Serum glucose levels for predicting death in patients admitted to hospital for community acquired pneumonia: prospective cohort study.

Objective: To examine whether acute dysglycaemia predicts death in people admitted to hospital with community acquired pneumonia.

Design: Multicentre prospective cohort study.

Setting: Hospitals and private practices in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria.

Validation and application of a death proxy in adult cancer patients.

PURPOSE: Fact of death is not always available on data sets used for pharmacoepidemiological research. Proxies may be an appropriate substitute in the absence of death data. The purposes of this study were to validate a proxy for death in adult cancer patients and to assess its performance when estimating survival in two cohorts of cancer patients.

Quality of data in perinatal population health databases: a systematic review.

Background: Administrative or population health datasets (PHDS) are increasingly being used for research related to maternal and infant health. However, the accuracy and completeness of the information in the PHDS is important to ensure validity of the results of this research.

Objective: To compile and review studies that validate the reporting of conditions and procedures related to pregnancy, childbirth, and newborns and provide a tool of reference for researchers.

Impact of scoring algorithm on physical activity prevalence estimates in Australian adults.

Public health recommendations for physical activity are operationalised by defining thresholds for frequency (sessions/week), duration (min/week), or volume (MET-min/week). This study compared estimates of meeting physical activity recommendations when scoring algorithms varied in specifications for frequency and duration but were comparable in volume. Data were obtained from 13,105 Australian adult respondents to the 2006 Exercise, Recreation and Sport Survey (ERASS).

Strategies for increasing high-quality intervention research in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health: views of leading researchers.

Objective: To identify policy strategies that are perceived by researchers active in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health as effective in increasing the amount of high-quality intervention research undertaken in this field.

Design And Setting: A cross-sectional study using a web-based survey was emailed to researchers based in clinical, public health and other academic institutions.

Participants: Researchers who had published more than once in Aboriginal health between 1 January 2005 and 1 August 2009, based on a MEDLINE search.

Investigation of relative risk estimates from studies of the same population with contrasting response rates and designs.

Background: There is little empirical evidence regarding the generalisability of relative risk estimates from studies which have relatively low response rates or are of limited representativeness. The aim of this study was to investigate variation in exposure-outcome relationships in studies of the same population with different response rates and designs by comparing estimates from the 45 and Up Study, a population-based cohort study (self-administered postal questionnaire, response rate 18%), and the New South Wales Population Health Survey (PHS) (computer-assisted telephone interview, response rate ~60%).

Methods: Logistic regression analysis of questionnaire data from 45 and Up Study participants (n = 101,812) and 2006/2007 PHS participants (n = 14,796) was used to calculate prevalence estimates and odds ratios (ORs) for comparable variables, adjusting for age, sex and remoteness.