Transparency, bias, and reproducibility across science: a meta-research view.

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Protocol for the development of a reporting guideline for umbrella reviews on epidemiological associations using cross-sectional, case-control and cohort studies: the Preferred Reporting Items for Umbrella Reviews of Cross-sectional, Case-control and Cohort studies (PRIUR-CCC).

Introduction: Observational studies are fraught with several biases including reverse causation and residual confounding. Overview of reviews of observational studies (ie, umbrella reviews) synthesise systematic reviews with or without meta-analyses of cross-sectional, case-control and cohort studies, and may also aid in the grading of the credibility of reported associations. The number of published umbrella reviews has been increasing.

Heterogeneity in elevated glucose and A1C as predictors of the prediabetes to diabetes transition: Framingham Heart Study, Multi-Ethnic Study on Atherosclerosis, Jackson Heart Study, and Atherosclerosis Risk In Communities.

Introduction: There are a number of glycemic definitions for prediabetes; however, the heterogeneity in diabetes transition rates from prediabetes across different glycemic definitions in major US cohorts has been unexplored. We estimate the variability in risk and relative risk of adiposity based on diagnostic criteria like fasting glucose and hemoglobin A1C% (HA1C%).

Research Design And Methods: We estimated transition rate from prediabetes, as defined by fasting glucose between 100-125 and/or 110-125 mg/dL, and HA1C% between 5.

Availability of evidence and comparative effectiveness for surgical versus drug interventions: an overview of systematic reviews and meta-analyses.

Objectives: This study aims to examine the prevalence of comparisons of surgery to drug regimens, the strength of evidence of such comparisons and whether surgery or the drug intervention was favoured.

Design: Systematic review of systematic reviews (umbrella review).

Data Sources: Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews.

Expert Perspectives on Pilot and Feasibility Studies: A Delphi Study and Consolidation of Considerations for Behavioral Interventions.

Background: In the behavioral sciences, conducting pilot and/or feasibility studies (PFS) is a key step that provides essential information used to inform the design, conduct, and implementation of a larger-scale trial. There are more than 160 published guidelines, reporting checklists, frameworks, and recommendations related to PFS. All of these publications offer some form of guidance on PFS, but many focus on one or a few topics.

Mapping and systematic appraisal of umbrella reviews in epidemiological research: a protocol for a meta-epidemiological study.

Introduction: Umbrella review is one of the terms used to describe an overview of systematic reviews. During the last years, a rapid increase in the number of umbrella reviews on epidemiological studies has been observed, but there is no systematic assessment of their methodological and reporting characteristics. Our study aims to fill this gap by performing a systematic mapping of umbrella reviews in epidemiological research.

Differential COVID-19 infection rates in children, adults, and elderly: Systematic review and meta-analysis of 38 pre-vaccination national seroprevalence studies.

Background: Debate exists about whether extra protection of elderly and other vulnerable individuals is feasible in COVID-19. We aimed to assess the relative infection rates in the elderly vs the non-elderly and, secondarily, in children vs adults.

Methods: We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of seroprevalence studies conducted in the pre-vaccination era.

Time-varying risk of death after SARS-CoV-2 infection in Swedish long-term care facility residents: a matched cohort study.

Objectives: To evaluate whether SARS-CoV-2 infection in residents of long-term care (LTC) facilities is associated with higher mortality after the acute phase of infection, and to estimate survival in uninfected residents.

Design: Extended follow-up of a previous, propensity score-matched, retrospective cohort study based on the Swedish Senior Alert register.

Setting: LTC facilities in Sweden.

Citation impact and social media visibility of Great Barrington and John Snow signatories for COVID-19 strategy.

Objective: The Great Barrington Declaration (GBD) and the John Snow Memorandum (JSM), each signed by numerous scientists, have proposed hotly debated strategies for handling the COVID-19 pandemic. The current analysis aimed to examine whether the prevailing narrative that GBD is a minority view among experts is true.

Methods: The citation impact and social media presence of the key GBD and JSM signatories was assessed.

Antenatal corticosteroids prior to planned caesarean at term for improving neonatal outcomes.

