exist in the literature; however, none cover all critical aspects of in vitro SRs/MAs. There is a need for a comprehensive guideline to ensure the quality of SR/MA due to their precise nature.