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Background: Psychotherapy manuals are critical to the dissemination of psychotherapy treatments. Psychotherapy manuals typically serve several purposes, including, but not limited to, establishing new psychotherapy treatments, training providers, disseminating treatments to those who deliver them, and providing guidelines to deliver treatments with fidelity. Yet, the proliferation of psychotherapy manuals has not been well-understood, and no work has aimed to assess or review the existing landscape of psychotherapy manuals. Little is known about the breadth, scope, and foci of extant psychotherapy manuals., Objective: This scoping review aims to identify and explore the landscape of existing book-based psychotherapy manuals. This review aims to specify the defining characteristics (ie, foci, clinical populations, clinical targets, treatment type, treatment modality, and adaptations) of existing book-based psychotherapy manuals. Further, this review will demonstrate how this information, and psychotherapy manuals more broadly, has changed over time. This project aims to make a novel contribution that will have critical implications for current methods of developing, aggregating, synthesizing, and translating knowledge about psychotherapeutic treatments., Methods: This scoping review will review book-based psychotherapy manuals published from 1950 to 2022.This scoping review will be informed by guidance from the Joanna Briggs Institute Scoping Review Methodology Group and prior scoping reviews. Traditional search and application programming interface-based search methods will be used with search terms defined a priori to identify relevant results using 3 large book databases: Google Books, WorldCat, and PsycINFO. This review will leverage machine learning methods to enhance and expedite the screening process. Primary screening of results will be conducted by at least 2 authors. Data will be extracted and double-coded by research assistants using an iteratively defined codebook., Results: The search process produced 78,600 results, which were then iteratively deduplicated. Following deduplication, 50,583 results remained. The scoping review is expected to identify common elements of psychotherapy manuals, establish how the foci and content of manuals have changed over time, and illustrate coverage and gaps in the landscape of psychotherapy manuals. Results from this scoping review will be critical for future work focused on developing, aggregating, synthesizing, and disseminating knowledge about psychotherapeutic treatments., Conclusions: This review will provide knowledge about the vast landscape of psychotherapy manuals that exist. Findings from this study will inform future efforts to develop, aggregate, synthesize, and translate knowledge about psychotherapeutic treatments., International Registered Report Identifier (irrid): DERR1-10.2196/47708., (©Katherine Wislocki, Mai-Lan Tran, Emily Petti, Rosa Hernandez-Ramos, David Cenkner, Miranda Bridgwater, Ghazal Naderi, Leslie Walker, Alyson K Zalta. Originally published in JMIR Research Protocols (https://www.researchprotocols.org), 30.06.2023.)

Background: Multimorbidity, the presence of more than one condition in a single individual, is a global health issue in primary care. Multimorbid patients tend to have a poor quality of life and suffer from a complicated care process. Clinical decision support systems (CDSSs) and telemedicine are the common information and communication technologies that have been used to reduce the complexity of patient management. However, each element of telemedicine and CDSSs is often examined separately and with great variability. Telemedicine has been used for simple patient education as well as more complex consultations and case management. For CDSSs, there is variability in data inputs, intended users, and outputs. Thus, there are several gaps in knowledge about how to integrate CDSSs into telemedicine and to what extent these integrated technological interventions can help improve patient outcomes for those with multimorbidity., Objective: Our aims were to (1) broadly review system designs for CDSSs that have been integrated into each function of telemedicine for multimorbid patients in primary care, (2) summarize the effectiveness of the interventions, and (3) identify gaps in the literature., Methods: An online search for literature was conducted up to November 2021 on PubMed, Embase, CINAHL, and Cochrane. Searching from the reference lists was done to find additional potential studies. The eligibility criterion was that the study focused on the use of CDSSs in telemedicine for patients with multimorbidity in primary care. The system design for the CDSS was extracted based on its software and hardware, source of input, input, tasks, output, and users. Each component was grouped by telemedicine functions: telemonitoring, teleconsultation, tele-case management, and tele-education., Results: Seven