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BACKGROUND The use of placebo interventions outside clinical trials is ethically, professionally and legally controversial. Little is known about the frequency and circumstances of placebo use in clinical practice. Our aim was to summarize the available empirical studies addressing these issues. METHODS We searched PubMed and EMBASE from inception to July 2009 in order to identify cross-secti...

International reviews have concluded that consumption of fruit and vegetables might decrease the risk of lung cancer. However, the relevant epidemiological evidence still remains insufficient in Japan. Therefore, we performed a pooled analysis of data from four population-based cohort studies in Japan with >200 000 participants and >1700 lung cancer cases. We computed study-specific hazard rati...

BACKGROUND Breastfeeding behaviour is multifactorial, and a wide range of socio-cultural and physiological variables impact on a woman's decision and ability to breastfeed successfully. An association has been reported between maternal obesity and low breastfeeding rates. This is of public health concern because obesity is rising in women of reproductive age and the apparent association with in...

The question of whether elevated blood glucose is a risk factor for liver cancer has been intensively studied, yet with inconsistent results. To explore the relationship between blood glucose concentration and risk of liver cancer, we conduct a meta-analysis of prospective studies. Literature search was comprehensively performed using database of PubMed, EMBASE and the Cochrane Library through ...

Laurent Laforest ([email protected]) Eric Van Ganse ([email protected]) Cecile Ritleng ([email protected]) Gaelle Desamericq ([email protected]) Laurent Letrilliart ([email protected]) Alain Moreau ([email protected]) Sarah Rosen ([email protected]) Hubert Mechin ([email protected]) Genevieve Chamba (genevievechamba@wa...

Introduction: Cash payments to vulnerable households and/or individuals have increasingly garnered attention as a means to reduce poverty, improve health and achieve other development-related outcomes. Recent evidence from Malawi and Tanzania suggests that cash transfers can impact HIV-related behaviours and outcomes and, therefore, could serve as an important addition to HIV prevention efforts...

Background The need for competence training and development in health management and leadership workforces has been emphasised. However, evidence of the outcomes and impact of such training and development has not been systematically assessed. The aim of this review is to synthesise the available evidence of the outcomes and impact of training and development in relation to the competence of he...