SummaryThe effect of treatment on the severity of common cold symptoms cannot be accurately assessed with current study designs. Wnt inhibitor In the absence of convincing evidence of efficacy, treatment of young children with symptomatic therapies cannot be recommended. Preliminary data suggest a small, beneficial effect of probiotics for the prevention of common cold illness.”
“Objectives: The Agency

for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Effective Health Care Program conducts systematic reviews of health-care topics nominated by stakeholders. Topics undergo refinement to ensure relevant questions of appropriate scope and useful reviews. Input from key informants, experts, and a literature scan informs changes in the nominated topic. AHRQ convened a work group to assess approaches and develop recommendations

for topic refinement.

Study Design and Setting: Work group members experienced in topic refinement generated a list of questions and guiding principles relevant to the refinement process. They discussed each issue and reached agreement on recommendations.

Results: Topics should address important health-care questions or dilemmas, consider stakeholder priorities and values, reflect the state of the science, check details and be consistent with systematic review research methods. Guiding principles of topic refinement are fidelity to the nomination, relevance, research feasibility, responsiveness to stakeholder inputs, reduced investigator bias, transparency, and suitable scope. Suggestions for stakeholder engagement, synthesis of input, and reporting are discussed. Refinement decisions require judgment and balancing guiding principles. Variability in topics precludes a prescriptive approach.

Conclusion: Accurate, rigorous, and useful systematic reviews require well-refined topics. These guiding principles and methodological recommendations may help investigators refine topics for reviews. (C) 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.”
“Identifying relevant subgroups in patients with low back pain (LBP) is considered important to guide physical therapy practice and to improve outcomes. learn more The aim of the present study

was to assess the cost-effectiveness of a modified version of Delitto’s classification-based treatment approach compared with usual physical therapy care in patients with sub-acute and chronic LBP with 1 year follow-up.

All patients were classified using the modified version of Delitto’s classification-based system and then randomly assigned to receive either classification-based treatment or usual physical therapy care. The main clinical outcomes measured were; global perceived effect, intensity of pain, functional disability and quality of life. Costs were measured from a societal perspective. Multiple imputations were used for missing data. Uncertainty surrounding cost differences and incremental cost-effectiveness ratios was estimated using bootstrapping.