experimental studies were included in this review: 3 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and 4 non-RCTs. The interventions were designed to manage patients with diabetes mellitus, hypertension, polypharmacy, and gestational diabetes mellitus. CDSSs can be used for various telemedicine functions: telemonitoring (eg, feedback), teleconsultation (eg, guideline suggestions, advisory material provisions, and responses to simple queries), tele-case management (eg, sharing information across facilities and teams), and tele-education (eg, patient self-management). However, the structure of CDSSs, such as data input, tasks, output, and intended users or decision-makers, varied. With limited studies examining varying clinical outcomes, there was inconsistent evidence of the clinical effectiveness of the interventions., Conclusions: Telemedicine and CDSSs have a role in supporting patients with multimorbidity. CDSSs can likely be integrated into telehealth services to improve the quality and accessibility of care. However, issues surrounding such interventions need to be further explored. These issues include expanding the spectrum of medical conditions examined; examining tasks of CDSSs, particularly for screening and diagnosis of multiple conditions; and exploring the role of the patient as the direct user of the CDSS., (©Nutchar Wiwatkunupakarn, Chanchanok Aramrat, Suphawita Pliannuom, Nida Buawangpong, Kanokporn Pinyopornpanish, Nopakoon Nantsupawat, Poppy Alice Carson Mallinson, Sanjay Kinra, Chaisiri Angkurawaranon. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (https://www.jmir.org), 28.06.2023.)

Background: Given the rapid development of social media, effective extraction and analysis of the contents of social media for health care have attracted widespread attention from health care providers. As far as we know, most of the reviews focus on the application of social media, and there is a lack of reviews that integrate the methods for analyzing social media information for health care., Objective: This scoping review aims to answer the following 4 questions: (1) What types of research have been used to investigate social media for health care, (2) what methods have been used to analyze the existing health information on social media, (3) what indicators should be applied to collect and evaluate the characteristics of methods for analyzing the contents of social media for health care, and (4) what are the current problems and development directions of methods used to analyze the contents of social media for health care?, Methods: A scoping review following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines was conducted. We searched PubMed, the Web of Science, EMBASE, the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, and the Cochrane Library for the period from 2010 to May 2023 for primary studies focusing on social media and health care. Two independent reviewers screened eligible studies against inclusion criteria. A narrative synthesis of the included studies was conducted., Results: Of 16,161 identified citations, 134 (0.8%) studies were included in this review. These included 67 (50.0%) qualitative designs, 43 (32.1%) quantitative designs, and 24 (17.9%) mixed methods designs. The applied research methods were classified based on the following aspects: (1) manual analysis methods (content analysis methodology, grounded theory, ethnography, classification analysis, thematic analysis, and scoring tables) and computer-aided analysis methods (latent Dirichlet allocation, support vector machine, probabilistic clustering, image analysis, topic modeling, sentiment analysis, and other natural language processing technologies), (2) categories of research contents, and (3) health care areas (health practice, health services, and health education)., Conclusions: Based on an extensive literature review, we investigated the methods for analyzing the contents of social media for health care to determine the main applications, differences, trends, and existing problems. We also discussed the implications for the future. Traditional content analysis is still the mainstream method for analyzing social media content, and future research may be combined with big data research. With the progress of computers, mobile phones, smartwatches, and other smart devices, social media information sources will become more diversified. Future research can combine new sources, such as pictures, videos, and physiological signals, with online social networking to adapt to the development trend of the internet. More medical information talents need to be trained in the future to better solve the problem of network information analysis. Overall, this scoping review can be useful for a large audience that includes researchers entering the field., (©Jiaqi Fu, Chaixiu Li, Chunlan Zhou, Wenji Li, Jie Lai, Shisi Deng, Yujie Zhang, Zihan Guo, Yanni Wu. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (https://www.jmir.org), 26.06.2023.)

