Journal of clinical epidemiology
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Randomized Controlled Trial
The agreement between proxy and self-completed EQ-5D for care home residents was better for index scores than individual domains.
Proxy measures are an alternative source of data for care home residents who are unable to complete the health utility measure, but the agreement levels between residents and care home staff for the EQ-5D have not been investigated previously. The objective of the present study was to examine the inter-rater agreement levels for the reporting of EQ-5D by care home residents and staff, adjusting for the impact of clustering. ⋯ Proxies appear to be an acceptable source of data for index scores and QALYs but may be less reliable if individual domains are considered.
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Review
Lack of blinding of outcome assessors in animal model experiments implies risk of observer bias.
To examine the impact of not blinding outcome assessors on estimates of intervention effects in animal experiments modeling human clinical conditions. ⋯ Lack of blinding of outcome assessors in animal model experiments with subjective outcomes implies a considerable risk of observer bias.
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Prognostication is difficult in a diverse patient population or when outcomes depend on multiple factors. This study derived and internally validated a model to predict risk of death from any cause within 1 year of admission to hospital. ⋯ Routinely collected administrative data can be used to accurately predict 1-year death risk in adults admitted to nonpsychiatric hospital services.
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There is evidence to suggest that component randomized controlled trials (RCTs) within systematic reviews may be biased. It is important that these reviews are identified to prevent erroneous conclusions influencing health care policies and decisions. ⋯ Most of the sample of recent meta-analyses showed that there were signs of imbalance and/or heterogeneity in ages between treatment groups, when there should have been none. Systematic reviewers might consider using the techniques described here to assess the validity of their findings.
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Network meta-analyses (NMAs) aim to rank the benefits (or harms) of interventions, based on all available randomized controlled trials. Thus, the identification of relevant data is critical. We assessed the conduct of the literature searches in NMAs. ⋯ Literature searches in NMAs could be improved by searching more sources, and by involving a librarian or information specialist.