Bias ; Coronavirus Infections ; epidemiology ; transmission ; Humans ; Pandemics ; Pneumonia, Viral ; epidemiology ; transmission ; Uncertainty

Arm ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Bias (Epidemiology) ; Carboplatin ; Disease-Free Survival ; Doxorubicin ; Drug Therapy ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Maintenance Chemotherapy ; Ovarian Neoplasms ; Prognosis ; Quality of Life ; Recombination, Genetic ; Sample Size

bias of 0.005 (95% CI −0.011 to 0.021) with 95% limits of agreement of −0.16 to 0.17 between vFFR and FFR. The accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value were 78.0%, 87.1%, 72.5%, 58.7%, and 92.6%, respectively, using the FFR cutoff of 0.80. They were 87.0%, 95.0%, 80.0%, 54.3%, and 98.5%, respectively, with the FFR cutoff of 0.75. The area under the receiver-operating characteristics curve of vFFR versus obstructive CTA stenosis was 0.88 versus 0.61 for the FFR cutoff of 0.80, respectively; it was 0.94 versus 0.62 for the FFR cutoff of 0.75.CONCLUSION: Our novel, fully automated, on-site vFFR technology showed excellent diagnostic performance for the detection of lesion-specific ischemia.]]>
Angiography ; Bias (Epidemiology) ; Constriction, Pathologic ; Coronary Angiography ; Fractional Flow Reserve, Myocardial ; Humans ; Ischemia ; Patient-Specific Modeling ; Sensitivity and Specificity

bias. In addition, there were no significant differences in intensive care unit (ICU) mortality, in-hospital mortality, 28-day mortality, or ICU length of stay between the groups.CONCLUSION: Discontinuing NE prior to AVP was associated with a lower incidence of hypotension in patients recovering from septic shock. However, our results should be interpreted with caution, due to the considerable between-study heterogeneity.]]>
Arginine Vasopressin ; Arginine ; Bias (Epidemiology) ; Consensus ; Hospital Mortality ; Humans ; Hypotension ; Incidence ; Intensive Care Units ; Length of Stay ; Mortality ; Norepinephrine ; Odds Ratio ; Population Characteristics ; Sepsis ; Shock, Septic ; Treatment Outcome ; Vasoconstrictor Agents

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is considered a primary driver of global mortality and is estimated to be responsible for approximately 17.9 million deaths annually. Consequently, a substantial body of research related to CVD has developed, with an emphasis on identifying strategies for the prevention and effective treatment of CVD. In this review, we critically examine the existing CVD literature, and specifically highlight the contribution of Mendelian randomization analyses in CVD research. Throughout this review, we assess the extent to which research findings agree across a range of studies of differing design within a triangulation framework. If differing study designs are subject to non-overlapping sources of bias, consistent findings limit the extent to which results are merely an artefact of study design. Consequently, broad agreement across differing studies can be viewed as providing more robust causal evidence in contrast to limiting the scope of the review to a single specific study design. Utilising the triangulation approach, we highlight emerging patterns in research findings, and explore the potential of identified risk factors as targets for precision medicine and novel interventions.
Artifacts ; Bias (Epidemiology) ; Cardiovascular Diseases ; Mendelian Randomization Analysis ; Mortality ; Precision Medicine ; Random Allocation ; Risk Factors

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify nursing interventions for the postpartum breast care of mothers and determine the effectiveness of interventions for breast pain and engorgement by systematic review. METHODS: Eight national and international databases were reviewed to retrieve and collect randomized controlled trial and controlled clinical trial literature published up to March 2015. Two reviewers independently selected the studies and performed data abstraction and validation. The risk of bias was assessed using Cochrane criteria. A meta-analysis of the studies was performed to analyze the data. RESULTS: The meta-analysis showed that breast massage, along with routine breast care, resulted in a 3.52-point reduction in pain on a 10-point visual analogue scale. Meta-analysis of therapy with cold cabbage leaves and routine breast care showed a pain reduction of 0.54 points. Meta-analysis of cold cabbage leaf application in the experimental group versus cold compress therapy in the comparison group showed a pain reduction of 0.44 points. Meta-analysis of cold cabbage leaf application and routine breast care showed an engorgement reduction of 0.67 points. CONCLUSION: The results of the analysis of 12 articles showed that hot and cold compresses, breast massage, and cabbage application were effective for postpartum breast pain and engorgement.
Bias (Epidemiology) ; Brassica ; Breast ; Humans ; Massage ; Mastodynia ; Mothers ; Nursing ; Postpartum Period