Background: Numerous reports contend opioids can augment or inhibit malignancy. At present, there is no consensus on the risk or benefit posed by opioids on malignancy or chemotherapeutic activity. Distinguishing the consequences of opioid use from pain and its management is challenging. Additionally, opioid concentration data is often lacking in clinical studies. A scoping review approach inclusive of preclinical and clinical data will improve our understanding of the risk-benefit relationship concerning commonly prescribed opioids and cancer and cancer treatment., Objective: The aim of the study is to map diverse studies spanning from preclinical to clinical regarding opioids with malignancy and its treatment., Methods: This scoping review will use the Arksey six stages framework to (1) identify the research question; (2) identify relevant studies; (3) select studies meeting criteria; (4) extract and chart data; (5) collate, summarize, and report results; and (6) conduct expert consultation. An initial pilot study was undertaken to (1) parameterize the extent and scale of existing data for an evidence review, (2) identify key factors to be extracted in systematic charting efforts, and (3) assess opioid concentration as a variable for its relevance to the central hypothesis. Six databases will be searched with no filters: MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL Complete, Cochrane Library, Biological Sciences Collection, and International Pharmaceutical Abstracts. Trial registries will include ClinicalTrials.gov, Cochrane CENTRAL, International Standard Randomised Controlled Trial Number Registry, European Union Clinical Trials Register, and World Health Organization International Clinical Trials Registry. Eligibility criteria will include preclinical and clinical study data on opioids effects on tumor growth or survival, or alteration on the antineoplastic activity of chemotherapeutics. We will chart data on (1) opioid concentration from human subjects with cancer, yielding a "physiologic range" to better interpret available preclinical data; (2) patterns of opioid exposure with disease and treatment-related patient outcomes; and (3) the influence of opioids on cancer cell survival, as well as opioid-related changes to cancer cell susceptibility for chemotherapeutics., Results: This scoping review will present results in narrative forms as well as with the use of tables and diagrams. Initiated in February 2021 at the University of Utah, this protocol is anticipated to generate a scoping review by August 2023. The results of the scoping review will be disseminated through scientific conference proceedings and presentations, stakeholder meetings, and by publication in a peer-reviewed journal., Conclusions: The findings of this scoping review will provide a comprehensive description of the consequences of prescription opioids on malignancy and its treatment. By incorporating preclinical and clinical data, this scoping review will invite novel comparisons across study types that could inform new basic, translational, and clinical studies regarding risks and benefits of opioid use among patients with cancer., International Registered Report Identifier (irrid): PRR1-10.2196/38167., (©Jonathan E Constance, Mary M McFarland, Tallie Casucci, Michael W Deininger, Elena Y Enioutina, Kathleen Job, Richard S Lemons, Carol S Lim, Robert M Ward, Venkata Yellepeddi, Kevin M Watt. Originally published in JMIR Research Protocols (https://www.researchprotocols.org), 22.05.2023.)

Background: Information and communications technologies (ICTs) are recognized as critical enablers of integrated primary care to support patients with multiple chronic conditions. Although ICT-enabled integrated primary care holds promise in supporting patients with complex care needs through team-based and continued care, critical implementation factors regarding what ICTs are available and how they enable this model are yet to be mapped in the literature., Objective: This scoping review addressed the current knowledge gap by answering the following research question: What ICTs are used in delivering integrated primary care to patients with complex care needs?, Methods: The Arksey and O'Malley method enhanced by the work by Levac et al was used to guide this scoping review. In total, 4 electronic medical databases were accessed-MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, and PsycINFO-collecting studies published between January 2000 and December 2021. Identified peer-reviewed articles were screened. Relevant studies were charted, collated, and analyzed using the Rainbow Model of Integrated Care and the eHealth Enhanced Chronic Care Model., Results: A total of 52,216 articles were identified, of which 31 (0.06%) met the review's eligibility criteria. In the current literature, ICTs are used to serve the following functions in the integrated primary care setting: information sharing, self-management support, clinical decision-making, and remote service delivery. Integration efforts are supported by ICTs by promoting teamwork and coordinating clinical services across teams and organizations. Patient, provider, organizational, and technological implementation factors are considered important for ICT-based interventions in the integrated primary care setting., Conclusions: ICTs play a critical role in enabling clinical and professional integration in the primary care setting to meet the health system-related needs of patients with complex care needs. Future research is needed to explore how to integrate technologies at an organizational and system level to create a health system that is well prepared to optimize technologies to support patients with complex care needs., (©Farah Tahsin, Alana Armas, Apery Kirakalaprathapan, Mudathira Kadu, Jasvinei Sritharan, Carolyn Steele Gray. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (https://www.jmir.org), 19.04.2023.)

