Journal of clinical epidemiology
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To assess how trial information reported in conference abstracts differs to their subsequent full publication. ⋯ The information given for trials in conference proceedings can be unstable, especially for trials presenting early or preliminary results, and needs to be improved.
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Malnutrition is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in advanced colorectal cancer, and little is known about its relationship with quality of life (QoL). We investigated the relationship between nutritional status and QoL in colorectal cancer. ⋯ This study suggests that malnutrition is associated with poor QoL, as measured by the QLQ-C30 in colorectal cancer.
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(1) to evaluate the performance of emergency department triage; (2) to explore the variability of the triage process; and (3) to examine the reliability of a four-level triage scale, using an interactive triage simulator. ⋯ The computerized triage simulator is an innovative tool to evaluate the process and the performance of triage and to evaluate the reliability of a triage instrument.
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Measures of shoulder function may differ by dominance of affected shoulder, surgical history, gender, or race. We present a technique for determining whether observed differences in function between groups are due to biased test items or real differences in function. ⋯ In this pool of shoulder function items, adjustment for DIF made almost no difference in measures of function across demographic groups.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study
Postal surveys of physicians gave superior response rates over telephone interviews in a randomized trial.
To compare general practitioner (GP) response to a telephone interview with response to a postal survey with three reminders in a randomized controlled trial. ⋯ These results show that postal surveys with three reminders can have superior response rates compared with a telephone interview.