Plos One
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Previous reviews estimated that approximately 20 to 25% of assertions cited from original research articles, or "facts," are inaccurately quoted in the medical literature. These reviews noted that the original studies were dissimilar and only began to compare the methods of the original studies. The aim of this review is to examine the methods of the original studies and provide a more specific rate of incorrectly cited assertions, or quotation errors, in original research articles published in medical journals. ⋯ These content errors are predominantly, 64.8% (56.1% to 73.5% at a 95% confidence interval), major errors or cited assertions in which the referenced source either fails to substantiate, is unrelated to, or contradicts the assertion. Minor errors, which are an oversimplification, overgeneralization, or trivial inaccuracies, are 35.2% (26.5% to 43.9% at a 95% confidence interval). Additionally, improper secondary (or indirect) citations, which are distinguished from calculations of quotation accuracy, occur at a rate of 10.4% (3.4% to 17.5% at a 95% confidence interval).
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Observational Study
Endotheliopathy is associated with higher levels of cell-free DNA following major trauma: A prospective observational study.
Cell free deoxyribonucleic acid (cfDNA) has been proposed as a biomarker of secondary complications following trauma. Raised thrombomodulin and syndecan-1 levels have been used to indicate endotheliopathy, and are associated with inflammation, coagulopathy, and mortality. The current study aimed to analyse the association between cfDNA and biomarkers of endotheliopathy in a cohort of trauma patients, and whether raised levels of cfDNA were associated with poorer clinical outcomes. ⋯ Raised cfDNA levels are associated with markers of endotheliopathy following trauma, and are associated with mortality. This relationship is present within the first hour of injury, and a change in one biomarker level is reflected by similar changes in the others. These findings are in keeping with the hypothesis that circulating DNA and endothelial injury share a common pathway following trauma.
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Irreproducibility of preclinical biomedical research has gained recent attention. It is suggested that requiring authors to complete a checklist at the time of manuscript submission would improve the quality and transparency of scientific reporting, and ultimately enhance reproducibility. Whether a checklist enhances quality and transparency in reporting preclinical animal studies, however, has not been empirically studied. ⋯ Specifically, improvement in reporting of the three methodological information was at least three times greater when a mandatory checklist was implemented than when it was not. Reporting the sex of animals and the number of independent experiments performed also improved from 2013 to 2015, likely from factors not related to a checklist. Our study demonstrates that completing a checklist at manuscript submission is associated with improved reporting of key methodological information in preclinical animal studies.
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Back pain and type 2 diabetes often co-occur, resulting in greater impact on people's health and complexity in their care. Plausible causal mechanisms for this association have been proposed, yet the nature of the link remains unclear. We therefore explored the direction of the association between type 2 diabetes and chronic back pain in twins, controlling for genetics and early environmental confounding. ⋯ Chronic back pain (spinal pain, NP, or LBP) was associated with the prevalence of type 2 diabetes. Associations are stronger for severe cases of pain. Future research should investigate the temporal relationships between these conditions with longer follow up in twins.
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Community-based palliative care is known to be associated with reduced acute care health service use. Our objective was to investigate how reduced acute care hospital use in the last year of life varied temporally and by patient factors. ⋯ Rates of hospital admission during periods of receiving community-based palliative care were reduced with benefits evident five months before death and even earlier for older decedents. The mean length of hospital stay was also reduced while receiving community-based palliative care, mostly in the last month of life.