Stakeholder engagement in Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and Health Impact Assessment (HIA) provides opportunities for inclusive environmental decision-making contributing to the attainment of agreement about the potential environmental and health impacts of a plan. A case evaluation of stakeholder engagement was carried out to assess its effect in terms of consensus-building. The case consisted in two health impact scoping workshops engaging 20 stakeholders: policy-makers, experts and residents. A Participatory Action Research approach was adopted. Methods included observation, semi-structured questionnaires and interviews. Analysis methods consisted of several coding rounds, in-depth reading and discussion of Atlas.ti output reports, as well as studying questionnaire results. Participants reported a broadening of perspectives on health in relation to the environment and attainment of shared perspectives. Still, meaningful differences remained, indicating that joint learning experiences, trust and mutual respect created a ‘sense of consensus’ rather than a joint view on the issues at stake. To avoid disappointment and conflict in later project development, explicit acknowledgment and acceptance of disagreements should be included as a ground rule in future stakeholder engagement processes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The description of case management in research and clinical practice is highly variable which impedes quality analysis, policy and planning. Case management makes a unique contribution towards the integration of health care, social services and other sector services and supports for people with complex health conditions. There are multiple components and variations of case management depending on the context and client population. This paper aims to scope and map case management in the literature to identify how case management is described in the literature for key complex health conditions (e.g., brain injury, diabetes, mental health, spinal cord injury). Following literature searches in multiple databases, grey literature and exclusion by health condition, community-based and adequate description, there were 661 potential papers for data extraction. Data from 79 papers (1988-2013) were analysed to the point of saturation (no new information) and mapped to the model, components and activities. The results included 22 definitions, five models, with 69 activities or tasks of case managers mapped to 17 key components (interventions). The results confirm the significant terminological variance in case management which produces role confusion, ambiguity and hinders comparability across different health conditions and contexts. There is an urgent need for an internationally agreed taxonomy for the coordination, navigation and management of care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quality enhancement in environmental assessment tends to be connected to control mechanisms and best-practice guidelines. This paper takes an alternative approach examining quality performance through the lenses of consultants' perceptions of appropriate action, primarily in relation to the scoping phase. The study builds on interviews with Swedish consultants. The interviews are analysed by using a recently published theoretical framework focusing on practitioners' spaces for action. The analysis reveals that quality is highly open for interpretation and that consultants have a strong position for guiding quality performance, partly due to the key knowledge they hold. Their action is strongly guided by how the consultants perceive their responsibility; requiring a balance between maintaining good relationships with their clients through ‘good enough’ performance and maintaining a good professional reputation by undertaking what they themselves perceive as a ‘best’ practice. These findings indicate a need to reconsider the research in this field, promoting a shift of focus away from the dominance of quality enhancement measures and engage with issues of consultants' and other practitioners' perceptions of their responsibility in respect of quality performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite widespread recognition of the need to consider IA effectiveness in terms of practice, the literature is dominated by normative approaches that do little to advance understanding of the causal process that lead to particular outcomes. Focusing upon EIA scoping in England, we examine notions of effectiveness directly from the perspective of key practitioner communities. The ‘ received view ’ of scoping asserts that effectiveness is constrained by a failure to narrow the assessment focus. Using an alternative, pragmatist interpretation (inspired by American philosophical pragmatism) we analyse the understandings and actions of professional practitioner communities. We find that risk management ‘ends-in-view’ shape the interpretation of the purpose of scoping and hence effective practice. Amongst EIA consultants the ends-in-view emphasise managing the risk of project delays, whilst planning officers seek to minimise the risk of legal challenge, and statutory consultees aim to provide advice that is proportionate to potential environmental risks. Practitioner ends-in-view shape the scoping approaches employed and the opportunities for knowledge formulation and ‘learning in action’. Whilst practitioners demonstrate pragmatism in managing uncertainty and there is some awareness of potential power-play, we find that knowledge formation and learning is predominately instrumental and incremental. Instrumental in serving to refine technical details (rather than co-constructed, drawing on multiple rationalities and types of understanding), and incremental in that over time practitioners learn that the most effective way to achieve their ends-in-view is to include impacts — resulting in a broad, precautionary scoping outcome. Finally, we conclude with reflections on future research directions and the implications for practice given forthcoming changes to the regulatory framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports that the strengths of relying on a short-hand term like clinical reasoning include an easy means to enter a broader conversation and ability to identify your work within a known area within health professions education. It mentions that differences in terminology for an amorphous concept are likely present within other constructs in health professions education such as competence, professionalism, and feedback.

