BACKGROUND:Evaluation of complex interventions (CI) is challenging for health researchers and requires innovative approaches. The objective of this work is to present the main methods used to evaluate CI.METHODS:A systematic review of the scientific literature was conducted to identify methods used for the evaluation of CI. We searched MEDLINE via ...
Published in BMC Medical Research Methodology
BackgroundSeveral literature reviews have been published focusing on the prevalence and/or preventability of hospital readmissions. To our knowledge, none focused on the different causes which have been used to evaluate the preventability of readmissions. Insight into the range of causes is crucial to understand the complex nature of readmissions.W...
Published in BMC Medical Research Methodology
BackgroundThe Pain Medication Questionnaire (PMQ) assesses the risk of opioid abuse in people with non-oncological chronic pain.MethodsThis is a methodological study conducted at a hemotherapy centre in Recife, Pernambuco state, Brazil. A Cross-cultural adaptation was carried out by a committee of nine specialists, and we applied the PMQ to a pre-f...
Published in BMC Medical Research Methodology
BackgroundWhen conducing Phase-III trial, regulatory agencies and investigators might want to get reliable information about rare but serious safety outcomes during the trial. Bayesian non-inferiority approaches have been developed, but commonly utilize historical placebo-controlled data to define the margin, depend on a single final analysis, and ...
Published in BMC Medical Research Methodology
BackgroundPopulation attributable fractions (PAF) measure the proportion of disease prevalence that would be avoided in a hypothetical population, similar to the population of interest, but where a particular risk factor is eliminated. They are extensively used in epidemiology to quantify and compare disease burden due to various risk factors, and ...
Published in BMC Medical Research Methodology
BackgroundThis article describes a bibliometric review of the scientific production, geographical distribution, collaboration, impact, and subject area focus of pneumonia research indexed on the Web of Science over a 15-year period.MethodsWe searched the Web of Science database using the Medical Subject Heading (MeSH) of “Pneumonia” from January 1,...
Published in BMC Medical Research Methodology
BackgroundAn overarching objective in research comparing different sample groups is to ensure that the reported differences in outcomes are not affected by differences between groups in the functioning of the measurement instruments, i.e. the items have to work in the same way for the different sample groups to be compared. Lack of invariance acros...
Published in BMC Medical Research Methodology
BackgroundIndividual participant data meta-analysis (IPD-MA) is considered the gold standard for investigating subgroup effects. Frequently used regression-based approaches to detect subgroups in IPD-MA are: meta-regression, per-subgroup meta-analysis (PS-MA), meta-analysis of interaction terms (MA-IT), naive one-stage IPD-MA (ignoring potential st...
Published in BMC Medical Research Methodology
BackgroundLong-term clinical outcomes are necessary to assess the cost-effectiveness of new treatments over a lifetime horizon. Without long-term clinical trial data, current practice to extrapolate survival beyond the trial period involves fitting alternative parametric models to the observed survival. Choosing the most appropriate model is based ...
Published in BMC Medical Research Methodology
BackgroundLoneliness and social isolation are major determinants of mental wellbeing, especially among older adults. The effectiveness of interventions to address loneliness and social isolation among older adults has been questioned due to the lack of transparency in identifying and recruiting populations at risk. This paper aims to systematically...
