The Impact of Mediterranean Dietary Patterns During Pregnancy on Maternal and Offspring Health.

(1) Background: Pregnancy outcomes for both mother and child are affected by many environmental factors. The importance of pregnancy for 'early life programming' is well established and maternal nutrition is an important factor contributing to a favourable environment for developing offspring. We aim to assess whether following a Mediterranean Diet during pregnancy is beneficial for maternal and offspring outcomes; (2) Methods: a systematic review was performed using standardized reporting guidelines with the National Heart Lung and Blood Iinstitute quality assessment tool for selection and extraction; (3) Results: results show that being on a Mediterranean Diet during pregnancy is associated with favourable outcomes for both maternal and offspring health, particularly for gestational diabetes in mothers and congenital defects in offspring (4) Conclusions: Following a Mediterranean dietary pattern during gestation is beneficial for the health of both the mother and offspring.

Use of mobile applications in the management of overweight and obesity in primary and secondary care.

Mobile technology has emerged as a potentially useful application in the process of facilitating weight loss management. While several empirical studies have demonstrated the positive effects of mobile-based interventions, the extent of such effectiveness is still a topic of debate. Thus, the current systematic review involved searching electronic databases for studies on the use of mobile app-based interventions in the management of overweight and obesity among adults over 18 years of age in a primary and secondary care setting.

Knowledge and perceptions of national and provincial tuberculosis control programme managers in Pakistan about the WHO Stop TB strategy: a qualitative study.

Objective: To understand how national and provincial tuberculosis programme managers in Pakistan perceive and engage with the Stop TB strategy, its strengths, weaknesses and their experience in its implementation. National and provincial tuberculosis programme managers play an important role in effective implementation of the Stop TB strategy.

Design: A qualitative interview study was conducted with 10 national and provincial tuberculosis programme managers to understand how they perceive and engage with the Stop TB strategy, its strengths, weaknesses and their experience in its implementation.

Integrating Maternal and Children's Oral Health Promotion into Nursing and Midwifery Practice- A Systematic Review.

Background: Globally, oral diseases contribute to major disease problems and oral health disparities persistently exist amongst vulnerable population groups. Two contributory factors to these challenges are the shortage of dental practitioners and the characteristic separation between the medical and dental professions. Nurses and midwives, in particular, are in a potentially excellent position to assist in basic oral health services such as dental health education and intraoral screening.

The impact of poor glycaemic control on the prevalence of erectile dysfunction in men with type 2 diabetes mellitus: a systematic review.

Objective: To determine the impact of poor glycaemic control on the prevalence of erectile dysfunction among men with type 2 Diabetics aged 27 to 85 years.

Design: The databases Embase classic+Embase, Global health, Ovid Medline and PsychINFO, were searched for relevant studies in June 2014 using the keywords: (Diabetes Mellitus OR diabetes mellitus type2 OR DM2 OR T2DM OR insulin resistance) AND (erectile dysfunction OR sexual dysfunction OR impotence) AND glycaemic control.

Setting: All study settings were considered (primary care, secondary care and tertiary care setting).

Impact of conflict on medical education: a cross-sectional survey of students and institutions in Iraq.

Objective: This study surveyed all Iraqi medical schools and a cross-section of Iraqi medical students regarding their institutional and student experiences of medical education amidst ongoing conflict. The objective was to better understand the current resources and challenges facing medical schools, and the impacts of conflict on the training landscape and student experience, to provide evidence for further research and policy development.

Setting: Deans of all Iraqi medical schools registered in the World Directory of Medical Schools were invited to participate in a survey electronically.

The UK immunisation schedule: changes to vaccine policy and practice in 2013/14.

Vaccination programmes are implemented either as new vaccines become available or evidence about them accumulates, or in response to specific situations. In the United Kingdom, development and implementation of the national immunisation programme is centrally coordinated and funded by the Department of Health on behalf of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. A number of significant changes were made to the UK immunisation schedule for 2013/2014.

Effectiveness and impact of rotavirus vaccines in Europe, 2006-2014.

Prior to the introduction of rotavirus vaccines in 2006, rotavirus was the leading cause of severe gastroenteritis among European children <5 years of age. We conducted a systematic review of the published literature to examine the effectiveness and impact of rotavirus vaccines in Europe following the first eight years of routine use. Four publication databases were searched, yielding 276 unique citations from February 1st, 2006 to July 31st, 2014.