Background: Infants born at term by elective caesarean section are more likely to develop respiratory morbidity than infants born vaginally. Prophylactic corticosteroids in singleton preterm pregnancies accelerate lung maturation and reduce the incidence of respiratory complications. It is unclear whether administration at term gestations, prior to caesarean section, improves the respiratory outcomes for these babies without causing any unnecessary morbidity to the mother or the infant.

Overall and COVID-19-specific citation impact of highly visible COVID-19 media experts: bibliometric analysis.

Objective: To evaluate whether the COVID-19 experts who appear most frequently in media have high citation impact for their research overall, and for their COVID-19 peer-reviewed publications in particular and to examine the representation of women among such experts.

Design: Cross-linking of data sets of most highly visible COVID-19 media experts with citation data on the impact of their published work (career-long publication record and COVID-19-specific work).

Setting: Cable news appearance in prime-time programming or overall media appearances.

Large Pediatric Randomized Clinical Trials in ClinicalTrials.gov.

Background: Large, randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are essential in answering pivotal questions in child health.

Methods: We created a bird's eye view of all large, noncluster, nonvaccine pediatric RCTs with ≥1000 participants registered in ClinicalTrials.gov (last search January 9, 2020).

Reporting only relative effect measures was potentially misleading: some good practices for improving the soundness of epidemiological results.

Objective: In the medical and epidemiological literature there is a growing tendency to report an excessive number of decimal digits (often three, sometimes four), especially when measures of relative occurrence are small; this can be misleading.

Study Design And Setting: We combined mathematical and statistical reasoning about the precision of relative risks with the meaning of the decimal part of the same measures from biological and public health perspectives.

Results: We identified a general rule for minimizing the mathematical error due to rounding of relative risks, depending on the background absolute rate, which justifies the use of one or more decimal digits for estimates close to 1.

SARS-CoV-2 re-infection risk in Austria.

Background: A key question concerning coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is how effective and long lasting immunity against this disease is in individuals who were previously infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). We aimed to evaluate the risk of SARS-CoV-2 re-infections in the general population in Austria.

Methods: This is a retrospective observational study using national SARS-CoV-2 infection data from the Austrian epidemiological reporting system.

Evaluating and Strengthening the Evidence for Nutritional Bone Research: Ready to Break New Ground?

A healthy diet is essential to attain genetically determined peak bone mass and maintain optimal skeletal health across the adult lifespan. Despite the importance of nutrition for bone health, many of the nutritional requirements of the skeleton across the lifespan remain underexplored, poorly understood, or controversial. With increasingly aging populations, combined with rapidly changing diets and lifestyles globally, one anticipates large increases in the prevalence of osteoporosis and incidence of osteoporotic fractures.

Systematic examination of preprint platforms for use in the medical and biomedical sciences setting.

Objectives: The objective of this review is to identify all preprint platforms with biomedical and medical scope and to compare and contrast the key characteristics and policies of these platforms.

Study Design And Setting: Preprint platforms that were launched up to 25 June 2019 and have a biomedical and medical scope according to MEDLINE's journal selection criteria were identified using existing lists, web-based searches and the expertise of both academic and non-academic publication scientists. A data extraction form was developed, pilot tested and used to collect data from each preprint platform's webpage(s).

Examining the robustness of observational associations to model, measurement and sampling uncertainty with the vibration of effects framework.

Background: The results of studies on observational associations may vary depending on the study design and analysis choices as well as due to measurement error. It is important to understand the relative contribution of different factors towards generating variable results, including low sample sizes, researchers' flexibility in model choices, and measurement error in variables of interest and adjustment variables.

Methods: We define sampling, model and measurement uncertainty, and extend the concept of vibration of effects in order to study these three types of uncertainty in a common framework.

Global assessment of C-reactive protein and health-related outcomes: an umbrella review of evidence from observational studies and Mendelian randomization studies.

C-reactive protein (CRP) has been studied extensively for association with a large number of non-infectious diseases and outcomes. We aimed to evaluate the breadth and validity of associations between CRP and non-infectious, chronic health outcomes and biomarkers. We conducted an umbrella review of systematic reviews and meta-analyses and a systematic review of Mendelian randomization (MR) studies.

PROTOCOL: When and how to replicate systematic reviews.

This is a protocol for a co-registered Cochrane and Campbell Review (Methodology). The objectives are as follows: To identify, describe and assess methods for: when to replicate a systematic review; how to replicate a systematic review.