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See RECORDING (starts at 00:30:30). In an attempt to increase the reproducibility of contributions to a long-running and established geospatial conference series, the 23rd AGILE Conference on Geographic Information Science 2020 (https://agile-online.org/conference-2020) for the first time provided guidelines on preparing reproducible papers (Nüst etal., 2020) and appointed a reproducibility committee to evaluate computational workflows of accepted papers ( https://www.agile-giscience-series.net/review_process.html). Here, the committee’s members report on the lessons learned from reviewing 23 accepted full papers and outline future plans for the conference series. In summary, six submissions were partially reproduced by reproducibility reviewers, whose reports are published openly on OSF ( https://osf.io/6k5fh/). These papers are promoted with badges on the proceedings’ website (https://agile-giss.copernicus.org/articles/1/index.html). Compared to previous years’ submissions (cf. Nüst etal. 2018), the guidelines and increased community awareness markedly improved reproducibility. However, the reproduction attempts also revealed problems, most importantly insufficient documentation. This was partly mitigated by the non-blind reproducibility review, conducted after paper acceptance, where interaction between reviewers and authors can provide the input and attention needed to increase reproducibility. However, the reviews also showed that anonymisation and public repositories, when properly documented, can enable a successful reproduction without interaction, as was the case with one manuscript. Individual and organisational challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the conference’s eventual cancellation increased the teething problems. Nevertheless, also under normal circumstances, future iterations will have to reduce the reviewer’s efforts to be sustainable, ideally by more readily executable workflows and a larger reproducibility committee. Furthermore, we discuss changes to the reproducibility review process and their challenges. Reproducibility reports could be made available to “regular” reviewers, or the reports could be considered equally for acceptance/rejection decisions. Insufficient information or invalid arguments for not disclosing material could then lead to a submission being rejected or not being sent out to peer review. Further organisational improvements are a publication of reviewers’ activities in public databases, making the guidelines mandatory, and collecting data on used tools/repositories, spent efforts, and communications. Finally, we summarise the revision of the guidelines, including their new section for reproducibility reviewers, and the status of the initiative “Reproducible Publications at AGILE Conferences” (https://reproducible-agile.github.io/initiative/), which we connect to related undertakings such as CODECHECK (Eglen etal., 2019). The AGILE Conference’s experiences may help other communities to transition towards more open and reproducible research publications.

Abstract This review explains in simple terms, accessible to the non-statistician, general principles regarding the correct research methods to develop and then evaluate imaging biomarkers in a clinical setting, including radiomic biomarkers. The distinction between diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers is made and emphasis placed on the need to assess clinical utility within the context of a multivariable model. Such models should not be restricted to imaging biomarkers and must include relevant disease and patient characteristics likely to be clinically useful. Biomarker utility is based on whether its addition to the basic clinical model improves diagnosis or prediction. Approaches to both model development and evaluation are explained and the need for adequate amounts of representative data stressed so as to avoid underpowering and overfitting. Advice is provided regarding how to report the research correctly. Key Points • Imaging biomarker research is common but methodological errors are encountered frequently that may mean the research is not clinically useful. • The clinical utility of imaging biomarkers is best assessed by their additive effect on multivariable models based on clinical factors known to be important. • The data used to develop such models should be sufficient for the number of variables investigated and the model should be evaluated, preferably using data unrelated to development.

ObjectivesRecently, the results of two economic evaluations were published both of which seemingly demonstrate the cost-effectiveness of sofosbuvir-based regimens for the treatment of chronic hepatitis C genotype 1 infection in Germany. Both analyses were sponsored by the manufacturer of sofosbuvir and use a different methodology: Whereas one evaluation is based on a conventional cost-utility analysis, the other rests upon the efficiency-frontier method used by the German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG). The purpose of this study is to reanalysis the results of both economic evaluations in combination.DesignReanalysis of published decision modelling results.SettingPrimary care in Germany.ParticipantsPatients with chronic hepatitis C genotype 1 infection (treatment-naïve and -experienced, cirrhotic and non-cirrhotic).InterventionsSofosbuvir, other anti-hepatitis C virus drugs, and no treatment.Primary and secondary outcome measuresCost per unit of health benefit and cost per quality-adjusted life year.ResultsReanalysis of the results of both economic evaluations in combination reveals an unclear rationale for choosing the selected cost-effectiveness methods as well as a potential publication bias, favoring the product of the manufacturer. Based on the reanalysis, sofosbuvir is not cost-effective in treatment-experienced non-cirrhotic patients, potentially lacks cost-effectiveness in treatment-experienced cirrhotic patients, and is only partially cost-effective in treatment-naïve non-cirrhotic patients. Taken together, these results indicate a lack of cost-effectiveness in three quarters of the German patient population.ConclusionsTwo economic evaluations on sofosbuvir suggest, in combination, that sofosbuvir cannot be considered a cost-effective treatment in three quarters of the German patient population.

This data descriptor summarizes the process applied to identify, screen, select and gather data from the content of 142 peer-reviewed papers/sources that report on the sources and impacts of recreational disturbance on coastal avifauna. While populations of resident and migratory coastal avifauna are under threat and diminishing rapidly across the planet, and particularly in association with Asian flyways, many governments are leveraging booming global demand for coastal recreation and tourism in order to deliver economic development to regional communities. The summary data shared via this data description was extracted from papers collected in a systematic literature review that was designed to explore the global literature on the recreational disturbance of coastal avifauna in order to elucidate the state of the global knowledge regarding this issue and to identify management strategies that could be applied at tropical Asian destinations to minimize the impacts of recreational disturbance and thus enhance the ecological sustainability of coastal recreation and tourism across the region. The data shared via the Excel worksheet associated with this data descriptor was extracted from peer-reviewed articles published in English between 1 January 2000 and the 31 December 2018 with the full text of the article available online. These articles were found by searching several online indexing several databases including Scopus, Web of Science, ProQuest and Google Scholar.

The editors of this journal meet many researchers at conferences and workshops who have tried and failed to publish the results of their studies. Having experienced these ourselves as authors, we do understand the frustration that potential authors often express. For those new to the publishing world, the disappointment of rejection runs deep, and often, despite very helpful reviews, that paper might never be resurrected again. The reality is that when a paper is rejected the reviewers or editors have detected significant problems with that paper that preclude its potential usefulness to our audience. In this editorial, we provide an overview of the primary reasons for rejection from the European Journal of Oncology Nursing (EJON), in the hope that authors will understand our reasoning and to help them avoid rejection in the future.

Journal peer review lies at the heart of academic quality control. This article explores the journal peer review process and seeks to examine how the reviewing process might itself contribute to papers, leading them to be more highly cited and to achieve greater recognition. Our work builds on previous observations and views expressed in the literature about (a) the role of actors involved in the research and publication process that suggest that peer review is inherent in the research process and (b) on the contribution reviewers themselves might make to the content and increased citation of papers. Using data from the journal peer review process of a single journal in the Social Sciences field (Business, Management and Accounting), we examine the effects of peer review on papers submitted to that journal including the effect upon citation, a novel step in the study of the outcome of peer review. Our detailed analysis suggests, contrary to initial assumptions, that it is not the time taken to revise papers but the actual number of revisions that leads to greater recognition for papers in terms of citation impact. Our study provides evidence, albeit limited to the case of a single journal, that the peer review process may constitute a form of knowledge production and is not the simple correction of errors contained in submitted papers.

Writing your first paper for a peer-reviewed journal can be scary. You are putting your research, its findings and interpretations out to a wider and knowledgeable audience who may criticise any aspect of it. However, once you have made the mental step that you really want your work to be\ud out in the open, and you are about to draft your paper, then you need to decide to which journal you like to submit.\ud \ud This short paper raises some of the issues novice authors would need to consider. We also outline the process of submitting a paper to an academic journal based on the collective experiences of the three authors. All of us have all published widely, acted as reviewers or referees for many different academic journals and are members of editorial boards.

