Publications by authors named "Katie Thomson"

Background: Student-led clinics can provide students from allied health professions with the opportunity to gain valuable placement experience as an integral component of their preregistration program, enabling them to develop their competencies, professional skills, and administrative and leadership skills. Student-led clinics have the capacity to help meet the demand for appropriate practice-based learning opportunities, as there is an expectation that all allied health professions students should have high-quality learning experiences, ensuring the future workforce is fit for purpose. An overview of existing student-led clinics will increase our understanding of key characteristics, assisting education providers who may be considering the development of their own clinics.

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Background: Stroke often affects recognition and interpretation of information from our senses, resulting in perceptual disorders. Evidence to inform treatment is unclear.

Objective: To determine the breadth and effectiveness of interventions for stroke-related perceptual disorders and identify priority research questions.

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Background: We conducted an NIHR-funded evidence synthesis project, reviewing evidence relating to interventions for perceptual disorders following stroke. This related paper describes how people with lived experience of stroke-related perceptual disorders contributed to and influenced the project, and identifies lessons for future review projects.

Methods: We planned our patient and public involvement and engagement (PPIE) activities within a study protocol, described according to the domains of the ACTIVE framework; these were founded on principles for good practice in PPIE.

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Background: Childhood chronic pain is a widespread public health issue. We need to understand how children with chronic pain and their families experience chronic pain and its management.

Objectives: To conduct a meta-ethnography on the experiences and perceptions of children with chronic pain and their families of chronic pain, treatments and services.

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Lower-intensity interventions delivered in primary and community care contacts could provide more equitable and scalable weight management support for postnatal women. This mixed-methods systematic review aimed to explore the effectiveness, implementation, and experiences of lower-intensity weight management support delivered by the non-specialist workforce. We included quantitative and qualitative studies of any design that evaluated a lower-intensity weight management intervention delivered by non-specialist workforce in women up to 5 years post-natal, and where intervention effectiveness (weight-related and/or behavioural outcomes), implementation and/or acceptability were reported.

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Background: Up to 50% of people in low- and middle-income countries do not receive the rehabilitation they require. Telerehabilitation has the potential to improve access to neurorehabilitation services especially in low- and middle-income countries. Although there are reports of the barriers and facilitators to telerehabilitation in such settings, almost all are anecdotal.

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Background: Up to 30% of children have constipation at some stage in their life. Although often short-lived, in one-third of children it progresses to chronic functional constipation, potentially with overflow incontinence. Optimal management strategies remain unclear.

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This global umbrella review aimed to synthesise evidence of socioeconomic inequalities in the uptake of routine vaccinations and identify the mechanisms that may contribute to the association. To our knowledge, no attempt has been made to synthesise the global body of systematic reviews across a variety of vaccines, geographical locations, and measures of SES. The inclusion criteria were as follows: studies assessing vaccination uptake according to education, income, occupation/employment, and/or area-level deprivation; any country or universally recommended routine vaccination (according to the WHO); qualitative or quantitative reviews, published 2011-present.

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Background: Chronic non-cancer pain in childhood is widespread, affecting 20% to 35% of children and young people worldwide. For a sizeable number of children, chronic non-cancer pain has considerable negative impacts on their lives and quality of life, and leads to increased use of healthcare services and medication. In many countries, there are few services for managing children's chronic non-cancer pain, with many services being inadequate.

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Introduction: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) has shown significant health inequalities for people with low socioeconomic status associated with more risk factors. This review was to synthesize interventions that targeted CVD risks and outcomes among socioeconomically disadvantaged populations and to understand the impact associated with these interventions.

Sources Of Data: Cochrane CENTRAL, MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO and CINAHL were searched for records published in the last decade using a systematic search strategy, complemented by screening the reference lists and citation indexes.

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Background: Case study research is generating interest to evaluate complex interventions. However, it is not clear how this is being utilized by occupational therapists or how feasible it is to contribute to the evidence base. This scoping review explores case study research within occupational therapy in terms of how it is defined, the methodological characteristics adopted, such as data collection and analysis, and the range of practice contexts in which it is applied.

