Introduction: Oral health care of older people in long-term care facilities is insufficient, stressing the need for clear evidence-based implementation strategies to improve oral care. In 2013, a systematic review was performed and new evidence was published. This study aimed to gain insights into implementation strategies used to promote or improve oral health care for older people in long-term care facilities, explore their effectiveness and uncover strategy content in behavioral change techniques, and report the differences between the current results and those of the 2013 study. Methods: A systematic review of the literature according to PRISMA guidelines and meta-analyses of implementation strategies were performed. Cochrane Library, PubMed, and CINAHL databases were searched for papers published between 2011 and 2023. Strategies were identified using the Coding Manual for Behavioral Change Techniques. Meta-analyses of oral health outcomes (“plaque” and “denture plaque”) were performed with random-effects models using R language for statistical computing. Results: 16 studies were included in the current results; 20 studies were included in the 2013 findings. More high-quality studies (67 %) were included in this review than in 2013 (47 %). Dental care professionals were involved in 14 of the 16 studies. Fourteen of the 16 studies used and/ or combined five or more different implementation strategies: knowledge, intention, awareness, self-efficacy, attitude, and facilitation of behavior. Implementation positively affected the knowledge and attitudes of the nursing staff; however, the oral health of older people did not necessarily improve. In the 2013 review, more studies indicated combined oral health measurements were effective (71 %) than in the current review (20 %–33 %). Meta-analysis of four studies on dental plaque (0—3 scale) showed a significant, statistically small mean difference of -.21 (CI -.36; -.07, Cohen's d -.29) between the control and treatment group. Meta-analysis of three studies on denture plaque (0—4 scale), showed a significant, statistically large mean difference of -.76 (CI -1.48; -.05, Cohen's d -.88). Conclusions: In this review, more implementation strategies and combinations were used to implement oral care in long-term care. Implementation strategies positively affected the knowledge and attitudes of nursing staff; however, the oral health of older people did not necessarily improve. Meta-analyses on plaque showed that oral care implementations are effective; for denture plaque, the effect size was large and thus may have more clinical value than for dental plaque.
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Music interventions are used for stress reduction in a variety of settings because of the positive effects of music listening on both physiological arousal (e.g., heart rate, blood pressure, and hormonal levels) and psychological stress experiences (e.g., restlessness, anxiety, and nervousness). To summarize the growing body of empirical research, two multilevel meta-analyses of 104 RCTs, containing 327 effect sizes and 9,617 participants, were performed to assess the strength of the effects of music interventions on both physiological and psychological stress-related outcomes, and to test the potential moderators of the intervention effects. Results showed that music interventions had an overall significant effect on stress reduction in both physiological (d = .380) and psychological (d = .545) outcomes. Further, moderator analyses showed that the type of outcome assessment moderated the effects of music interventions on stress-related outcomes. Larger effects were found on heart rate (d = .456), compared to blood pressure (d = .343) and hormone levels (d = .349). Implications for stress-reducing music interventions are discussed.
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Background: Emergency department utilization has increased tremendously over the past years, which is accompanied by an increased necessity for emergency medicine research to support clinical practice. Important sources of evidence are systematic reviews (SRs) and meta-analyses (MAs), but these can only be informative provided their quality is sufficiently high, which can only be assessed if reporting is adequate. The purpose of this study was to assess the quality of reporting of SRs and MAs in emergency medicine using the PRISMA statement. Methods: The top five emergency medicine related journals were selected using the 5-year impact factor of the ISI Web of Knowledge of 2015. All SRs and MAs published in these journals between 2015 and 2016 were extracted and assessed independently by two reviewers on compliance with each item of the PRISMA statement. Results: The included reviews (n = 112) reported a mean of 18 ± 4 items of the PRISMA statement adequately. Reviews mentioning PRISMA adherence did not show better reporting than review without mention of adherence (mean 18.6 (SE 0.4) vs. mean 17.8 (SE 0.5); p = 0.214). Reviews published in journals recommending or requiring adherence to a reporting guideline showed better quality of reporting than journals without such instructions (mean 19.2 (SE 0.4) vs. mean 17.2 (SE 0.5); p = 0.001). Conclusion: There is room for improvement of the quality of reporting of SRs and MAs within the emergency medicine literature. Therefore, authors should use a reporting guideline such as the PRISMA statement. Active journal implementation, by requiring PRISMA endorsement, enhances quality of reporting.