Background There is widespread evidence that statistical methods play an important role in original research articles, especially in medical research. The evaluation of statistical methods and reporting in journals suffers from a lack of standardized methods for assessing the use of statistics. The objective of this study was to develop and evaluate an instrument to assess the statistical intensity in research articles in a standardized way. Methods A checklist-type measure scale was developed by selecting and refining items from previous reports about the statistical contents of medical journal articles and from published guidelines for statistical reporting. A total of 840 original medical research articles that were published between 2007–2015 in 16 journals were evaluated to test the scoring instrument. The total sum of all items was used to assess the intensity between sub-fields and journals. Inter-rater agreement was examined using a random sample of 40 articles. Four raters read and evaluated the selected articles using the developed instrument. Results The scale consisted of 66 items. The total summary score adequately discriminated between research articles according to their study design characteristics. The new instrument could also discriminate between journals according to their statistical intensity. The inter-observer agreement measured by the ICC was 0.88 between all four raters. Individual item analysis showed very high agreement between the rater pairs, the percentage agreement ranged from 91.7% to 95.2%. Conclusions A reliable and applicable instrument for evaluating the statistical intensity in research papers was developed. It is a helpful tool for comparing the statistical intensity between sub-fields and journals. The novel instrument may be applied in manuscript peer review to identify papers in need of additional statistical review.

Part 1: The International Cross Domain Conference (CD-ARES 2016); International audience; Peer review is widely viewed as an essential step for ensuring scientific quality of a work and is a cornerstone of scholarly publishing. On the other hand, the actors involved in the publishing process are often driven by incentives which may, and increasingly do, undermine the quality of published work, especially in the presence of unethical conduits. In this work we investigate the feasibility of a tool capable of generating fake reviews for a given scientific paper automatically. While a tool of this kind cannot possibly deceive any rigorous editorial procedure, it could nevertheless find a role in several questionable scenarios and magnify the scale of scholarly frauds.A key feature of our tool is that it is built upon a small knowledge base, which is very important in our context due to the difficulty of finding large amounts of scientific reviews. We experimentally assessed our method 16 human subjects. We presented to these subjects a mix of genuine and machine generated reviews and we measured the ability of our proposal to actually deceive subjects judgment. The results highlight the ability of our method to produce reviews that often look credible and may subvert the decision.

BACKGROUND: Sponsors that seek to commercialize new drugs apply to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) which independently analyzes the raw data and reports the results on its website.OBJECTIVES: This study sought to determine if there are differences between the FDA assessments and journal reports on biologic agents developed for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.METHODS: Available data on FDA-approved drugs were extracted from the website, and a systematic literature search was conducted to identify matching studies in peer-reviewed medical journals. Outcome measures were the American College of Rheumatology response criteria ACR20 (efficacy) and withdrawal due to adverse events (safety). As effect size odds ratios were estimated for each active trial arm vs. control arm (i.e. for both sources: FDA and journal report), followed by calculation of the ratios of the FDA and journal report odds ratios. A ratio of odds ratios not equal to 1 was categorized as a discrepancy.RESULTS: FDA reports were available for 8 of 9 FDA-approved biologic agents for rheumatoid arthritis; all identified trials (34) except one were published in peer-reviewed journals. Overall, discrepancies were noted for 20 of the 33 evaluated trials. Differences in the apparent benefit reporting were found in 39% (24/61) pairwise comparisons and in 11 cases these were statistically significant; the FDA report showed greater benefit than the journal publication in 15 comparisons and lesser benefit in 9. Differences in the reported harms were found in 51% (28/55) pairwise comparisons and were statistically significant in 5. The "signal" in FDA reports showed a less harmful effect than the journal publication in 17 comparisons whereas a more harmful effect in 11. The differences were attributed to differences in analytic approach, patient inclusion, rounding effect, and counting discrepancies. However, no differences were categorized as critical.CONCLUSION: There was no empirical evidence to suggest biased estimates between the two sources. Increased and detailed transparency in publications would improve the understanding and credibility of published results. Further, the FDA report was found to be a useful source when data are missing in the published report (i.e. reporting bias).

Journal publication of material presented at medical conferences is vital in propagating research to the global community. The peer review process provides a rigorous assessment and critique of scientific methodology and helps ensure research remains relevant. Therefore, journal publication rates of material presented at meetings is a significant marker of the research quality of the meetings and their participants (1). Impact factors (IF) of journals are determined by dividing the number of citations articles receive by the number of citable articles over a period of time and is considered a marker of the scientific quality of a journal (2). The IF of the journal in which an article is published is therefore a partial marker of the scientific quality of that study.

There are conflicting data about the ability of peer review percentile rankings to predict grant productivity, as measured through publications and citations. To understand the nature of these apparent conflicting findings, we analyzed bibliometric outcomes of 6873 de novo cardiovascular R01 grants funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) between 1980 and 2011. Our outcomes focus on top-10% articles, meaning articles that were cited more often than 90% of other articles on the same topic, of the same type (eg, article, editorial), and published in the same year. The 6873 grants yielded 62 468 articles, of which 13 507 (or 22%) were top-10% articles. There was a modest association between better grant percentile ranking and number of top-10% articles. However, discrimination was poor (area under receiver operating characteristic curve [ROC], 0.52; 95% confidence interval, 0.51–0.53). Furthermore, better percentile ranking was also associated with higher annual and total inflation-adjusted grant budgets. There was no association between grant percentile ranking and grant outcome as assessed by number of top-10% articles per $million spent. Hence, the seemingly conflicting findings on peer review percentile ranking of grants and subsequent productivity largely reflect differing questions and outcomes. Taken together, these findings raise questions about how best National Institutes of Health (NIH) should use peer review assessments to make complex funding decisions.

A selected-papers (SP) network is a network in which researchers who read, write, and review articles subscribe to each other based on common interests. Instead of reviewing a manuscript in secret for the Editor of a journal, each reviewer simply publishes his review (typically of a paper he wishes to recommend) to his SP network subscribers. Once the SP network reviewers complete their review decisions, the authors can invite any journal editor they want to consider these reviews and initial audience size, and make a publication decision. Since all impact assessment, reviews, and revisions are complete, this decision process should be short. I show how the SP network can provide a new way of measuring impact, catalyze the emergence of new subfields, and accelerate discovery in existing fields, by providing each reader a fine-grained filter for high-impact. I present a three phase plan for building a basic SP network, and making it an effective peer review platform that can be used by journals, conferences, users of repositories such as arXiv, and users of search engines such as PubMed. I show how the SP network can greatly improve review and dissemination of research articles in areas that are not well-supported by existing journals. Finally, I illustrate how the SP network concept can work well with existing publication services such as journals, conferences, arXiv, PubMed, and online citation management sites.

In this article, a critical analysis is performed on differences in citation frequency of basic and clinical cardiovascular papers. It appears that the latter papers are cited at about 40% higher frequency. The differences between the largest number of citations of the most cited papers are even larger. It is also demonstrated that the groups of clinical and basic cardiovascular papers are also heterogeneous concerning citation frequency. It is concluded that none of the existing citation indicators appreciates these differences. At this moment these indicators should not be used for quality assessment of individual scientists and scientific niches with small numbers of scientists.

