BMJ open
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Later weekday of surgery for oesophageal cancer seems to increase 5-year mortality, but the mechanisms are unclear. We hypothesised that early postoperative reoperations and mortality might explain this association, since reoperation after oesophagectomy decreases long-term prognosis, and later weekday of elective surgery increases 30-day mortality. ⋯ Weekday of oesophageal cancer surgery does not seem to influence the risk of reoperation or mortality within 30 days of surgery, and thus cannot explain the association between weekday of surgery and long-term prognosis.
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Osteoarthritis is a highly prevalent and disabling condition. Primary care management of osteoarthritis is generally suboptimal despite evidence for several modestly effective interventions and the availability of high-quality clinical practice guidelines. This report describes a planned study to synthesise the views of primary care clinicians on the barriers and enablers to following recommended management of osteoarthritis, with the aim of providing new interpretations that may facilitate the uptake of recommended treatments, and in turn improve patient care. ⋯ CRD42015027543.
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This study was designed to examine the effect of health literacy on diabetes prevention and control and risk factors for low diabetes health literacy among elderly individuals with prediabetes in rural areas in China. ⋯ Health literacy concerning diabetes prevention and control among elderly individuals with prediabetes was very low in rural China. Appropriate health education for elderly individuals with low educational levels should be incorporated into diabetes prevention efforts.
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As the average age of haemodialysis patients rapidly increases around the world, the number of frail, elderly patients has increased. Frailty is well known to be an indicator of disability and a poor prognosis for haemodialysis patients. Exercise interventions have been safely and successfully implemented for middle-aged or younger patients undergoing haemodialysis. However, the benefits of exercise interventions on elderly patients undergoing haemodialysis remain controversial. The main objective of this study is to systematically review the effects of exercise training on the physical function, exercise capacity and quality of life of elderly patients undergoing haemodialysis, and to provide an update on the relevant evidence. ⋯ CRD42015020701.
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Observational Study
Increasing compliance with low tidal volume ventilation in the ICU with two nudge-based interventions: evaluation through intervention time-series analyses.
Low tidal volume (TVe) ventilation improves outcomes for ventilated patients, and the majority of clinicians state they implement it. Unfortunately, most patients never receive low TVes. 'Nudges' influence decision-making with subtle cognitive mechanisms and are effective in many contexts. There have been few studies examining their impact on clinical decision-making. We investigated the impact of 2 interventions designed using principles from behavioural science on the deployment of low TVe ventilation in the intensive care unit (ICU). ⋯ This study has demonstrated that adjustment of default ventilator settings and a dashboard with alerts for excessive TVe can significantly influence clinical decision-making. This offers a promising strategy to improve compliance with low TVe ventilation, and suggests that using insights from behavioural science has potential to improve the translation of evidence into practice.