Home-based exercise for people living with frailty and chronic kidney disease: A mixed-methods pilot randomised controlled trial.

Background: Frailty is associated with adverse health outcomes in people with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Evidence supporting targeted interventions is needed. This pilot randomised controlled trial (RCT) aimed to inform the design of a definitive RCT evaluating the effectiveness of a home-based exercise intervention for pre-frail and frail older adults with CKD.

The AEDUCATE Collaboration. Comprehensive antenatal education birth preparation programmes to reduce the rates of caesarean section in nulliparous women. Protocol for an individual participant data prospective meta-analysis.

Introduction: Rates of medical interventions in normal labour and birth are increasing. This prospective meta-analysis (PMA) proposes to assess whether the addition of a comprehensive multicomponent birth preparation programme reduces caesarean section (CS) in nulliparous women compared with standard hospital care. Additionally, do participant characteristics, intervention components or hospital characteristics modify the effectiveness of the programme? METHODS AND ANALYSIS: : women with singleton vertex pregnancies, no planned caesarean section (CS) or epidural.

The EX-FRAIL CKD trial: a study protocol for a pilot randomised controlled trial of a home-based EXercise programme for pre-frail and FRAIL, older adults with Chronic Kidney Disease.

Introduction: Frailty is highly prevalent in adults with chronic kidney disease (CKD) and is associated with adverse health outcomes including falls, poorer health-related quality of life (HRQOL), hospitalisation and mortality. Low physical activity and muscle wasting are important contributors to physical frailty in adults with CKD. Exercise training may improve physical function and frailty status leading to associated improvements in health outcomes, including HRQOL.

Inequalities and stillbirth in the UK: a meta-narrative review.

Objective: To review what is known about the relationship between stillbirth and inequalities from different disciplinary perspectives to inform stillbirth prevention strategies.

Design: Systematic review using the meta-narrative method.

Setting: Studies undertaken in the UK.

Qualitative Evidence Synthesis (QES) for Guidelines: Paper 1 - Using qualitative evidence synthesis to inform guideline scope and develop qualitative findings statements.

Background: WHO has recognised the need to ensure that guideline processes are transparent and evidence based, and that the resulting recommendations are relevant and applicable. Along with decision-making criteria that require findings from effectiveness reviews, WHO is increasingly using evidence derived from qualitative evidence syntheses (QES) to inform the values, acceptability, equity and feasibility implications of its recommendations. This is the first in a series of three papers examining the use of QES in developing clinical and health systems guidelines.

Cost analysis of the CTLB Study, a multitherapy antenatal education programme to reduce routine interventions in labour.

Objective: To assess whether the multitherapy antenatal education 'CTLB' (Complementary Therapies for Labour and Birth) Study programme leads to net cost savings.

Design: Cost analysis of the CTLB Study, using analysis of outcomes and hospital funding data.

Methods: We take a payer perspective and use Australian Refined Diagnosis-Related Group (AR-DRG) cost data to estimate the potential savings per woman to the payer (government or private insurer).

The feasibility and acceptability of using the Mother-Generated Index (MGI) as a Patient Reported Outcome Measure in a randomised controlled trial of maternity care.

Background: Using patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) to assess Quality of Life (QoL) is well established, but commonly-used PROM item-sets do not necessarily capture what all respondents consider important. Measuring complex constructs is particularly difficult in randomised controlled trials (RCTs). The Mother-Generated Index (MGI) is a validated antenatal and postnatal QoL instrument in which the variables and scores are completely respondent-driven.

Qualitative meta-synthesis: a guide for the novice.

The emerging field of qualitative synthesis is an exciting area of research with the potential to influence policy and practice. It is also saturated with a variety of unresolved philosophical, terminological and methodological discussions which may seem daunting to the novice researcher This article by Kenneth Finlayson and Annie Dixon attempts to clarify some of the more controversial issues and, by providing a set of guidelines, hopes to encourage novices to enter this stimulating environment with confidence and understanding.