The abstract is appropriate for the paper and provides the summary of the findings as per expected. I note the comment re the need for an important longer term study to assess clinical and cost-effectiveness outcomes. I would prefer they add over ”a longer period of time” in this abstract. I think it is a key point for future studies. We have added the suggested phrase

BACKGROUND In 2002, the euthanasia act came into effect in the Netherlands, which was followed by a slight decrease in the euthanasia frequency. We assessed frequency and characteristics of euthanasia, physician-assisted suicide, and other end-of-life practices in 2010, and assessed trends since 1990. METHODS In 1990, 1995, 2001, 2005, and 2010 we did nationwide studies of a stratified sample...

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES There has been more than 100 per cent increase in incidence of stroke in low- and middle-income countries including India from 1970-1979 to 2000-2008. Lack of reliable reporting mechanisms, heterogeneity in methodology, study population, and small sample size in existing epidemiological studies, make an accurate estimation of stroke burden in India challenging. We conduc...

Electronic government (e-government) is a concept that has been adopted in most countries for the purposes of providing government services digitally, improving transparency between government and citizens and enabling additional communication channels with the government. Although e-government readiness in most countries is at a high level, adoption of e-government services is still considered...

BACKGROUND Peer review is the major method used by biomedical journals for making the decision of publishing an article. This cross-sectional survey assesses views concerning the review system of biomedical journals among academics globally. METHODS A total of 28,009 biomedical academics from high-ranking universities listed by the 2009 Times Higher Education Quacquarelli Symonds (THE-QS) Wor...

The incidence of patients diagnosed with primary malignant cardiac tumors (PMCTs) has increased greatly in the past few decades. Whether this rising prevalence is due to overdiagnosis or an increased malignancy rate of primary cardiac tumors (PCTs) remains unclear. Therefore, we performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of published retrospective studies to determine whether the malignanc...

Systematic reviews are an important part of the current move towards evidence-based practice. Independent reviewers use a variety of search strategies to identify and assess relevant articles in the field of concern. Criteria for quality must be agreed and articles evaluated accordingly. This study systematically reviewed educational interventions targeting physicians in primary care (excluding...

In many countries, national vaccination recommendations are developed by independent expert committees, so-called national immunisation technical advisory groups (NITAG). Since the evaluation of vaccines is complex and resource-demanding, collaboration between NITAGs that evaluate the same vaccines could be beneficial. We conducted a cross-sectional survey among 30 European countries in Februar...

Context: Test driven development (TDD) has been extensively researched and compared to traditional approaches (test last development, TLD). Existing literature reviews show varying results for TDD. Objective: This study investigates how the conclusions of existing literature reviews change when taking two study quality dimension into account, namely rigor and relevance. Method: In this study a ...

Title: An algorithm to assess methodological quality of nutrition and mortality cross-sectional surveys: development and application to surveys conducted in Darfur, Sudan Authors: Claudine Prudhon ([email protected]) Xavier de Radigues ([email protected]) Nancy Dale