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Common mental health disorders (CMDs) disproportionately affect people experiencing socioeconomic disadvantage. Non-pharmaceutical interventions, such as 'social prescribing' and new models of care and clinical practice, are becoming increasingly prevalent in primary care. However, little is known about how these interventions work and their impact on socioeconomic inequalities in health.

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Background: Common mental health disorders are especially prevalent among people from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds. Non-pharmaceutical primary care interventions, such as social prescribing and collaborative care, provide alternatives to pharmaceutical treatments for common mental health disorders, but little is known about the impact of these interventions for patients who are socioeconomically disadvantaged.

Aim: To synthesise evidence for the effects of non-pharmaceutical primary care interventions on common mental health disorders and associated socioeconomic inequalities.

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Article Synopsis
  • Malnutrition significantly impacts the health of frail older adults, and oral nutritional supplements (ONS) might be a crucial treatment option to improve their nutritional status.
  • The objective of this study was to evaluate both the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of ONS in older individuals who are malnourished or at risk of becoming malnourished.
  • The systematic review included 11 studies involving 822 participants, revealing that while ONS improved energy intake and mobility, there was no significant evidence indicating a positive effect on body weight.
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Objectives: The project aimed to rapidly identify priority topic uncertainties as a first step to identify future systematic review questions of pertinence to key international fecal incontinence (FI) stakeholders (patients, carers, health care professionals, policy makers and voluntary, community, or social enterprise representatives). The paper's aim is to share our methods, experience, and learning with other groups planning to deliver a rapid priority setting exercise.

Study Design And Setting: An evidence gap map incorporated three evidence streams: emerging evidence identified through horizon scanning; existing evidence identified through systematic searches of bibliographic databases; and FI stakeholder insights collected through an international survey.

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Background: Perception is the ability to understand information from our senses. It allows us to experience and meaningfully interact with our environment. A stroke may impair perception in up to 70% of stroke survivors, leading to distress, increased dependence on others, and poorer quality of life.

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The effectiveness of immunization is widely accepted: it can successfully improve health outcomes by reducing the morbidity and mortality associated with vaccine-preventable diseases. In the era of pandemics, there is a pressing need to identify and understand the factors associated with vaccine uptake amongst different socioeconomic groups. The knowledge generated from research in this area can be used to inform effective interventions aimed at increasing uptake.

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Background: Current management of malnutrition can include prescribed oral nutritional supplements (ONS); however, there is uncertainty whether these supplements are effective in people who are older (≥65 years) and frail. We assessed the effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, and adherence and acceptability of ONS in frail older people who are malnourished or at risk of malnutrition.

Methods: In this systematic review and meta-analysis, five bibliographic databases (MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, Scopus, and CINAHL) and grey literature sources were searched from inception to Sept 13, 2021, to identify studies assessing the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of ONS (with or without other dietary interventions) in frail older people who are malnourished or at risk of malnutrition.

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Objective: This rapid priority setting exercise aimed to identify, expand, prioritise and explore stakeholder (patients, carers and healthcare practitioners) topic uncertainties on faecal incontinence (FI).

Design: An evidence gap map (EGM) was produced to give a visual overview of emerging trial evidence; existing systematic review-level evidence and FI stakeholder topic uncertainties derived from a survey. This EGM was used in a knowledge exchange workshop that promoted group discussions leading to the prioritisation and exploration of FI stakeholder identified topic uncertainties.

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Perceptual disorders relating to hearing, smell, somatosensation, taste, touch, and vision commonly impair stroke survivors' ability to interpret sensory information, impacting on their ability to interact with the world. We aimed to identify and summarize the existing evidence for perceptual disorder interventions poststroke and identify evidence gaps. We searched 13 electronic databases including MEDLINE and Embase and Grey literature and performed citation tracking.

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Background: There is growing recognition in healthcare that evidence from randomised controlled trials may not be appropriate to answer the full spectrum of practice-based questions and a more pluralistic approach is needed.

Aim: To consider the use of case study research in contributing to the occupational therapy evidence base.

Material And Methods: A critical discussion of the current state of evidence-based practice in occupational therapy and exploration of a viable approach to case study research is used.

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