Simulated treatment comparison (STC) is an established method for performing population adjustment for the indirect comparison of two treatments, where individual patient data (IPD) are available for one trial but only aggregate level information is available for the other. The most commonly used method is what we call 'standard STC'. Here we fit…

Background: Understanding the associations among mild intellectual disability (IQ 50-70), borderline intellectual functioning (IQ 70-85) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) with treatment outcomes in severely mentally ill patients could contribute to better tailoring of care. Methods: One or more assessments using the Health of the Nation…

Dementia patients may have language barriers and decreased comprehension ability. Their family caregivers can feel frustrated when communicating with them. Poor communication hinders family caregivers from obtaining accurate health information about patients, and may also increase their emotional burden, affecting patient care quality. The present…

During drug development, evidence can emerge to suggest a treatment is more effective in a specific patient subgroup. Whilst early trials may be conducted in biomarker-mixed populations, later trials are more likely to enroll biomarker-positive patients alone, thus leading to trials of the same treatment investigated in different populations. When…

In China, despite the rapid increase in percutaneous coronary interventions (PCIs), cardiac rehabilitation (CR) is just burgeoning, leaving a need for comprehensive evidence-based education curricula. This pilot study assessed the acceptability of Simplified Chinese CR education delivered via booklets and videos on WeChat asynchronously and the…

Previous studies have shown that the price of a given product impacts the perceived quality of such product. This finding was also observed in medical contexts, showing that expensive drugs increase the placebo effect compared to inexpensive ones. However, addressing a drug's efficacy requires making causal inferences between the drug and the…

Measurement-based care, an evidence-based practice endorsed by the American Psychological Association, is underpinned by routine assessment supporting a data-driven approach to clinical decision making. Nonetheless, there is a need for brief, nonproprietary measures assessing non-symptom-based outcomes. The present study examined the psychometric…

Matching-adjusted indirect comparison (MAIC) enables indirect comparisons of interventions across separate studies when individual patient-level data (IPD) are available for only one study. Due to its similarity with propensity score weighting, it has been speculated that MAIC can be combined with outcome regression models in the spirit of…

Population-adjusted indirect comparisons, developed in the 2010s, enable comparisons between two treatments in different studies by balancing patient characteristics in the case where individual patient-level data (IPD) are available for only one study. Health technology assessment (HTA) bodies increasingly rely on these methods to inform funding…

Background: People who have communication difficulties may benefit from using augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). Understanding and measuring outcomes from the use of AAC is an important part of evaluating the impact of devices and services. Outcome measurement needs to reflect the changing nature of the impact of using AAC on an…

Background: Although existing studies have shown that both repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) and music therapy have advantages in the treatment of non-fluent aphasia, the efficacy of the combination of these two methods remains to be investigated. Aims: To investigate the clinical efficacy of low-frequency rTMS combined with…

Some patients benefit from a treatment while others may do so less or do not benefit at all. We have previously developed a two-stage network meta-regression prediction model that synthesized randomized trials and evaluates how treatment effects vary across patient characteristics. In this article, we extended this model to combine different…

Background: In the United Kingdom, policy change has led to specialist intellectual disability inpatient bed reduction. Little evidence exists assessing the results for patients admitted to such units. This study evaluates the outcomes of a specialist intellectual disability inpatient unit. Method: Gender/age/ethnicity/intellectual disability…

Patient outcomes are influenced by the social determinants of health (SDOH), which influence differing exposures to opportunities or health risks. Holistic care of geriatric patients includes considering SDOH in patient assessment, diagnosis, and care delivery. Understanding how NP students care for geriatric patients using a SDOH lens provides…

Research suggests that newly graduated nurses lack confidence in caring for deteriorating patients and this lack of confidence could lead to poor patient outcomes. The aim of this project was to examine the effectiveness of a simulation intervention on the confidence level of Associate Degree Nursing (ADN) students in caring for deteriorating…