Editorial delay, the time between submission and acceptance of scientific manuscripts, was investigated for a set of 4,540 papers published in 13 leading food research journals. Groups of accelerated papers were defined as those that fell in the lower quartile of the distribution of the editorial delay for the journals investigated. Delayed papers are those in the upper quartile of the distribution. Editorial stage is related to the peer review process and two variables were investigated in search of any bias in editorial review that could influence publication delay: countries of origin of the manuscript and authors’ previous publishing experience in the same journal. A ranking of countries was established based on contributions to the leading food research journals in the period 1999-2004 and four categories comprising heavy, medium, light and occasional country producers was established. Chi square tests show significant differences in country provenance of manuscripts only for one journal. The results for influence on editorial delay of cross-national research and international collaboration, conducted by means of the Fisher statistic test, were similar. A two-tailed Student’s t test shows significant differences (p < 0.05) in the distribution of experienced and novel authors across the delayed and accelerated groups of papers. Although these results are time and discipline limited, it can be concluded that authors’ publishing experience causes a faster review and acceptance of their papers and that neither country of provenance nor cross-national research influence the time involved in editorial acceptance of the papers.

Medical science is rapidly evolving and an incredible number of publications are being published. Are they all worth reading? Authors are deemed responsible for what they put down in writing; whether they are first or corresponding author, it really makes no difference. Editors of peer-reviewed international journals have agreed to share their views with the readership, in order to optimise the quality of contributions as well as to assist junior colleagues in their editorial efforts. Starting from an historical perspective, ethical issues in publishing are discussed and technical suggestions on how to get the final draft accepted for publication are outlined. Contributing towards medical science is a great pleasure to be experienced and shared. © 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 18 4 350 356

Current studies agree on the need of training university students in various competences. Among them, writing stands out as an essential competence. This study analyzes the abstract produced by Spanish PhD candidates in the context of an academic writing workshop. These abstracts were rewritten as a result of peers’ and supervisors’ reviews. The purpose is to analyze the construction of this type of text in relation to its content categories. The results attest a series of challenges faced by students and help teachers in the design of their teaching instruction.

Contains fulltext : 171307.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access) PURPOSE: The Cervical Spine Research Society Europe (CSRS-E) actively promotes scientific activities, the annual meeting being the most evident of them. The publication rate of oral and poster presentations at the annual meeting could be a measure for the success of the promotional activities. The publication rates of abstracts presented at the annual European meetings of the CSRS are unknown. The quality of the abstracts presented at a conference is reflected by the publication rate. A high publication rate is usually interpreted as representative of high scientific value of the conference. METHODS: Poster and podium presentations from the 2007 to 2012 annual meetings were identified. Pubmed was used to search for the abstract title and/or the combination of authors to verify whether the data were published in a peer-reviewed journal. Abstracts were considered published if the data presented at the meeting were identical to that in the publication. The journals in which the data were published were identified, as well as the origin of the research centre. RESULTS: From 2007 to 2012 826 abstracts were featured at the CSRS Europe annual meetings. There were 236 podium presentations and 590 poster presentations. 42 % of the podium presentations resulted in a publication, and 28 % of the poster presentations led to a publication. Overall, 32 % of accepted abstracts effectuated a publication in a peer-reviewed scientific journal. Abstracts from European research groups had a publication rate of 29 % compared to 34 % for abstracts from non-European research groups. Spine, European Spine Journal, Journal of Spinal Disorders and Techniques and J Neurosurgery Spine were the most common publication journals for the abstracts. The mean impact factor of the journals in which was published was 2.2. CONCLUSION: 42 % of the abstracts that were accepted for podium presentation at the CSRS Europe resulted in a publication in peer-reviewed MEDLINE indexed journals. Publication rates are at the high end of the publication rate spectrum of abstracts accepted for European scientific meetings.

The peer review process is essential for quality checks and validation of journal submissions. Although it has some limitations, including manipulations and biased and unfair evaluations, there is no other alternative to the system. Several peer review models are now practised, with public review being the most appropriate in view of the open science movement. Constructive reviewer comments are increasingly recognised as scholarly contributions which should meet certain ethics and reporting standards. The Publons platform, which is now part of the Web of Science Group (Clarivate Analytics), credits validated reviewer accomplishments and serves as an instrument for selecting and promoting the best reviewers. All authors with relevant profiles may act as reviewers. Adherence to research reporting standards and access to bibliographic databases are recommended to help reviewers draft evidence-based and detailed comments.

This work is the continuation of a ‘revolution’ started with "Research Counts, Not the Journal". Own and published opinions from worldwide scientists on critical issues of peer-reviewed publishing are presented. In my opinion, peer-reviewed publishing is a quite flawed process (in many ways) that has greatly harmed Science for a long time – it has been imposed by most academic and science funding institutions as the only way to assess scientific performance. Unfortunately, most academics still follow that path, even though I believe most do it for the fear of losing their job or not being promoted. This paper aims to encourage (i) a full disruption of peer-reviewed publishing and (ii) the use of free eprint repositories for a sustainable academic/scientific publishing, i.e. healthier (no stress/distress associated to the peer review stage and the long waiting for publication) and more economic, effective and efficient (research is made immediately available and trackable/citable to anyone). On the other hand, it should be pointed out that nothing exists against scientific publishers/journals – actually it´s perfectly normal that any company wants to implement its own quality criteria. This paper is just the way chosen to promote the quick implementation of suitable policies for research evaluation.

How were paper bastions added to the walls of academic citadels? By mapping the evolution of the coauthorship network in 180 management journals from 1991 to 2009, we identify an elite league of business schools that retained dominance despite the research community’s significant growth. The elite universities maintain their prominence through a loop of reinforcement involving the peer review process and third-party ranking bodies, though the perceived quality of the papers published was declining as measured by the percentage of overall citations. Leading U.S. universities dominate top journal publications, while new local poles of management research among European and Asian universiteis emerged., Comment les citadelles académiques se construisent-elles ? En décrivant l’évolution des réseaux de co-autorat de 180 journaux en management entre 1991 et 2009, nous identifions la formation d’une ligue « élite » dont les acteurs restent dominants malgré une forte croissance de la communauté de recherché en gestion. Cette élite maintient sa domination en s’appuyant sur des mécanismes d’auto-renforcement entre le système de revue par les pairs dans les journaux scientifiques et de classement par des tiers influents et cela malgré la diminution progressive du nombre de citation reçue. Les universités américaines qui forment l’élite dominent les journaux scientifiques les mieux cotés, même si de nouveaux poles émergent en Asie et en Europe., ¿Cómo se incorporaron los bastiones de la investigación a las principales instituciones académicas? Cartografiando la evolución de la red de coautorías de 180 publicaciones sobre gestión y dirección de 1991 a 2009, hemos identificado una liga de élite de escuelas de negocios que se mantuvo dominante a pesar del significativo crecimiento de la comunidad investigadora. Las universidades de élite mantienen su prominencia utilizando un circuito de refuerzo que implica procesos de revisión entre pares y organismos exteriores de clasificación, aunque la calidad percibida de los artículos publicados fue declinando según las mediciones del porcentaje de citas globales. Las universidades estadounidenses líderes dominan los primeros puestos de las publicaciones, al tiempo que emergen nuevas áreas locales de investigación en gestión en Europa y Asia.

