BMJ : British medical journal
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Multicenter Study Comparative Study
Spontaneous preterm birth and small for gestational age infants in women who stop smoking early in pregnancy: prospective cohort study.
To compare pregnancy outcomes between women who stopped smoking in early pregnancy and those who either did not smoke in pregnancy or continued to smoke. ⋯ In women who stopped smoking before 15 weeks' gestation, rates of spontaneous preterm birth and small for gestational age infants did not differ from those in non-smokers, indicating that these severe adverse effects of smoking may be reversible if smoking is stopped early in pregnancy.
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Multicenter Study
Evidence of methodological bias in hospital standardised mortality ratios: retrospective database study of English hospitals.
To assess the validity of case mix adjustment methods used to derive standardised mortality ratios for hospitals, by examining the consistency of relations between risk factors and mortality across hospitals. ⋯ The Dr Foster Unit hospital standardised mortality ratio is derived from an internationally adopted/adapted method, which uses at least two variables (the Charlson comorbidity index and emergency admission) that are unsafe for case mix adjustment because their inclusion may actually increase the very bias that case mix adjustment is intended to reduce. Claims that variations in hospital standardised mortality ratios from Dr Foster Unit reflect differences in quality of care are less than credible.
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Multicenter Study
Comprehensive care and HIV prophylaxis after sexual assault in rural South Africa: the Refentse intervention study.
Although international guidelines specify the central role of the health sector in providing comprehensive care, including HIV post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP), after sexual assault, in both industrialised and developing countries there are many challenges to providing timely and comprehensive services. ⋯ It is possible to improve the quality of care after sexual assault, including HIV prophylaxis, within a rural South African hospital at modest cost, using existing staff. With additional training, nurses can become the primary providers of this care.