Journal of evaluation in clinical practice
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Clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) should provide busy health care professionals with easy-to-use tools that support efficient uptake of current best evidence in daily clinical practice. However, CPG uptake rarely occurs at the speed of evidence production. The aim of this study was to explore the factors influencing CPG uptake among South African (SA) physiotherapists (PTs). ⋯ The findings of this study generally concur with previous studies about PT barriers to CPG uptake; however, it provides novel information on barrier contexts in one LMIC with complex PT service delivery.
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Bereavement care practice guidelines assist in delivering high-quality bereavement care. However, the quality of published guidelines is unknown. A systematic review was conducted to identify and evaluate the quality of the process used to develop bereavement care practice guidelines using the Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation (AGREE II) instrument. ⋯ The domains "clarity of presentation" and "scope and purpose" achieved the highest scores (mean ± SD 71.0 ± 27.6% and 64.4 ± 37.5%, respectively), while "editorial independence" showed the lowest mean score (9.2 ± 13.3%). While few of the bereavement care practice guidelines met the AGREE II quality standards related to their development process, neither the quality of the content of each guideline nor the in-context application was assessed by the AGREE II instrument. Ongoing development of practice guidelines may benefit from consideration and application of the framework outlined in the AGREE II or similar appraisal instrument.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Perioperative analgesia with parecoxib sodium improves postoperative pain and immune function in patients undergoing hepatectomy for hepatocellular carcinoma.
Acute postoperative pain can result in immune dysfunction, which can be partly mitigated by efficient pain management. Opioids that have been widely applied to analgesia have been shown to suppress immune function, which has a negative impact on the treatment of patients with cancer. This study investigated the effects of perioperative fentanyl analgesia alone or in combination with parecoxib sodium on postoperative pain, immune function, and prognosis in patients undergoing hepatectomy of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). ⋯ The present study indicated that perioperative analgesia of parecoxib sodium combined with patient-controlled analgesic fentanyl resulted in better preserved immune function with enhancement of the analgesic efficacy to fentanyl alone of HCC patients undergoing hepatectomy and helped postpone postoperative tumour recurrence.
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In the absence of a Teratology Information Service in Belgium, the National Poison Centre might act as a substitute centre for answering pregnancy- and lactation-related questions regarding medication use. The aim of this study was to define the prevalence and characteristics of pregnancy- and lactation-related calls to the National Poison Centre in Belgium, as well as the type of health products involved during these calls. ⋯ The Belgian Poison Centre received almost daily calls from patients and health care professionals on medication exposure during pregnancy and lactation. These findings underline the importance of evidence-based counselling of pregnant and lactating women and should encourage health care professionals to engage themselves more actively when counselling on the rational use of medicines during pregnancy and lactation. The findings also contribute to the ongoing discussion to establish a Teratology Information Service in Belgium.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Unconditional and conditional monetary incentives to increase response to mailed questionnaires: A randomized controlled study within a trial (SWAT).
High response rates to research questionnaires can help to ensure results are more representative of the population studied and provide increased statistical power, on which the study may have been predicated. Improving speed and quality of response can reduce costs. ⋯ Unconditional monetary incentives can produce a transitory greater likelihood of mailed questionnaire response in a clinical trial participant group, consistent with the direction of effect in other settings. However, this could have been a chance finding. The use of multiple strategies to promote response may have created a ceiling effect. This strategy has potential to reduce administrative and postage costs, weighed against the cost of incentives used, but could risk compromising the completeness of data.