Journal of clinical epidemiology
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To determine the accuracy of clinical features in diagnosing vertebral fracture in low back pain patients and assess the psychometric properties of the Quality Assessment of Studies of Diagnostic Accuracy Included in Systematic Reviews (QUADAS) scale. ⋯ Five clinical features were identified that can be used to screen for vertebral fracture. The psychometric properties of the QUADAS scale raise concerns about its use to rate the quality of low back pain diagnosis studies.
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Multicenter Study
Questionnaire order significantly increased response to a postal survey sent to primary care physicians.
Primary care physicians are increasingly being asked to participate in postal surveys. Difficulties in achieving adequate response rates among physicians have been reported. We investigated the effect of two low-cost interventions on response to a primary care physician postal questionnaire. ⋯ Ordering questionnaires with general questions first can significantly increase response rates, whereas precontact can achieve a modest increase. These strategies may enhance response while adding little to the cost of a physician survey.
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To develop indexes of multimorbidity, based on self-reported data, to predict mortality, health service use, help with activities of daily living (ADL), and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in older women. ⋯ These multimorbidity indexes predict mortality, health service use, help with ADL, and HRQOL in older women. The indexes could be used as covariates in research with weighted scores having a better chance of discriminating between patient groups than unweighted scores.