Journal of general internal medicine
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Review Meta Analysis
The Effect of Advance Care Planning on Heart Failure: a Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.
Advance care planning is widely advocated to improve outcomes in end-of-life care for patients suffering from heart failure. But until now, there has been no systematic evaluation of the impact of advance care planning (ACP) on clinical outcomes. Our aim was to determine the effect of ACP in heart failure through a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs). ⋯ ACP improved quality of life, patient satisfaction with end-of-life care and the quality of end-of-life communication for patients suffering from heart failure and could be most effective when the right timing, follow-up and involvement of important others was considered.
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Eating disorders affect upwards of 30 million people worldwide and often go undertreated and underdiagnosed. The purpose of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of the Sick, Control, One, Fat and Food (SCOFF) questionnaire for DSM-5 eating disorders in the general population. ⋯ This meta-analysis of 25 validation studies demonstrates that the SCOFF is a simple and useful screening tool for young women at risk for AN and BN. However, there is not enough evidence to support utilizing the SCOFF for screening for the range of DSM-5 eating disorders in primary care and community-based settings. Further examination of the validity of the SCOFF or development of a new screening tool, or multiple tools, to screen for the range of DSM-5 eating disorders heterogenous populations is warranted.
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Lumbar radiculopathy is characterized by radiating pain with or without motor weakness or sensory disturbances; the point prevalence ranges from 1.6 to 13.4%. The objective of this review was to determine the efficacy, safety, and cost of surgical versus nonsurgical management of symptomatic lumbar radiculopathy in adults. ⋯ Most findings are based on a body of RCT evidence graded as low to very low certainty. Compared with nonsurgical interventions, surgery probably reduces pain and improves function in the short- and medium-term, but this difference does not persist in the long-term. Although surgery appears to be safe, it may or may not be cost-effective depending on a decision maker's willingness to pay threshold.