Background: The field of oncology is at the forefront of advances in artificial intelligence (AI) in health care, providing an opportunity to examine the early integration of these technologies in clinical research and patient care. Hope that AI will revolutionize health care delivery and improve clinical outcomes has been accompanied by concerns about the impact of these technologies on health equity.Objective: We aimed to conduct a scoping review of the literature to address the question, "What are the current and potential impacts of AI technologies on health equity in oncology?"Methods: Following PRISMA-ScR (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews) guidelines for scoping reviews, we systematically searched MEDLINE and Embase electronic databases from January 2000 to August 2021 for records engaging with key concepts of AI, health equity, and oncology. We included all English-language articles that engaged with the 3 key concepts. Articles were analyzed qualitatively for themes pertaining to the influence of AI on health equity in oncology.Results: Of the 14,011 records, 133 (0.95%) identified from our review were included. We identified 3 general themes in the literature: the use of AI to reduce health care disparities (58/133, 43.6%), concerns surrounding AI technologies and bias (16/133, 12.1%), and the use of AI to examine biological and social determinants of health (55/133, 41.4%). A total of 3% (4/133) of articles focused on many of these themes.Conclusions: Our scoping review revealed 3 main themes on the impact of AI on health equity in oncology, which relate to AI's ability to help address health disparities, its potential to mitigate or exacerbate bias, and its capability to help elucidate determinants of health. Gaps in the literature included a lack of discussion of ethical challenges with the application of AI technologies in low- and middle-income countries, lack of discussion of problems of bias in AI algorithms, and a lack of justification for the use of AI technologies over traditional statistical methods to address specific research questions in oncology. Our review highlights a need to address these gaps to ensure a more equitable integration of AI in cancer research and clinical practice. The limitations of our study include its exploratory nature, its focus on oncology as opposed to all health care sectors, and its analysis of solely English-language articles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Pancreatic cancer is the 12th most common cancer worldwide, with an overall survival rate of 4.9%. Early diagnosis of pancreatic cancer is essential for timely treatment and survival. Artificial intelligence (AI) provides advanced models and algorithms for better diagnosis of pancreatic cancer., Objective: This study aims to explore AI models used for the prediction and early diagnosis of pancreatic cancers as reported in the literature., Methods: A scoping review was conducted and reported in line with the PRISMA-ScR (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews) guidelines. PubMed, Google Scholar, Science Direct, BioRXiv, and MedRxiv were explored to identify relevant articles. Study selection and data extraction were independently conducted by 2 reviewers. Data extracted from the included studies were synthesized narratively., Results: Of the 1185 publications, 30 studies were included in the scoping review. The included articles reported the use of AI for 6 different purposes. Of these included articles, AI techniques were mostly used for the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer (14/30, 47%). Radiological images (14/30, 47%) were the most frequently used data in the included articles. Most of the included articles used data sets with a size of <1000 samples (11/30, 37%). Deep learning models were the most prominent branch of AI used for pancreatic cancer diagnosis in the studies, and the convolutional neural network was the most used algorithm (18/30, 60%). Six validation approaches were used in the included studies, of which the most frequently used approaches were k-fold cross-validation (10/30, 33%) and external validation (10/30, 33%). A higher level of accuracy (99%) was found in studies that used support vector machine, decision trees, and k-means clustering algorithms., Conclusions: This review presents an overview of studies based on AI models and algorithms used to predict and diagnose pancreatic cancer patients. AI is expected to play a vital role in advancing pancreatic cancer prediction and diagnosis. Further research is required to provide data that support clinical decisions in health care., (©Zainab Jan, Farah El Assadi, Alaa Abd-alrazaq, Puthen Veettil Jithesh. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (https://www.jmir.org), 31.03.2023.)