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: The objectives of this study were to evaluate the accuracy of the Dietary Reference Intakes (DRI) for estimating the energy requirements of older adults, and to develop and validate new equations for predicting the energy requirements of this population group. MATERIALS/METHODS: The study subjects were 25 men and 23 women with a mean age of 72.2 ± 3.9 years and 70.0 ± 3.3 years, and mean BMI of 24.0 ± 2.1 and 23.9 ± 2.7, respectively. The total energy expenditure (TEE) was measured by using the doubly labeled water (DLW) method, and used to validate the DRI predictive equations for estimated energy requirements (EER) and to develop new EER predictive equations. These developed equations were cross-validated by using the leave-one-out technique. RESULTS: In men, the DRI equation had a −7.2% bias and accurately predicted the EER (meaning EER values within ±10% of the measured TEE) for 64% of the subjects, whereas our developed equation had a bias of −0.1% and an accuracy rate of 84%. In women, the bias was −6.6% for the DRI equation and 0.2% for our developed equation, and the accuracy rate was 74% and 83%, respectively. The predicted EER was strongly correlated with the measured TEE, for both the DRI equations and our developed equations (Pearson's r = 0.915 and 0.908, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: The DRI equations provided an acceptable prediction of EER in older adults and these study results therefore support the use of these equations in this population group. Our developed equations had a better predictive accuracy than the DRI equations, but more studies need to be performed to assess the performance of these new equations when applied to an independent sample of older adults.
Adult ; Aged ; Bias (Epidemiology) ; Energy Metabolism ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Methods ; Nutritional Requirements ; Population Groups ; Recommended Dietary Allowances ; Water

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Lower circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] levels are associated with a higher risk of hypertension (HTN); however, it remains unclear whether the relationship is causal. We aimed to evaluate the causal effects of circulating 25(OH)D levels on the prevalence of HTN in the Korean population using the Mendelian randomization (MR) approach. SUBJECTS/METHODS: Epidemiological data, serum 25(OH)D data, and genomic DNA biospecimens were obtained from 2,591 participants, a subset of the study population in the Korea National Health and Nutrition Survey 2011-2012. Five 25(OH)D-related single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs; DHCR7 rs12785878, CYP2R1 rs10741657, CYP2R1 rs12794714, CYP24A1 rs6013897, and GC rs2282679), identified a priori from genome-wide association studies, were used as instrument variables (IVs) for serum 25(OH)D levels. In the MR analysis, we performed IV analyses using the two-stage least squares method. RESULTS: In the observational analysis, circulating 25(OH)D levels were found to be inversely associated with the HTN prevalence in ordinary least squares models (odds ratio: 0.97, 95% confidence interval: 0.96, 0.99) after adjusting for the potential confounders. There were differences in the circulating 25(OH)D levels across genotypes of individual SNPs. In the MR analysis, using individual SNPs as IVs, 25(OH)D levels were not associated with the HTN prevalence. CONCLUSIONS: We found no association between genetically determined circulating 25(OH)D levels and HTN in Korean adults. Our results are listed owing to the relatively small sample size and possible weak instrument bias; therefore, further studies are needed to confirm these results.
Adult ; Bias (Epidemiology) ; Blood Pressure ; DNA ; Genome-Wide Association Study ; Genotype ; Humans ; Hypertension ; Korea ; Least-Squares Analysis ; Methods ; Nutrition Surveys ; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide ; Prevalence ; Random Allocation ; Sample Size ; Vitamin D ; Vitamin D3 24-Hydroxylase

PURPOSE: A systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted to evaluate the effects of smartphone-based mobile learning for nurses and nursing students. METHODS: Electronic literature search of PubMed, Cochrane Library, Embase, SCOPUS, Web of Science, ProQuest Central, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), and Educational Resource Information Center (ERIC) was conducted. Two authors independently reviewed empirical studies for inclusion and extracted the design, sample size, intervention method, outcome variables, and statistical values of them. Methodological quality was assessed using Cochrane collaboration risk of bias tool. To estimate the effect size, meta-analysis was performed using R meta program. RESULTS: Authors identified 11 randomized or nonrandomized controlled trials of a total of 3,419 studies. Overall effect sizes by random-effects model was large [Hedges'g (g) = 1.12, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.72−1.52], with learning attitude (g = 1.69), skills (g = 1.41), knowledge (g = 1.47), and confidence in performance (g = 1.54). For heterogeneity, subgroup analyses using meta-analysis of variance were performed, but no significant difference was found. Finally, a funnel plot and Egger's regression test along with trim-and-fill analysis and fail-safe N were conducted to check for publication bias, but no significant bias was detected. CONCLUSION: Smartphone-based mobile learning had significantly positive influence on nursing students' knowledge, skills, confidence in performance, and learning attitude. Smartphone-based mobile learning may be an alternative or supportive method for better education in nursing fields.
Bias (Epidemiology) ; Cooperative Behavior ; Education ; Education, Nursing ; Humans ; Information Centers ; Learning ; Methods ; Nursing ; Population Characteristics ; Publication Bias ; Sample Size ; Smartphone ; Students, Nursing

bias factor of this study and further studies supplementing these factors are needed.]]>
Bias (Epidemiology) ; Cognition ; Humans ; Mild Cognitive Impairment ; Neuropsychological Tests ; Pilot Projects ; Placebos ; Prefrontal Cortex ; Sample Size ; Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation ; Treatment Outcome