Introduction and Aims The gender difference in alcohol use seems to have narrowed in the Nordic countries, but it is not clear to what extent this may have affected differences in levels of harm. We compared gender differences in all‐cause and cause‐specific alcohol‐attributed disease burden, as measured by disability‐adjusted life‐years (DALY), in four Nordic countries in 2000–2017, to find out if gender gaps in DALYs had narrowed. Design and Methods Alcohol‐attributed disease burden by DALYs per 100 000 population with 95% uncertainty intervals were extracted from the Global Burden of Disease database. Results In 2017, all‐cause DALYs in males varied between 2531 in Finland and 976 in Norway, and in females between 620 in Denmark and 270 in Norway. Finland had the largest gender differences and Norway the smallest, closely followed by Sweden. During 2000–2017, absolute gender differences in all‐cause DALYs declined by 31% in Denmark, 26% in Finland, 19% in Sweden and 18% in Norway. In Finland, this was driven by a larger relative decline in males than females; in Norway, it was due to increased burden in females. In Denmark, the burden in females declined slightly more than in males, in relative terms, while in Sweden the relative decline was similar in males and females. Discussion and Conclusions The gender gaps in harm narrowed to a different extent in the Nordic countries, with the differences driven by different conditions. Findings are informative about how inequality, policy and sociocultural differences affect levels of harm by gender. © 2020 The Authors. Drug and Alcohol Review published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and other Drugs. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Background The patient's right to be involved in treatment decisions is anchored in guidelines and legislation in many countries. Previous research suggests challenges in the implementation of user involvement across different areas of health care, including mental health. However, little is known about psychiatric outpatients’ experiences of being involved in their treatment. Objective To investigate how psychiatric outpatients after treatment rate the degree to which they were included in the treatment and explore the associations between perceived user involvement, demographic characteristics of the sample and patient satisfaction. Design Cross‐sectional. Setting and participants The sample consisted of 188 psychiatric outpatients (67% female, mean age 42.2 years) who were discharged in the two years prior to data collection. Main variables studied Perceived user involvement in psychiatric outpatient treatment and patient satisfaction as measured by the Psychiatric Out‐Patient Experiences Questionnaire. Results About half of the participants rated the overall degree of involvement in their treatment as high or very high. The lowest percentage of participants reporting high or very high involvement was found for sufficient information to contribute to treatment decisions (36%). Female gender, higher education and, to a small degree, younger age were associated with more involvement. Perceived user involvement was strongly associated with treatment satisfaction. Discussion and conclusion The findings suggest that user involvement in psychiatric outpatient treatment can be improved. Patient information that facilitates user involvement should be given more attention. Patient or Public Contribution The hospital's user panel was involved in the development of items assessing user involvement. © 2020 The Authors Health Expectations published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Background: More women are choosing to birth at home in well-resourced countries. Concerns persist that out-of-hospital birth contributes to higher perinatal and neonatal mortality. This systematic review and meta-analyses determines if risk of fetal or neonatal loss differs among low-risk women who begin labour intending to give birth at home compared to low-risk women intending to give birth in hospital. Methods: In April 2018 we searched five databases from 1990 onward and used R to obtain pooled estimates of effect. We stratified by study design, study settings and parity. The primary outcome is any perinatal or neonatal death after the onset of labour. The study protocol is peer-reviewed, published and registered (PROSPERO No.CRD42013004046). Findings: We identified 14 studies eligible for meta-analysis including ~500,000 intended home births. Among nulliparous women intending a home birth in settings where midwives attending home birth are well-integrated in health services, the odds ratio (OR) of perinatal or neonatal mortality compared to those intending hospital birth was 1.07 (95% Confidence Interval [CI], 0.70 to 1.65); and in less integrated settings 3.17 (95% CI, 0.73 to 13.76). Among multiparous women intending a home birth in well-integrated settings, the estimated OR compared to those intending a hospital birth was 1.08 (95% CI, 0.84 to 1.38); and in less integrated settings was 1.58 (95% CI, 0.50 to 5.03). Interpretation: The risk of perinatal or neonatal mortality was not different when birth was intended at home or in hospital. Funding: Partial funding: Association of Ontario Midwives open peer reviewed grant. Research in Context: Evidence before this study Although there is increasing acceptance for intended home birth as a choice for birthing women, controversy about its safety persists. The varying responses of obstetrical societies to intended home birth provide evidence of contrasting views. A Cochrane review of randomised controlled trials addressing this topic included one small trial and noted that in the absence of adequately sized randomised controlled trials on the topic of intended home compared to intended hospital birth, a peer reviewed protocol be published to guide a systematic review and meta-analysis including observational studies. Reviews to date have been limited by design or methodological issues and none has used a protocol published a priori.Added value of this study Individual studies are underpowered to detect small but potentially important differences in rare outcomes. This study uses a published peer-reviewed protocol and is the largest and most comprehensive meta-analysis comparing outcomes of intended home and hospital birth. We take study design, parity and jurisdictional support for home birth into account. Our study provides much needed information to policy makers, care providers and women and families when planning for birth.Implications of all the available evidence Women who are low risk and who intend to give birth at home do not appear to have a different risk of fetal or neonatal loss compared to a population of similarly low risk women intending to give birth in hospital. Keywords: Home childbirth, Low risk birth, Perinatal mortality, Neonatal mortality, Systematic review

The efficacy of leveraging telehealth services on clinical outcomes remains scarcely documented. We conducted a rapid review to explore the effectiveness of telehealth interventions for the diagnosis, contact tracing and care of the corona virus disease of 2019 in sub Saharan Africa. Using MEDLINE, Science Direct and Cochrane Library databases, a review was conducted during the month of July 2020 of peer reviewed articles reporting on the use of telehealth interventions in sub-Saharan Africa. All the studies were assessed against the inclusion criteria by two independent reviewers. The 7 studies included in the synthesis were conducted in 2 countries [Nigeria (× 1), Zimbabwe (× 1)], and commentaries covering the entire sub Saharan Africa in general (× 4) and to Uganda (× 1). All the included articles and commentaries were published in 2020. We established that mobile applications are effective in providing information for referrals of potential patients infected by COVID 19 and provides convenient access to routine care without the risk of exposure through close contact. In countries such as Nigeria, mobile positioning data significantly improved decision making, capacity and scope of contact tracing and surveillance of known contacts of confirmed cases. We noted that collaborations between the government, mobile network operators and technology companies were utilised for successful mobile positioning data tracing interventions for COVID patients. Mobile applications such as the Vula platform in South Africa were also noted as effective in providing psychological support to health care workers attending to patients.

Background Patients who suffer from different diseases may use different electronic health (eHealth) resources. Thus, those who plan eHealth interventions should take into account which eHealth resources are used most frequently by patients that suffer from different diseases. Objective The aim of this study was to understand the associations between different groups of chronic diseases and the use of different eHealth resources. Methods Data from the seventh survey of the Tromsø Study (Tromsø 7) were analyzed to determine how different diseases influence the use of different eHealth resources. Specifically, the eHealth resources considered were use of apps, search engines, video services, and social media. The analysis contained data from 21,083 participants in the age group older than 40 years. A total of 15,585 (15,585/21,083; 73.92%) participants reported to have suffered some disease, 10,604 (10,604/21,083; 50.29%) participants reported to have used some kind of eHealth resource in the last year, and 7854 (7854/21,083; 37.25%) participants reported to have used some kind of eHealth resource in the last year and suffered (or had suffered) from some kind of specified disease. Logistic regression was used to determine which diseases significantly predicted the use of each eHealth resource. Results The use of apps was increased among those individuals that (had) suffered from psychological problems (odds ratio [OR] 1.39, 95% CI 1.23-1.56) and cardiovascular diseases (OR 1.12, 95% CI 1.01-1.24) and those part-time workers that (had) suffered from any of the diseases classified as others (OR 2.08, 95% CI 1.35-3.32). The use of search engines for accessing health information increased among individuals who suffered from psychological problems (OR 1.39, 95% CI 1.25-1.55), cancer (OR 1.26, 95% CI 1.11-1.44), or any of the diseases classified as other diseases (OR 1.27, 95% CI 1.13-1.42). Regarding video services, their use for accessing health information was more likely when the participant was a man (OR 1.31, 95% CI 1.13-1.53), (had) suffered from psychological problems (OR 1.70, 95% CI 1.43-2.01), or (had) suffered from other diseases (OR 1.43, 95% CI 1.20-1.71). The factors associated with an increase in the use of social media for accessing health information were as follows: (had) suffered from psychological problems (OR 1.65, 95% CI 1.42-1.91), working part time (OR 1.35, 95% CI 0.62-2.63), receiving disability benefits (OR 1.42, 95% CI 1.14-1.76), having received an upper secondary school education (OR 1.20, 95% CI 1.03-1.38), being a man with a high household income (OR 1.67, 95% CI 1.07-2.60), suffering from cardiovascular diseases and having a high household income (OR 3.39, 95% CI 1.62-8.16), and suffering from respiratory diseases while being retired (OR 1.95, 95% CI 1.28-2.97). Conclusions Our findings show that different diseases are currently associated with the use of different eHealth resources. This knowledge is useful for those who plan eHealth interventions as they can take into account which type of eHealth resource may be used for gaining the attention of the different user groups.

