Background: Clinical guideline development preferentially relies on evidence from randomized controlled trials (RCTs). RCTs are gold-standard methods to evaluate the efficacy of treatments with the highest internal validity but limited external validity, in the sense that their findings may not always be applicable to or generalizable to clinical populations or population characteristics. The external validity of RCTs for the clinical population is constrained by the lack of tailored epidemiological data analysis designed for this purpose due to data governance, consistency of disease or condition definitions, and reduplicated effort in analysis code.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: There is a growing burden of acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and heart failure (HF) in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), yet outcomes remain poor compared to high-income countries. The European Society of Cardiology (ESC) international guidelines are pivotal to the delivery of evidence-based care; however, their representation of populations from SSA remains unclear.
Objectives: The purpose of the study was to evaluate the representation of populations from SSA in randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that inform ESC ACS and HF guidelines.
Background: Identifying clusters of multiple long-term conditions (MLTCs), also known as multimorbidity, and their associated burden may facilitate the development of effective and cost-effective targeted healthcare strategies. This study aimed to identify clusters of MLTCs and their associations with long-term health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in two UK population-based cohorts.
Methods: Age-stratified clusters of MLTCs were identified at baseline in UK Biobank (n = 502,363, 54.
Background: Frailty is of increasing interest in trials, either as a target of intervention, as an outcome or as a potential treatment modifier. However, frailty measurement is often highly variable. This scoping review assessed how frailty is quantified in randomised controlled trials (RCTs), in what context and for what purposes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOrthop J Sports Med
November 2024