Bmc Med Res Methodol
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Bmc Med Res Methodol · Jul 2012
Adjusting for under-identification of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander births in time series produced from birth records: using record linkage of survey data and administrative data sources.
Statistical time series derived from administrative data sets form key indicators in measuring progress in addressing disadvantage in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations in Australia. However, inconsistencies in the reporting of Indigenous status can cause difficulties in producing reliable indicators. External data sources, such as survey data, provide a means of assessing the consistency of administrative data and may be used to adjust statistics based on administrative data sources. ⋯ Record linkage of survey data to administrative data sets is useful to validate the quality of recording of demographic information in administrative data sources, and such information can be used to adjust for differential identification in administrative data.
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Bmc Med Res Methodol · Jun 2012
Investigating hospital heterogeneity with a multi-state frailty model: application to nosocomial pneumonia disease in intensive care units.
Multistate models have become increasingly useful to study the evolution of a patient's state over time in intensive care units ICU (e.g. admission, infections, alive discharge or death in ICU). In addition, in critically-ill patients, data come from different ICUs, and because observations are clustered into groups (or units), the observed outcomes cannot be considered as independent. Thus a flexible multi-state model with random effects is needed to obtain valid outcome estimates. ⋯ The use of multistate frailty models allows the analysis of very complex data. Such models could help improve the estimation of the impact of proposed prognostic features on each transition in a multi-centre study. We suggest a method and software that give accurate estimates and enables inference for any parameter or predictive quantity of interest.
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Bmc Med Res Methodol · May 2012
LetterBridging knowledge translation gap in health in developing countries: visibility, impact and publishing standards in journals from the Eastern Mediterranean.
Local and regional scientific journals are important factors in bridging gaps in health knowledge translation in low-and middle-income countries. We assessed indexing, citations and publishing standards of journals from the Eastern Mediterranean region. ⋯ Journals from the Eastern Mediterranean are visible in and have impact on global scientific community. Coordinated effort of all stakeholders in journal publishing, including researchers, journal editors and owners, policy makers and citation databases, is needed to further promote local journals as windows to the research in the developing world and the doors for valuable regional research to the global scientific community.
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Bmc Med Res Methodol · May 2012
Systematic review of methods used in meta-analyses where a primary outcome is an adverse or unintended event.
Adverse consequences of medical interventions are a source of concern, but clinical trials may lack power to detect elevated rates of such events, while observational studies have inherent limitations. Meta-analysis allows the combination of individual studies, which can increase power and provide stronger evidence relating to adverse events. However, meta-analysis of adverse events has associated methodological challenges. The aim of this study was to systematically identify and review the methodology used in meta-analyses where a primary outcome is an adverse or unintended event, following a therapeutic intervention. ⋯ Meta-analyses of adverse events data are common and useful in terms of increasing the power to detect an association with an intervention, especially when the events are infrequent. However, with regard to existing meta-analyses, a wide variety of different methods have been employed, often with no evident rationale for using a particular approach. More specifically, the approach to dealing with zero events varies, and guidelines on this issue would be desirable.
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Bmc Med Res Methodol · Apr 2012
Using record linkage to monitor equity and variation in screening programmes.
Ecological or survey based methods to investigate screening uptake rates are fraught with many limitations which can be circumvented by record linkage between Census and health services datasets using variations in breast screening attendance as an exemplar. The aim of this current study is to identify the demographic, socio-economic factors associated with uptake of breast screening. ⋯ Linkage of screening data to Census-based longitudinal studies is an efficient and powerful way to increase the evidence base on sources of variation in screening uptake within the UK.