Background Cognitive–behavioural therapy (CBT) is an effective treatment for Hypochondriacal Disorder, but the long-term effect has not been examined extensively. Aims To investigate the long-term effect of CBT on Hypochondriacal Disorder using several mental health measures. Follow-up time was at least 10 years. Method A total of 50 patients with a long history of Hypochondriacal Disorder, diagnosed according to ICD-10, received 16 sessions of individual CBT and were followed up with an uncontrolled design. All participants were assessed before and after the intervention period, and 10 years later. Intention-to-treat mixed-model repeated-measures analysis were conducted. The study has been registered at clinicaltrials.gov: NCT00959452. Results Patients displayed significant improvements across all outcomes, including level of health anxiety, somatisation, symptoms of anxiety and depression, quality of life, somatisation at treatment completion. Treatment gains were well maintained 10 years later. Conclusions This uncontrolled treatment study suggests that patients treated with CBT for Hypochondriacal Disorder have significantly reduced health anxiety 1 year after treatment completion and the results are maintained 10 years later. The results indicate that CBT has a lasting effect, but the lack of a control group and use of only one therapist, means that care should be taken when generalising the findings.

Background Type 1 diabetes is a chronic condition of blood glucose metabolic disorder caused by a lack of insulin secretion from pancreas cells. In people with type 1 diabetes, hyperglycemia often occurs upon infection incidences. Despite the fact that patients increasingly gather data about themselves, there are no solid findings that uncover the effect of infection incidences on key parameters of blood glucose dynamics to support the effort toward developing a digital infectious disease detection system. Objective The study aims to retrospectively analyze the effect of infection incidence and pinpoint optimal parameters that can effectively be used as input variables for developing an infection detection algorithm and to provide a general framework regarding how a digital infectious disease detection system can be designed and developed using self-recorded data from people with type 1 diabetes as a secondary source of information. Methods We retrospectively analyzed high precision self-recorded data of 10 patient-years captured within the longitudinal records of three people with type 1 diabetes. Obtaining such a rich and large data set from a large number of participants is extremely expensive and difficult to acquire, if not impossible. The data set incorporates blood glucose, insulin, carbohydrate, and self-reported events of infections. We investigated the temporal evolution and probability distribution of the key blood glucose parameters within a specified timeframe (weekly, daily, and hourly). Results Our analysis demonstrated that upon infection incidence, there is a dramatic shift in the operating point of the individual blood glucose dynamics in all the timeframes (weekly, daily, and hourly), which clearly violates the usual norm of blood glucose dynamics. During regular or normal situations, higher insulin and reduced carbohydrate intake usually results in lower blood glucose levels. However, in all infection cases as opposed to the regular or normal days, blood glucose levels were elevated for a prolonged period despite higher insulin and reduced carbohydrates intake. For instance, compared with the preinfection and postinfection weeks, on average, blood glucose levels were elevated by 6.1% and 16%, insulin (bolus) was increased by 42% and 39.3%, and carbohydrate consumption was reduced by 19% and 28.1%, respectively. Conclusions We presented the effect of infection incidence on key parameters of blood glucose dynamics along with the necessary framework to exploit the information for realizing a digital infectious disease detection system. The results demonstrated that compared with regular or normal days, infection incidence substantially alters the norm of blood glucose dynamics, which are quite significant changes that could possibly be detected through personalized modeling, for example, prediction models and anomaly detection algorithms. Generally, we foresee that these findings can benefit the efforts toward building next generation digital infectious disease detection systems and provoke further thoughts in this challenging field.

Background Parents seek trustworthy information online to promote healthy eating for their toddlers. Such information must be perceived as relevant and easy to implement and use. Objective The objectives of this study were to conduct a process evaluation of the electronic health (eHealth) intervention (Food4toddlers) targeting food environment, parental feeding practices, and toddlers’ diet and to examine possible differences in these areas according to education and family composition. Methods A 2-armed randomized controlled trial, including 298 parent–toddler dyads from Norway, was conducted in 2017. In total, 148 parents in the intervention group received access to an intervention website for 6 months. Data on website usage were retrieved from the learning management platform used (NEO). Participants’ satisfaction with the intervention was asked for in a postintervention questionnaire. Chi-square and t tests were used to examine differences in usage and satisfaction between education and family composition groups. Results Most participants were mothers (144/148, 97.2%), lived in two-adult households (148/148, 100%), and were born in Norway (132/148, 89.1%). Mean parental age was 31.5 years (SD 4.2). More than 87.8% (129/147) had a university education degree and 56.5% (83/147) had over 4 years of university education. Most (128/148, 86.5%) intervention participants entered the website at least once (mean days of access 7.4 [SD 7.1]). Most parents reported the website as appropriate to the child’s age (71/83, 86%) and self-explanatory (79/83, 95%) and appreciated the interface (52/83, 63%) and layout (46/83, 55%). In total, 61% (51/83) stated that they learned something new from the intervention. Parents with over 4 years of university education and in 1-child households used the intervention website more than those with 4 years or less of university education (8.4 vs 5.9 days in total, P=.04) and households with more than 1 child (8.3 vs 5.8 days in total, P=.04), respectively. Conclusions The Food4toddlers intervention website was found to be relevant by most participants in the intervention group, although usage of the website differed according to educational level and family composition. For eHealth interventions to be effective, intervention materials such as websites must be used by the target group. Our results highlight the need to include users from different groups when developing interventions. Trial Registration ISRCTN Registry ISRCTN92980420; http://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN92980420

Objective: Abstracts submitted to meetings are subject to less rigorous peer review than full-text manuscripts. This study aimed to explore the publication outcome of abstracts presented at the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) annual meeting. Methods: Abstracts presented at the 2008 AAO meeting were analyzed. Each presented abstract was sought via PubMed to identify if it had been published as a full-text manuscript. The publication outcome, journal impact factor (IF), and time to publication were recorded. Results: A total of 690 abstracts were reviewed, of which 39.1% were subsequently published. They were published in journals with a median IF of 2.9 (range 0–7.2) and a median publication time of 426 days (range 0–2,133 days). A quarter were published in the journal Ophthalmology, with a shorter time to publication (median 282 vs. 534 days, p =0.003). Oral presentations were more likely to be published than poster presentations (57.8% vs. 35.9%, p

