Stratified care integrated with eHealth versus usual primary care physiotherapy in patients with neck and/or shoulder complaints: protocol for a cluster randomized controlled trial.

Background: Neck and shoulder complaints are common in primary care physiotherapy. These patients experience pain and disability, resulting in high societal costs due to, for example, healthcare use and work absence. Content and intensity of physiotherapy care can be matched to a patient's risk of persistent disabling pain.

Reconsideration of the scheme of the international classification of functioning, disability and health: incentives from the Netherlands for a global debate.

Purpose: The ICF (International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health) framework (used worldwide to describe 'functioning' and 'disability'), including the ICF scheme (visualization of functioning as result of interaction with health condition and contextual factors), needs reconsideration. The purpose of this article is to discuss alternative ICF schemes.

Method: Reconsideration of ICF via literature review and discussions with 23 Dutch ICF experts.

Burden of Sickness Absence Due to Chronic Disease in the Dutch Workforce from 2007 to 2011.

Introduction: Chronic diseases are associated with productivity loss costs due to sickness absence. It is not always clear, however, which chronic diseases in particular are involved with how many sickness days and associated costs.

Objective: To determine the prevalence, additional days of sickness absence, and associated costs of chronic diseases among the Dutch working population from 2007 to 2011.

Prediction of asymptomatic carotid artery stenosis in the general population: identification of high-risk groups.

Background And Purpose: Because of a low prevalence of severe carotid stenosis in the general population, screening for presence of asymptomatic carotid artery stenosis (ACAS) is not warranted. Possibly, for certain subgroups, screening is worthwhile. The present study aims to develop prediction rules for the presence of ACAS (>50% and >70%).

Prevalence of asymptomatic carotid artery stenosis in the general population: an individual participant data meta-analysis.

Background And Purpose: In the discussion on the cost-effectiveness of screening, precise estimates of severe asymptomatic carotid stenosis are vital. Accordingly, we assessed the prevalence of moderate and severe asymptomatic carotid stenosis by age and sex using pooled cohort data.

Methods: We performed an individual participant data meta-analysis (23 706 participants) of 4 population-based studies (Malmö Diet and Cancer Study, Tromsø, Carotid Atherosclerosis Progression Study, and Cardiovascular Health Study).

Prevalence of asymptomatic carotid artery stenosis according to age and sex: systematic review and metaregression analysis.

Background And Purpose: In the discussion on the value of population-wide screening for asymptomatic carotid artery stenosis (ACAS), reliable prevalence estimates are crucial. We set out to provide reliable age- and sex-specific prevalence estimates of ACAS through a systematic literature review and meta-regression analysis.

Methods: We searched PubMed and EmBase until December 2007 for studies that reported the prevalence of ACAS in a population free of symptomatic carotid artery disease.