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Active learning has become an increasingly popular method for screening large amounts of data in systematic reviews and meta-analyses. The active learning process continually improves its predictions on the remaining unlabeled records, with the goal of identifying all relevant records as early as possible. However, determining the optimal point at which to stop the active learning process is a challenge. The cost of additional labeling of records by the reviewer must be balanced against the cost of erroneous exclusions. This paper introduces the SAFE procedure, a practical and conservative set of stopping heuristics that offers a clear guideline for determining when to end the active learning process in screening software like ASReview. The eclectic mix of stopping heuristics helps to minimize the risk of missing relevant papers in the screening process. The proposed stopping heuristic balances the costs of continued screening with the risk of missing relevant records, providing a practical solution for reviewers to make informed decisions on when to stop screening. Although active learning can significantly enhance the quality and efficiency of screening, this method may be more applicable to certain types of datasets and problems. Ultimately, the decision to stop the active learning process depends on careful consideration of the trade-off between the costs of additional record labeling against the potential errors of the current model for the specific dataset and context.
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BackgroundICU patients lose muscle mass rapidly and maintenance of muscle mass may contribute to improved survival rates and quality of life. Protein provision may be beneficial for preservation of muscle mass and other clinical outcomes, including survival. Current protein recommendations are expert-based and range from 1.2 to 2.0 g/kg. Thus, we performed a systematic review and meta-analysis on protein provision and all clinically relevant outcomes recorded in the available literature.MethodsWe conducted a systematic review and meta-analyses, including studies of all designs except case control and case studies, with patients aged ≥18 years with an ICU stay of ≥2 days and a mean protein provision group of ≥1.2 g/kg as compared to <1.2 g/kg with a difference of ≥0.2 g/kg between protein provision groups. All clinically relevant outcomes were studied. Meta-analyses were performed for all clinically relevant outcomes that were recorded in ≥3 included studies.ResultsA total of 29 studies published between 2012 and 2022 were included. Outcomes reported in the included studies were ICU, hospital, 28-day, 30-day, 42-day, 60-day, 90-day and 6-month mortality, ICU and hospital length of stay, duration of mechanical ventilation, vomiting, diarrhea, gastric residual volume, pneumonia, overall infections, nitrogen balance, changes in muscle mass, destination at hospital discharge, physical performance and psychological status. Meta-analyses showed differences between groups in favour of high protein provision for 60-day mortality, nitrogen balance and changes in muscle mass.ConclusionHigh protein provision of more than 1.2 g/kg in critically ill patients seemed to improve nitrogen balance and changes in muscle mass on the short-term and likely 60-day mortality. Data on long-term effects on quality of life are urgently needed.
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Sexual interest in children is an important factor contributing to sexual (re)offending against children. The current state of research makes it difficult to conclude if people with pedophilia are overly interested in children, or have lower interest in adults, or both. This is relevant knowledge in treatment for preventing sexual (re)offenses against children. This study aimed to systematically analyze sexual interest in both children and adults in samples of men with pedophilia and comparison groups. A total of 55 studies (N = 8465) were included in four meta-analyses and a systematic review. Most included studies considered people who had sexually offended against children (PSOC; nPSOC = 5213). Results indicated that PSOC with pedophilia did not have a clear sexual preference for either children or adults. Compared to comparison groups, they had more absolute sexual interest in children and lower sexual interest in adults. We conclude that the lack of sexual interest in adults may be a relevant factor in PSOC with pedophilia. More studies are needed to disentangle sexual interest in children from sexual interest in adults, while using carefully matched comparison groups and appropriate research designs.
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Purpose: Literature detailing the effectiveness of school-based physical activity promotion in- terventions in prevocational adolescents was reviewed to identify effective intervention characteristics.Methods: The search strategy assessed studies against inclusion criteria study design, study population, school setting, language, and construct. The risk of bias of the included studies was assessed, and extractions were made of the physical activity (PA) level outcome measures and intervention characteristics regarding organizational, social, and content features. A meta-analysis was conducted to determine the overall effect of the interventions on the PA level. Identification of effective intervention characteristics was done by subgroup analyses. Meta-regression analysis was performed with PA level as dependent variable and intervention characteristics as covariates. Results: A total of 40 eligible studies was included for meta-analyses. Among the included studies, the overall intervention effect on increasing the PA level of prevocational adolescents was weak (standardized mean difference [SMD] .19, 95% confidence interval [CI] .12e.27). Intervention characteristics that improve the effect size to a moderate level were intracurricular PA (SMD .43, 95% CI .19e.68), involving school staff in an intracurricular intervention (SMD .37, 95% CI .16e.58) and a tailored intracurricular intervention (SMD .35, 95% CI .13e.58). Meta-regression analysis confirmed PA as a positive predictor.Conclusions: The effect of a school-based PA intervention was small to moderate. A sensible choice in the assembly of a multicomponent school-based PA intervention increases the effectiveness considerably. Physical education teachers, school administrators, and policy makers should consider organizational (intracurriculum, short and medium duration), personal (tailoring, participation), social (school staff) and content (PA) determinants.
