Pragmatic Trials for Noncommunicable Diseases: Relieving Constraints

Pragmatic Trials for Noncommunicable Diseases: Relieving Constraints

In this month's editorial, PLOS Medicine Editorial Board member Anushka Patel and Ruth Webster discuss how applying rules for drug efficacy trials can impede pragmatic trials of interventions for noncommunicable diseases.

Noncommunicable diseases.

From the Departments of Epidemiology and Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston (D.J.H.); the Public Health Foundation of India, New Delhi (K.S.R.); and the World Heart Federation, Geneva (K.S.R.). Address reprint requests to Dr. Hunter at the Departments of Epidemiology and Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, 677 Huntington Ave., Boston, MA 02115, or at [email protected]...

10 . Noncommunicable diseases and prisoners

Key points • The global burden of and threat from noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) constitute a major public health challenge that undermines social and economic development throughout the world. Prisoners are at greater risk for such diseases. • Most information on NCDs in prisoners comes from high-income countries despite the fact that globally, 80% of these deaths from these diseases are in l...

Noncommunicable diseases: a call for papers

A pragmatic view on pragmatic trials

Clinical trials have been the main tool used by the health sciences community to test and evaluate interventions, Trials can fall into two broad categories: pragmatic and explanatory. Pragmatic trials are designed to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions in real-life routine practice conditions, whereas explanatory trials aim to test whether an intervention works under optimal situations....