To comprehensively evaluate the quality of guidelines related to fetal growth restriction (FGR) and provide recommendations for the development of high-quality guidelines. The CNKI, Wanfang, PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and other databases were searched for FGR guidelines published from database inception to September 2024. The Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation II (AGREE II), Reporting Items for Practice Guidelines in Healthcare (RIGHT), and Scientific, Transparent and Applicable Rankings (STAR) tools were used for quality assessment. Interrater reliability was assessed using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). Ten guidelines, including nine English-language clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) and one Chinese-language CPG, were included. Based on the AGREE II assessment, two guidelines were classified as “recommended” and eight as “recommended with modification”. The STAR domain scores were highest for “recommendations” (88.66
Patient authorship and involvement in peer-reviewed publications is an increasing and evolving practice across the pharmaceutical industry, however implementation remains inconsistent and there is a need for specific and comprehensive guidelines. This practice-informed systematic literature review and qualitative evidence synthesis searched the peer-reviewed and grey literature (1 Jan 2018–1 June 2025) for meta-research, thought leadership, or commentaries about patient involvement in publications. Qualitative extractions were split into three datasets of best practices, gaps, and recommendations. Best practice codes were then categorised and synthesised into evidence-based best practices using meta-aggregative pragmatic inquiry and mapped to the stages of the publication lifecycle. As secondary, a priori analyses, a subset of codes relating to conflicting topics from the codebook generated using the best practice dataset were then deductively applied to the gaps and recommendations datasets and analysed for interpretation and expansion of concepts using reflexive thematic analysis. A total of 166 peer-reviewed literature and grey literature records were included in the reviewed, resulting in a synthesis of 66 best practices for patient involvement in peer-reviewed publications across and beyond the publication lifecycle. Two conflicting best practice topics required secondary analysis, namely the discourse on how patient authors should be identified and affiliated and if patient authors can be remunerated. Here we establish and propose an evidence-based framework of best practices for patient authorship and involvement in pharmaceutical industry peer-reviewed publications to improve consistency and standardisation. Further consensus is needed on topics of patient author affiliations and remuneration. PROSPERO. CRD420251030982. In the pharmaceutical industry, patients can be involved in writing and publishing research papers, for example as authors. However, different pharmaceutical companies are involving patients in different ways and sometimes applying rules for involvement differently. We reviewed what has already been published on the topic in medical journals and in other types of online content such as industry magazines. We summarised the available evidence into a framework of 66 most important best practices that we recommend pharmaceutical companies follow to make patient involvement in research papers better and more consistent.
Statins, widely used for cardiovascular disease prevention, have shown potential antitumor effects through anti-inflammatory, immunomodulatory, and antiproliferative mechanisms. This systematic review and meta-analysis evaluated the association between statin use and clinical outcomes in patients with head and neck cancer (HNC). A comprehensive search of PubMed, EMBASE, CINAHL, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Library was conducted up to February 2025. Clinical trials and observational studies assessing statin use in HNC were included. We meta-analyzed hazard ratios (HRs) for four outcomes—overall survival, cancer-specific survival, recurrence, and stroke incidence—and summarized non-poolable studies qualitatively. Subgroup analyses were stratified by HNC type, risk of bias (adjusted vs. KM-reconstructed HRs), and handling of immortal time bias (ITB). Statin use was significantly associated with reduced cancer-specific mortality (N = 5 studies; HR, 0.67; 95
Klebsiella pneumoniae (KP) infection is a growing global threat because of increasing antimicrobial resistance and high mortality. We systematically estimated mortality at different endpoints and synthesized adjusted factors associated with death to inform risk assessment and management. We searched PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, and the Cochrane Library for studies published from January 1991 to June 2025 (CRD42023456620). Prespecified meta-analyses included predictors reported by ≥ 3 studies, with ≥ 1 reporting a significant adjusted association. Adjusted odds ratios (ORs) and hazard ratios (HRs) were synthesized separately. Fixed- or random effects models were selected according to heterogeneity. Subgroup analyses examined study-level characteristics. We included 121 studies involving 21,660 patients (6235 deaths; 28.8
Analyses of within-person change in continuous outcomes are widely used in longitudinal observational health research. However, modeling change presents challenges, particularly regarding questions about when adjustment for baseline outcome values is indicated and how to deal with regression to the mean (RTM) and measurement error (ME). Despite extensive methodological debate, it remains unclear how these issues are addressed in applied studies and what analytical strategies have been proposed to mitigate related biases. We conducted a scoping review of methodological studies proposing strategies to address bias when analyzing within-person change in continuous outcomes and of applied observational studies to examine analytical practice following PRISMA guidelines and PROSPERO registration (CRD420251024543). MEDLINE and EMBASE were searched from January 2000 to April 2025. Methodological studies addressed RTM, ME, or related modeling challenges while applied studies examined longitudinal changes in continuous metabolic syndrome (MetS) indicators as well as body weight outcomes. Findings were synthesized narratively and as a decision framework to help researchers select analytical strategies according to the bias of interest. We included 66 methodological and 102 applied studies. Methodological studies proposed a range of approaches to address bias related to RTM and ME, including analytical RTM correction methods, model-based longitudinal approaches, alternative estimators for baseline-change associations, causal and estimand-based frameworks, calibration methods, latent-variable models, and flexible ME models. Common recommendations were aligning analyses with the research question, accounting for measurement processes, and using repeated measurements where possible. In contrast, applied studies showed heterogeneity in analytical practice. Forty-nine percent used models adjusting for baseline outcome values, 44
