Objective The aim of the study is to compare the available reference values and the six-minute walk test equations in healthy children/adolescents. Our systematic review was planned and performed in accordance with the PRISMA guidelines. We included all studies that established reference values for the six-minute walk test in healthy children/adolescents. Methods To perform this review, a res...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Although many adults experience resource-intensive and costly health care in the last year of life, less is known about these health care experiences in children with life-threatening complex chronic conditions (LT-CCCs). We assessed hospital resource use in children by type and number of LT-CCCs. METHODS A retrospective analysis of 1252 children with LT-CCCs, ages 1...

CONTEXT Patients in rural areas may use less medical care than those living in urban areas. This could be due to differences in travel distance and time and a utilization of a different mix of generalists and specialists for their care. PURPOSE To compare the travel times, distances, and physician specialty mix of all Medicare patients living in Alaska, Idaho, North Carolina, South Carolina, ...

OBJECTIVE To appraise the process of development and clinical content of national human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) clinical practice guidelines of countries in the eastern Mediterranean and to formulate recommendations for future guideline development and adaptation. METHODS Twenty-three countries in the World Health Organization (WHO) Eastern Mediterranean and United Nations Children's Fun...

OBJECTIVE Laboratory tests are ordered on a daily basis, even though disease probability is often very low. Abnormal results, especially mildly abnormal results, can be difficult to interpret in these circumstances. Further insights into the occurrence of abnormalities can help improve rational test ordering and test interpretation. The objective was therefore to examine the frequency of mildly...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effect of Baby Check, an illness scoring system for babies of 6 months or less, on parents' use of health services for their baby. DESIGN Randomised controlled trial. SETTING 13 general practices in Glasgow. SUBJECTS 997 newly delivered mothers, randomised to receive either Baby Check and Play It Safe, an accident prevention leaflet (n=497), or Play It Safe alone...

BACKGROUND Early detection and diagnosis of tuberculosis remain major global priorities for tuberculosis control. Few studies have used a qualitative approach to investigate the social determinants contributing to diagnostic delay and none have compared data collected from individual, community, and health-system levels. We aimed to characterize the social determinants that contribute to diagno...

Purpose The aim of this study was to analyze and compare foot health and general health in a sample of women divided into two groups: 1) those with breast cancer and undergoing chemotherapy treatment and 2) healthy women without breast cancer and with normalized reference values. Methods A case-control observational study was performed. Two-hundred women with a mean age of 51.00±8.75 years we...

BACKGROUND Tuberculosis (TB) is still a great challenge to public health in sub-Saharan Africa. Most transmissions occur between the onset of coughing and initiation of treatment. Delay in diagnosis is significant to disease prognosis, thus early diagnosis and prompt effective therapy represent the key elements in controlling the disease. The objective of this study was to investigate the facto...