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OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the effects of exercise interventions on sleep disturbances and sleep quality in patients with mixed cancer diagnoses, and identify demographic, clinical, and intervention-related moderators of these effects.METHODS: Individual patient data (IPD) and aggregated meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Using data from the Predicting OptimaL cAncer RehabIlitation and Supportive care project, IPD of 2173 adults (mean age = 54.8) with cancer from 17 RCTs were analyzed. A complementary systematic search was conducted (until November 2018) to study the overall effects and test the representativeness of analyzed IPD. Effect sizes of exercise effects on self-reported sleep outcomes were calculated for all included RCTs. Linear mixed-effect models were used to evaluate the effects of exercise on post-intervention outcome values, adjusting for baseline values. Moderator effects were studied by testing interactions for demographic, clinical and intervention-related characteristics.RESULTS: For all 27 eligible RCTs from the updated search, exercise interventions significantly decreased sleep disturbances in adults with cancer (g = -0.09, 95% CI [-0.16; -0.02]). No significant effect was obtained for sleep quality. RCTs included in IPD analyses constituted a representative sample of the published literature. The intervention effects on sleep disturbances were not significantly moderated by any demographic, clinical, or intervention-related factor, nor by sleep disturbances.CONCLUSIONS: This meta-analysis provides some evidence that, compared to control conditions, exercise interventions may improve sleep disturbances, but not sleep quality, in cancer patients, although this effect is of a small magnitude. Among the investigated variables, none was found to significantly moderate the effect of exercise interventions on sleep disturbances.
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Active learning has become an increasingly popular method for screening large amounts of data in systematic reviews and meta-analyses. The active learning process continually improves its predictions on the remaining unlabeled records, with the goal of identifying all relevant records as early as possible. However, determining the optimal point at which to stop the active learning process is a challenge. The cost of additional labeling of records by the reviewer must be balanced against the cost of erroneous exclusions. This paper introduces the SAFE procedure, a practical and conservative set of stopping heuristics that offers a clear guideline for determining when to end the active learning process in screening software like ASReview. The eclectic mix of stopping heuristics helps to minimize the risk of missing relevant papers in the screening process. The proposed stopping heuristic balances the costs of continued screening with the risk of missing relevant records, providing a practical solution for reviewers to make informed decisions on when to stop screening. Although active learning can significantly enhance the quality and efficiency of screening, this method may be more applicable to certain types of datasets and problems. Ultimately, the decision to stop the active learning process depends on careful consideration of the trade-off between the costs of additional record labeling against the potential errors of the current model for the specific dataset and context.
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Background: Sarcopenic obesity (SO) is an increasing phenomenon and has been linked to several negative health consequences. The aim of this umbrella review is the assessment of effectiveness and certainty of evidence of nutrition and exercise interventions in persons with SO. Method: We searched for meta-analyses of RCTs in PubMed, EMBASE and CENTRAL that had been conducted in the last five years, focusing on studies on the treatment and prevention of SO. The primary endpoints were parameters for SO, such as body fat in %, skeletal muscle mass index (SMMI), gait speed, leg strength and grip strength. The methodological quality was evaluated using AMSTAR and the certainty of evidence was assessed using GRADE. Results: Four systematic reviews with between 30 to 225 participants were included in the umbrella review. These examined four exercise interventions, two nutrition interventions and four interventions that combined nutrition and exercise. Resistance training was the most frequently studied intervention and was found to improve gait speed by 0.14 m/s to 0.17 m/s and lower leg strength by 9.97 kg. Resistance, aerobic, mixed exercise and hypocaloric diet combined with protein supplementation is not significantly effective on selected outcomes for persons with SO compared to no intervention. The low number of primary studies included in the reviews resulted in moderate to very low certainty of evidence. Conclusion: Despite the lack in certainty of evidence, resistance training may be a suitable intervention for persons with SO, in particular for improving muscle function. Nevertheless, further research is necessary to strengthen the evidence.
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