Journal of evaluation in clinical practice
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Waiting list randomized controlled trial within a case-finding design: methodological considerations.
Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are widely used in health care research to provide high-quality evidence of effectiveness of an intervention. However, sometimes a study does not require an RCT in order to answer its primary objective; a case-finding design may be more appropriate. The aim of this paper was to introduce a new study design that nests a waiting list RCT within a case-finding study. ⋯ The design addresses patient preference issues and recruitment issues that can arise in other trial designs. Potential limitations include differential attrition between study groups and potential demoralization for the 'intervention later' group. The 'waiting list case-finding trial' design is a valuable method that could be applied to case-finding studies; the design enables the case-finding component of a study to be maintained while simultaneously exploring additional hypotheses through conducting a trial.
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Measuring self-reported adherence may contribute to minimizing the risk of therapy failure. Hence, the main aim of the study was to assess the psychometric properties of the Czech version of Medication Adherence Report Scale (MARS-CZ) and its appropriateness for use in long-term statin therapy where goal levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-c) should be achieved. ⋯ This study proved MARS-CZ as an acceptable self-reported adherence measure. In routine clinical practice, MARS-CZ could be helpful to reveal medication non-adherence before the alteration of drug regimen and thereby contributing to enhancement of statin therapy management.
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This article examines costs to treat latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) in an urban clinic population and highlights the potential effectiveness of an alternative transitional treatment regimen. ⋯ Future work should more carefully assess the clinical attributes, including effectiveness, of treatment with 9INH and transitional 4RIF as alternative treatment for LTBI.
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The prenatal education promotes the empowerment of parents during pregnancy and postnatal period. This study aimed to assess the quality of educational sessions held in the third trimester of pregnancy as part of the parenting education programme for Spanish National Health System in Madrid. ⋯ No jobs found with which to compare. The assessment of the programme with adequate psychometric characteristics questionnaire allows designing strategies and research to improve the quality of prenatal education.
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This study aimed to determine if urologists' feelings on prostate cancer screening with prostate-specific antigen (PSA) and treatment on themselves are consistent with what they recommend to patients. ⋯ Despite recommendations from the American Urologic Association to screen men for prostate cancer, a significant percentage of urologists do not wish to be screened with PSA. Almost all, however, continue to recommend prostate cancer screening for their patients. Treatment recommendations also varied among the respondents.