Publications by authors named "F M Gilchrist"

Background: The merits of technology have been adopted in capturing patient-reported outcomes (PROs) by incorporating PROs into electronic systems. Following the development of an electronic system, evaluation of system performance is crucial to ensuring the collection of meaningful data. In contemporary PRO literature, electronic system validation is overlooked, and evidence on validation methods is lacking.

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Background: The presence of dental caries impacts on children's daily lives, particularly among those living in deprived areas. There are successful interventions across the United Kingdom for young children based on toothbrushing with fluoride toothpaste. However, evidence is lacking for oral health improvement programmes in secondary-school pupils to reduce dental caries and its sequelae.

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Objectives: This multicentre, assessor-blinded, two-arm cluster randomized trial evaluated the clinical and cost-effectiveness of a behaviour change intervention promoting toothbrushing for preventing dental caries in UK secondary schools.

Methods: Pupils aged 11-13 years with their own mobile telephone attending secondary schools with above average free school meals eligibility were randomized (at year-group level) to receive a lesson and twice-daily text messages or to usual care. Year-groups (n = 84) from 42 schools including 4680 pupils (intervention, n = 2262; control, n = 2418) were randomized.

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Article Synopsis
  • The West Midlands Newborn Bloodspot Screening Laboratory has been screening for cystic fibrosis (CF) since 2006 and has reported data from 15 years of screening over a million babies.
  • Out of 1,075,161 screened infants, 402 were referred as 'CF suspected', with 268 diagnosed with CF and a low number classified as carriers or with inconclusive results.
  • The screening protocol shows high effectiveness, with a sensitivity of 97.1% and a birth prevalence of CF in the region of 1 in 4012 live births, indicating successful implementation of the screening process over the years.
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