Background To meet the challenges caused by non‐communicable diseases, Norway has established Healthy Life Centres within primary care to encourage a healthy lifestyle. To promote people's health and ensure high‐quality services, user involvement in contemporary health care is regarded as essential. Objective To explore the experience of user involvement among Healthy Life Centre users participating in individual health consultations, followed by physical activity groups and/or diet courses. Methods This was a qualitative study based on twenty semi‐structured individual interviews conducted between September 2015 and May 2016 at a Healthy Life Centre in Norway. Data were analysed using systematic text condensation. Results Being respected and having a trustworthy relationship with the professionals were found to be essential for the service users’ involvement. Building a trustworthy relationship was disrupted for some service users by a lack of relational continuity. This lack of continuity jeopardized the continuation of professionals’ awareness of the service users’ challenges and personal goals. The service users’ preferred levels of user involvement varied. Some service users did not always want to play an active part and instead wanted the professionals, as “experts,” to decide. Conclusions The findings imply that the professionals need to assess each service user's desires for involvement and consider how these can be met. Thus, user involvement cannot be understood without considering the particular setting and each individual service user's preferences for involvement. Relational continuity is needed to maintain the service users’ challenges and goals throughout the services and to promote health behaviour changes. © 2018 The Authors. Health Expectations published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License

Source at https://doi.org/10.2196/13678. Background: Despite the increasing prevalence of diabetes and increasing use of electronic health (eHealth) among people with diabetes, little is known about the association between the use of eHealth and the use of provider-based health services. Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate whether the use of eHealth might change patients’ decisions regarding doctor-seeking behavior and whether information acquired from the internet was discussed with a doctor. Methods: We used email survey data collected in 2018 from members of the Norwegian Diabetes Association (aged 18 to 89 years) diagnosed with diabetes. Using logistic regressions, we studied patients’ internet-triggered changes in decisions regarding doctor visits; whether they discussed information from the internet with a doctor; and whether these topics were associated with gender, age, education, self-rated health, and self-reported anxiety/depression. Results: Among the 895 informants, 75.4% (645/856) had never made an internet-triggered change of decision in any direction regarding visiting a doctor, whereas 16.4% (41/859) had decided to visit and 17.3% (148/856) had decided not to visit. The probability of changing decisions decreased with higher age and increased with the severity of self-reported anxiety/depression. Around half of the study participants (448/858, 52.2%) had never discussed information from the internet with a doctor. The probability of discussing internet information with a doctor was higher for those in bad/very bad self-rated health (odds ratio 2.12, CI 1.15-3.90) and for those with moderate self-reported anxiety/depression (odds ratio 2.30, CI 1.30-4.10). Conclusions: Our findings suggest that using eHealth has a significant impact on doctor-visiting decisions among people with diabetes, especially among people aged 18 to 39 years and among those reporting anxiety/depression. It is of great importance that the information posted is of high quality and that the large differences between internet-users regarding age as well as mental and somatic health status are taken into account. More research is needed to confirm and further explore the findings of this study.

Background It has been suggested that countries with more resources and better healthcare have populations with a higher risk of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Norway is a high-income country with good public healthcare. Aims To examine lifetime trauma exposure and the point prevalence of PTSD in the general Norwegian population. Method A survey was administered to a national probability sample of 5500 adults (aged ≥18 years). Of 4961 eligible individuals, 1792 responded (36%). Responders and non-responders did not differ significantly in age, gender or urban versus rural residence. Trauma exposure was measured using the Life Events Checklist for the DSM-5. PTSD was measured with the PTSD Checklist for the DSM-5. We used the DSM-5 diagnostic guidelines to categorise participants as fulfilling the PTSD symptom criteria or not. Results At least one serious lifetime event was reported by 85% of men and 86% of women. The most common event categories were transportation accident and life-threatening illness or injury. The point prevalence of PTSD was 3.8% for men and 8.5% for women. The most common events causing PTSD were sexual and physical assaults, life-threatening illness or injury, and sudden violent deaths. Risk of PTSD increased proportionally with the number of event categories experienced. Conclusions High estimates of serious life events and correspondingly high rates of PTSD in the Norwegian population support the paradox that countries with more resources and better healthcare have higher risk of PTSD. Possible explanations are high expectations for a risk-free life and high attention to potential harmful mental health effects of serious life events. Declaration of interest None.

The humanities are going through a period of exceptional vitality characterised by the proliferation of novel interpretative frameworks, methodologies and perspectives. Yet they—and, to a lesser extent, the social sciences—feel threatened by the rising tide of research assessment which appear to be predominantly derived from the needs and experience of the physical and natural sciences and depend on the application of standardized assessment tools. This position paper intends to contribute to the debate on the current criteria of evaluation and measures for excellence in the Humanities by casting light on their conceptual implications and methodological assumptions. It argues that decisions about their relative weight are not simply technical but also reflect underlying value systems.

The following article, Hansen, A.H., Brož, J., Claudi, T. & Årsand, E. (2018). Relations between the use of electronic health and the use of general practitioner and somatic specialist visits in patients with type 1 diabetes: Cross-sectional study. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 20(11), can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.2196/11322. Background: The prevalence of diabetes and the use of electronic health (eHealth) are increasing. People with diabetes need frequent monitoring and follow-up of health parameters, and eHealth services can be of great value. However, little is known about the association between the use of eHealth and provider-based health care services among people with diabetes. Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate the use of 4 different eHealth platforms (apps, search engines, video services, and social media sites) and associations with the use of provider-based health care visits among people diagnosed with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM). Methods: We used email survey data collected from 1250 members of the Norwegian Diabetes Association (aged 18 to 89 years) in 2018. Eligible for analyses were the 523 respondents with T1DM. Using descriptive statistics, we estimated the use of eHealth and the use of general practitioners (GPs) and somatic specialist outpatient services. By logistic regressions, we studied the associations between the use of these provider-based health services and the use of eHealth, adjusted for gender, age, education, and self-rated health. Results: Of the sample of 523 people with T1DM, 90.7% (441/486) had visited a GP once or more, and 61.0% (289/474) had visited specialist services during the previous year. Internet search engines (such as Google) were used for health purposes sometimes or often by 84.0% (431/513), apps by 55.4% (285/514), social media (such as Facebook) by 45.2% (232/513), and video services (such as YouTube) by 23.3% (118/506). Participants aged from 18 to 39 years used all forms of eHealth more than people aged 40 years and older, with the exception of social media. The use of search engines was positively associated with the use of somatic specialist services (odds ratio 2.43, 95% CI 1.33-4.45). GP visits were not associated with any kind of eHealth use. Conclusions: eHealth services are now widely used for health support and health information by people with T1DM, primarily in the form of search engines but often in the form of apps and social media as well. We found a positive association between the use of search engines and specialist visits and that people with T1DM are frequent users of eHealth, GPs, and specialist services. We found no evidence that eHealth reduces the use of provider-based health care; these services seem to be additional rather than alternative. Future research should focus on how health care services can meet and adapt to the high prevalence of eHealth use. Our results also indicate that many patients with T1DM do not visit specialist clinics once a year as recommended. This raises questions about collaboration in health care services and needs to be followed up in future research.

