Plos One
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Meta Analysis
Effects of high and low fat dairy food on cardio-metabolic risk factors: a meta-analysis of randomized studies.
Clear guidelines on the health effects of dairy food are important given the high prevalence of obesity, cardiovascular disease and diabetes, and increasing global consumption of dairy food. ⋯ Increasing whole fat and low fat dairy food consumption increases weight but has minor effects on other cardio-metabolic risk factors.
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Multicenter Study
Delays in appropriate antibiotic therapy for gram-negative bloodstream infections: a multicenter, community hospital study.
Gram-negative bacterial bloodstream infection (BSI) is a serious condition with estimated 30% mortality. Clinical outcomes for patients with severe infections improve when antibiotics are appropriately chosen and given early. The objective of this study was to estimate the association of prior healthcare exposure on time to appropriate antibiotic therapy in patients with gram-negative BSI. ⋯ Patients with healthcare-associated or hospital-acquired BSI experienced delays in receipt of appropriate antibiotics for gram-negative BSI compared to patients with community-acquired BSI. This difference was not due to delayed initiation of antibiotic therapy, but due to the inappropriate choice of antibiotic.
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Meta Analysis
Efficacy of Tai Chi on pain, stiffness and function in patients with osteoarthritis: a meta-analysis.
Whether Tai Chi benefits patients with osteoarthritis remains controversial. We performed a meta-analysis to assess the effectiveness of Tai Chi exercise for pain, stiffness, and physical function in patients with osteoarthritis. ⋯ Twelve-week Tai Chi is beneficial for improving arthritic symptoms and physical function in patients with osteoarthritis and should be included in rehabilitation programs. However, the evidence may be limited by potential biases; thus, larger scale randomized controlled trials are needed to confirm the current findings and investigate the long-term effects of Tai Chi.
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Pain contributes to health care costs, missed work and school, and lower quality of life. Extant research on psychological interventions for pain has focused primarily on developing skills that individuals can apply to manage their pain. Rather than examining internal factors that influence pain tolerance (e.g., pain management skills), the current work examines factors external to an individual that can increase pain tolerance. ⋯ Participants (N = 54) completed a cold pressor test, examined either ibuprofen or a control object, then completed another cold pressor test. In the second test, participants who previously examined ibuprofen reported experiencing less intense pain and tolerated immersion longer (relative to baseline) than those who examined the control object. Theoretical and applied implications of these findings are discussed.
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The historical patterns of opiate use show that sources and methods of access greatly influence who is at risk. Today, there is evidence that an enormous increase in the availability of prescription opiates is fuelling a rise in addiction nationally, drawing in new initiates to these drugs and changing the geography of opiate overdoses. Recent efforts at supply-based reductions in prescription opiates may reduce harm, but addicted individuals may switch to other opiates such as heroin. ⋯ Our hypothesis of fungibility between prescription opiates and heroin was supported by these analyses. These findings suggest that focusing on supply-based interventions may simply lead to a shift in use to heroin rather minimizing the reduction in harm. The alternative approach of using drug abuse prevention resources on treatment and demand-side reduction is likely to be more productive at reducing opiate abuse related harm.