Matching-adjusted indirect comparison (MAIC) enables indirect comparisons of interventions across separate studies when individual patient-level data (IPD) are available for only one study. Due to its similarity with propensity score weighting, it has been speculated that MAIC can be combined with outcome regression models in the spirit of…

Systematic reviewers are advised to search trials registers to minimise risk of reporting biases. However, there has been little research on the impact of searching trials registers on the results of meta-analyses. We aimed to evaluate the impact of searching clinical trials registers for systematic reviews of pharmaceutical or non-pharmaceutical…

Underrepresentation of historically marginalized populations in clinical trials continues to threaten the validity of health intervention research. Evidence supports the merits of intercept and other proactive forms of recruitment for achieving more equitable representation. However, researchers also report lower retention and adherence to…

Contextual factors such as cultural values and traditions impact on implementation processes of healthcare interventions. It is one of the reasons why local stakeholders may decide to role out a programme differently from how it has originally been developed or described in scientific literature. This can result in different but most likely more…

Background: Involving adults with cognitive impairments, and specifically intellectual disability, in research is critical to developing appropriate and effective interventions but is highly challenging. Our aim was to examine where complexities lie in delivering research in underrepresented and hard to reach populations using an exemplar process…

Missing data are ubiquitous in studies examining preventive interventions. This missing data need to be handled appropriately for data analyses to yield unbiased results. After a brief discussion of missing data mechanisms, inappropriate missing data treatments and appropriate missing data treatments, we review the current state of missing data…

This paper addresses psychological factors that might interfere with informed consent on the part of stable patients as potential early-phase clinical trial participants. Thirty-six semistructured interviews with patients who had either diabetes or gout were conducted. We investigated stable patients' attitudes towards participating in a…

Hofmann and Holm's (2019) recent survey on issues of research misconduct with PhD graduates culminated with a notable conclusion by the authors: 'Scientific misconduct seems to be an environmental issue as much as a matter of personal integrity'. Here, we re-emphasise the usefulness of an education-based countermeasure against toxic research…

Randomised trials are often funded by commercial companies and methodological studies support a widely held suspicion that commercial funding may influence trial results and conclusions. However, these studies often have a risk of confounding and reporting bias. The risk of confounding is markedly reduced in meta-epidemiological studies that…

The practice of prospectively registering the details of intervention studies in a public database or registry is gaining momentum across disciplines as a strategy for increasing the transparency, credibility, and accessibility of study findings. In this article, we consider five registries that may be relevant for registration of intervention…

Background: Despite positive public attitudes toward solid organ donation in the United States, some of the lowest rates of donor designation persist among older adults and Latinx populations. Aims: To identify barriers and facilitators to organ donation and donor designation among lay health educators ("promotoras") and mature Latina…

This study aimed to examine the behaviour of learners across a whole system and in various courses to reveal the interrelation between learners' system interaction, age, programme features and course design. We obtained data from the system logs of 1,634 learners enrolled in distance learning programmes. We performed hierarchical clustering…