This introduction summarizes and discusses the main findings of the supplement ‘Health in crises. Migration, austerity and inequalities in Greece and Europe’ to the European Journal of Public Health. The supplement applies data from the ESS (2014) health module in combination with the MIGHEAL study, which is a new source of data on the Greek population specially designed to examine health inequalities among and between migrants and natives. This has enabled the authors of the nine articles that constitute this supplement to address several pressing issues about the distribution of health and its determinants in Greece and other European countries. The main finding of the present supplement is the exceptionally high rates of reported depressive symptoms across the whole population residing in Greece and particularly among women. Levels of unmet need for healthcare were also found to be alarmingly high in Greece compared with other European countries, suggesting that the crisis and subsequent austerity policies may have impacted the provision of healthcare services and access to healthcare for broad sections of the population, whether native or migrant. © The Author(s) 2018. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Public Health Association. All rights reserved. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Background: Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a complex condition with multiple factors contributing to its aetiology and pathophysiology. Aetiologically these include genetics, life-time events and environment, and physiologically, changes in motility, central processing, visceral sensitivity, immunity, epithelial permeability and gastrointestinal microflora. Such complexity means there is currently no specific reliable biomarker for IBS, and thus IBS continues to be diagnosed and classified according to symptom based criteria, the Rome Criteria. Carefully phenotyping and characterisation of a ‘large’ pool of IBS patients across Europe and even the world however, might help identify sub-populations with accuracy and consistency. This will not only aid future research but improve tailoring of treatment and health care of IBS patients. Purpose: The aim of this position paper is to discuss the requirements necessary to standardize the process of selecting and phenotyping IBS patients and how to organise the collection and storage of patient information/samples in such a large multi-centre pan European/global study. We include information on general demographics, gastrointestinal symptom assessment, psychological factors, quality of life, physiological evaluation, genetic/epigenetic and microbiota analysis, biopsy/blood sampling, together with discussion on the organisational, ethical and language issues associated with implementing such a study. The proposed approach and documents selected to be used in such a study was the result of a thoughtful and thorough four-year dialogue amongst experts associated with the European COST action BM1106 GENIEUR (www.GENIEUR.eu). acceptedVersion

The purpose of this conceptual paper is to contribute to the understanding of the coordination of knowledge flows – an important theme for organizational performance. In this article, we identify, describe and compare two perspectives on coordination of knowledge flows: the “knowledge-enabling” and the “control” perspective. The “knowledge-enabling” perspective presents a design view on coordination of knowledge flows where coordination is essentially facilitated by the mechanism of organizational structure. The “control” perspective provides a management accounting view of coordination of knowledge flows that are visualized and managed through accounting and reporting practices. The main contribution of this study is an analysis of the existing literature in the respective area and enhanced conceptual understanding of the coordination of knowledge flows of importance both for theory and practice.

Background: Demographic changes over the past decades call for the promotion of health and disease prevention for older patients, as well as strategies to enhance their independence, productivity, and quality of life. Objective: Our objective was to examine the effects of a computer-based educational intervention designed for general practitioners (GPs) to promote active aging. Methods: The Promoting Active Aging (PRACTA) study consisted of a baseline questionnaire, implementation of an intervention, and a follow-up questionnaire that was administered 1 month after the intervention. A total of 151 primary care facilities (response rate 151/767, 19.7%) and 503 GPs (response rate 503/996, 50.5%) agreed to participate in the baseline assessment. At the follow-up, 393 GPs filled in the questionnaires (response rate, 393/503, 78.1%), but not all of them took part in the intervention. The final study group of 225 GPs participated in 3 study conditions: e-learning (knowledge plus skills modelling, n=42), a pdf article (knowledge only, n=89), and control (no intervention, n=94). We measured the outcome as scores on the Patients Expectations Scale, Communication Scale, Attitude Toward Treatment and Health Scale, and Self-Efficacy Scale. Results: GPs participating in e-learning demonstrated a significant rise in their perception of older patients’ expectations for disease explanation (Wald χ2=19.7, P

Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (http://www.jmir.org), 30.05.2017. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Background: Adequate self-management is the cornerstone of type 2 diabetes treatment, as people make the majority of daily treatment measures and health decisions. The increasing prevalence of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and the complexity of diabetes self-management demonstrate the need for innovative and effective ways to deliver self-management support. eHealth interventions are promoted worldwide and hold a great potential in future health care for people with chronic diseases such as T2DM. However, many eHealth interventions face high dropout rates. This led to our interest in the experiences of participants who dropped out of an eHealth intervention for adults with T2DM, based on the Guided Self-Determination (GSD) counseling method. Objective: In this study, we aimed to explore experiences with an eHealth intervention based on GSD in general practice from the perspective of those who dropped out and to understand their reasons for dropping out. To the best of our knowledge, no previous qualitative study has focused on participants who withdrew from an eHealth self-management support intervention for adults with T2DM. Methods: A qualitative design based on telephone interviews was used to collect data. The sample comprised 12 adults with type 2 diabetes who dropped out of an eHealth intervention. Data were collected in 2016 and subjected to qualitative content analysis. Results: We identified one overall theme: “Losing motivation for intervention participation.” This theme was illustrated by four categories related to the participants’ experiences of the eHealth intervention: (1) frustrating technology, (2) perceiving the content as irrelevant and incomprehensible, (3) choosing other activities and perspectives, and (4) lacking face-to-face encounters. Conclusions: Our findings indicate that the eHealth intervention based on GSD without face-to-face encounters with nurses reduced participants’ motivation for engagement in the intervention. To maintain motivation, our study points to the importance of combining eHealth with regular face-to-face consultations. Our study also shows that the perceived benefit of the GSD eHealth intervention intertwined with choosing to focus on other matters in complex daily lives are critical aspects in motivation for such interventions. This indicates the importance of giving potential participants tailored information about the aim, the content, and the effort needed to remain engaged in complex interventions so that eligible participants are recruited. Finally, motivation for engagement in the eHealth intervention was influenced by the technology used in this study. It seems important to facilitate more user-friendly but high-security eHealth technology. Our findings have implications for improving the eHealth intervention and to inform researchers and health care providers who are organizing eHealth interventions focusing on self-management support in order to reduce dropout rates.

Background: The conflicting results from studies on socioeconomic status (SES) and multiple sclerosis (MS) risk might be due to a change in the distribution of environmental exposures over time or to methodological limitations in previous research. Objective: To examine the association between SES and MS risk during 50 years. Methods: We included patients registered in Norwegian MS registries and prevalence studies born between 1930 and 1979, and identified their siblings and parents using the Norwegian Population Registry. Information on education was retrieved from the National Education Registry, categorized into four levels (primary, secondary, undergraduate and graduate) and compared in patients and siblings using conditional logistic regression. Results: A total of 4494 MS patients and 9193 of their siblings were included in the analyses. Level of education was inversely associated with MS risk ( p trend Conclusion: Level of education was inversely associated with MS risk, and the estimates were similar in the earliest and latest birth cohorts.

Background Current evidence concerning sedentary behaviour and mortality risk has used single time point assessments of sitting. Little is known about how changes in sitting levels over time affect subsequent mortality risk. Aim To examine the associations between patterns of sitting time assessed at two time points 11 years apart and risk of all-cause and cardio-metabolic disease mortality. Methods Participants were 25,651 adults aged > =20 years old from the Nord-Trøndelag Health Study with self-reported total sitting time in 1995-1997 (HUNT2) and 2006-2008 (HUNT3). Four categories characterised patterns of sitting: (1) low at HUNT2/ low at HUNT3, ‘consistently low sitting’; (2) low at HUNT2/high at HUNT3, ‘increased sitting’; (3) high at HUNT2/low at HUNT3, ‘reduced sitting’; and (4) high at HUNT2 /high at HUNT3, ‘consistently high sitting’. Associations of sitting pattern with all-cause and cardio-metabolic disease mortality were analysed using Cox regression adjusted for confounders. Results Mean follow-up was 6.2 years (158880 person-years); 1212 participants died. Compared to ‘consistently low sitting’, adjusted hazard ratios for all-cause mortality were 1.51 (95% CI: 1.28–2.78), 1.03 (95% CI: 0.88–1.20), and 1.26 (95% CI: 1.06–1.51) for ‘increased sitting’, ‘reduced sitting’ and ‘consistently high sitting’ respectively. Conclusions Examining patterns of sitting over time augments single time-point analyses of risk exposures associated with high sitting time. Whilst sitting habits can be stable over a long period, life events (e.g., changing jobs, retiring or illness) may influence sitting trajectories and therefore sitting-attributable risk. Reducing sitting may yield mortality risks comparable to a stable low-sitting pattern. © The Author(s). 2017 Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.

Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text., The prevalence of cervical cancer is high among some groups of immigrants. Although there is evidence of low participation in cervical cancer screening programs among immigrants, studies have been subject to selection bias and accounted for few immigrant groups. The aim of this study was to compare the proportion of several groups of immigrants versus nonimmigrants attending the cervical cancer-screening program in Norway. In addition, we aimed to study predictors for attendance to the screening program. Register-based study using merged data from four national registries. All Norwegian-born women (1 168 832) and immigrant women (152 800) of screening age for cervical cancer (25–69 years) registered in Norway in 2008 were included. We grouped the immigrants by world’s geographic region and carried out descriptive analyses and constructed several logistic regression models. The main outcome variable was whether the woman was registered with a Pap smear in 2008 or not. Immigrants had lower rates of participation compared with Norwegian-born women; Western Europe [adjusted odds ratio (OR), 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.84, 0.81–0.88], Eastern Europe (OR 0.64, 95% CI: 0.60–0.67), Asia (OR 0.74, 95% CI: 0.71–0.77), Africa (OR 0.61, 95% CI: 0.56–0.67) and South America (OR 0.87, 95% CI: 0.79–0.96). Younger age, higher income, residence in rural areas, and having a female general practitioner (GP) were associated with Pap smear. Longer residential time in Norway and having a nonimmigrant GP were associated with screening for some immigrant groups. Appropriate interventions targeting both immigrants and GPs need to be developed and evaluated.

The neuroimaging community has been increasingly called up to openly share data. Although data sharing has been a cornerstone of large-scale data consortia, the incentive for the individual researcher remains unclear. Other fields have benefited from embracing a data publication form – the data paper – that allows researchers to publish their datasets as a citable scientific publication. Such publishing mechanisms both give credit that is recognizable within the scientific ecosystem, and also ensure the quality of the published data and metadata through the peer review process. We discuss the specific challenges of adapting data papers to the needs of the neuroimaging community, and we propose guidelines for the structure as well as review process.

International audience; Peer review supports scientific conferences in selecting high quality papers for publication. Referees are expected to evaluate submissions equitably according to objective criteria (e.g., originality of the contribution, soundness of the theory, validity of the experiments). We argue that the submission date of papers is a subjective factor playing a role in the way they are evaluated. Indeed, program committee (PC) chairs and referees process submission lists that are usually sorted by paperIDs. This order conveys chronological information, as papers are numbered sequentially upon reception.We show that order effects lead to unconsciously favor early-submitted papers to the detriment of later-submitted papers. Our point is supported by a study of 42 peer-reviewed conferences in Computer Science showing a decrease in the number of bids placed on submissions with higher paperIDs. It is advised to counterbalance order effects during the bidding phase of peer review by promoting the submissions with fewer bids to potential referees. This manipulation intends to better share bids out among submissions in order to attract qualified referees for all submissions. This would secure reviews from confident referees, who are keen on voicing sharp opinions and recommendations (acceptance or rejection) about submissions. This work contributes to the integrity of peer review, which is mandatory to maintain public trust in science.

Background: The workplace is used as a setting for interventions to prevent and reduce sickness absence, regardless of the specific medical conditions and diagnoses. Aims: To give an overview of the general effectiveness of active workplace interventions aimed at preventing and reducing sickness absence. Methods: We systematically searched PubMed, Embase, Psych-info, and ISI web of knowledge on 27 December 2011. Inclusion criteria were (i) participants over 18 years old with an active role in the intervention, (ii) intervention done partly or fully at the workplace or at the initiative of the workplace and (iii) sickness absence reported. Two reviewers independently screened articles, extracted data and assessed risk of bias. A narrative synthesis was used. Results: We identified 2036 articles of which, 93 were assessed in full text. Seventeen articles were included (2 with low and 15 with medium risk of bias), with a total of 24 comparisons. Five interventions from four articles significantly reduced sickness absence. We found moderate evidence that graded activity reduced sickness absence and limited evidence that the Sheerbrooke model (a comprehensive multidisciplinary intervention) and cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) reduced sickness absence. There was moderate evidence that workplace education and physical exercise did not reduce sickness absence. For other interventions, the evidence was insufficient to draw conclusions. Conclusions: The review found limited evidence that active workplace interventions were not generally effective in reducing sickness absence, but there was moderate evidence of effect for graded activity and limited evidence for the effectiveness of the Sheerbrooke model and CBT. publishedVersion

ObjectiveThe present study aimed to evaluate the clustering of undernutrition indicators of children under the age of 5 years in relation to different scales.DesignA community-based cross-sectional study design was employed. We collected anthropometric data, geographic locations/elevations of households and other data from visited households. We used a retrospective purely spatial Poisson probability model to identify and locate clusters (high rates) of stunting and wasting using the software SaTScan™ version 9·1·1. We ran a logistic regression model to help evaluate the causes of clustering.SettingsSix villages in the Meskane Mareko District (38·45763°E, 8·042144°N) of southern Ethiopia.SubjectsWe surveyed 2371 children aged ResultsWe found a micro-level variation in the risk of stunting and wasting within the studied district. We found the most likely significant clusters for wasting and severe wasting in two of the six villages. For stunting, a single large cluster size of 390 cases (304·19 expected) in 756 households was identified (relative risk=1·48, PP=0·035).ConclusionsWe conclude that the distribution of wasting and stunting was partly spatially structured. We identified distinct areas within and between villages that have a higher risk than the underlying at-risk population. Our analysis identified the spatial locations of high-risk areas for stunting that could be an input for geographically targeting and optimizing nutritional interventions.

Health economic aspects have been increasingly important during introduction of new treatments for multiple sclerosis. As a partial response for Norway, a costof- illness study was carried out to estimate the yearly cost of the illness to society and relate costs and patients’ quality of life to illness severity. Estimated cost to society was Euro 439 million in 2002 exclusive of the cost of reduced quality of life. The cost per patient was close to Euro 65,000. Account taken of methodological differences, the results compare to results for Sweden, Norway’s closest neighboring country. The illness reduced patients’ quality of life with 0.26. More patients were early retired because of their MS in Norway than in any of nine other European countries comprised by a recent European study, illustrating a liberal practice in Norway. The Norwegian cost of unpaid assistance was almost identical to the Swedish cost that was the lowest found across the countries in the European study. When related to illness severity, the cost per patient increased, and the patients’ experienced quality of life decreased with increasing EDSS levels in line with what has been found for other countries. Cost-of-MS studies have been carried out for a number of countries. Together they contribute to our understanding of the economic consequences of multiple sclerosis and, if their results are related to illness severity, also provide valuable information for further economic analyses of treatment and medication. Our study adds to this. publishedVersion

Publication of research, innovation, challenges and successes is of critical importance to the evolution of more effective distance education programming. Publication in peer reviewed journal format is the most prestigious and the most widespread form of dissemination in education and most other disciplines, thus the importance of understanding what is published and its impact on both researchers and practitioners. In this article we identify and classify the leading articles in arguably the leading peer reviewed journals in this discipline.The journal The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning (IRRODL) is a peer reviewed academic journal that has been published since 2000. The journal has published between 3 and 6 issues annually with between 50 and 111 research articles per volume. In order to assess the general and the particular impact of highly cited articles this work describes the main bibliometric indicators of the IRRODL journal and these are compared with the total galley views in all formats, PDF, HTML, EPUB and MP3, that IRRODL publishes. In addition to identifying characteristics of the most widely cited articles this research determines if there is a correlation between the articles most highly cited by other publishing researchers and the number of views, indicating interest from both practitioners and research communities. The results show a significant and positive relationship between the total number of citations and the number of views received by articles published in the journal, indicating the impact of the journal extends beyond active publishers to practitioner consumers.