Full systematic reviews are time and resource heavy. We describe a method successfully used to produce a rapid review of yoga for health and wellbeing, with limited resources, using mapping methods. Inclusion and exclusion criteria were developed a priori and refined post hoc, with the review team blind to the study results to minimise the introduction of bias. This method allowed the review to be tailored to make use of the best available evidence and the health topics of most relevance to the commissioners, and to enable the evidence base to be disseminated to practitioners in a timely fashion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental factors and objectives are formally identified during the scoping stage of environmental impact assessment (EIA) to structure and focus individual assessments. Environmental factors are broad components of the environment, while objectives set the desired outcome for a specific factor. This research assesses the utility of environmental factors and objectives in EIA practice based upon a combination of literature review and interviews with 21 EIA practitioners from Western Australia. Further to providing focus and structure for EIA, practitioners also use environmental factors and objectives for decision-making throughout the process. The majority of practitioners also note that factors and objectives are value adding and useful to their EIA practice. Due to their inherent subjective natures, interviewees noted a lack of consistency regarding how to meet the objectives and challenges in determining the significance of impacts on a factor. Identified opportunities to enhance use of objectives and factors in EIA included provision of more guidance, especially criteria or standards to apply and improve knowledge sharing between EIA stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background: Web-based interventions aimed at supporting informal caregivers of people living with dementia have the potential to improve caregivers' well-being and psychological health. However, few interventions are widely implemented for this population, and none of the prior reviews have systematically examined the use of behavior change techniques (BCTs), theories, and agents in web-based interventions for informal caregivers of people living with dementia. To better understand this implementation gap, we reviewed the literature to map behavioral factors (BCTs, theories, and agents) deployed in the studies. Furthermore, because there is an emerging consensus that retention could be shaped by participant characteristics and behavioral factors, we explored relationships between these features and retention rates across studies.Objective: We pursued 3 objectives: to map behavioral factors involved in the web-based interventions for informal caregivers of people living with dementia; to examine the relationship between behavioral change elements and retention in the studies; and to examine the relationship between participant characteristics (gender, age, and spouse or adult children caregiver proportion) and study retention.Methods: We conducted a literature review using the following keywords and their corresponding Medical Subject Headings terms: dementia, caregivers, and web-based intervention. The time limits were January 1998 to March 2022. Using the BCTv1 taxonomy, which specifies active behavioral components in interventions, 2 coders collected, summarized, and analyzed the frequency distributions of BCTs. Similarly, they abstracted and analyzed participant characteristics, behavior change theories, behavior change agents, and retention rates in the studies.Results: The average age was 61.5 (SD 7.4) years, and the average proportion of spousal informal caregivers, adult children informal caregivers, and retention rates were 51.2% (SD 24.8%), 44.8% (SD 22%), and 70.4% (SD 17%), respectively. Only 53% (17/32) of the studies used behavior change theories, but 81% (26/32) included behavior change agents. The most common BCTv1 clusters were shaping knowledge and social support. The median number of BCTv1 clusters was 5 (IQR 3). We observed a negative correlation between the proportion of spousal informal caregivers and the retention rate (r=-0.45; P=.02) and between the number of BCTv1 clusters and retention rates (r=-0.47; P=.01). We also found that the proportion of adult children informal caregivers in the study was significantly and positively correlated with the retention rate (r=0.5; P=.03). No other participant characteristics or behavioral factors were associated with retention rates.Conclusions: We found that almost half of the studies were not informed by behavior change theories. In addition, spousal involvement and a higher number of BCTs were each associated with lower retention rates, while the involvement of adult children caregivers in the study was associated with higher retention. In planning future studies, researchers should consider matching participant characteristics with their intended intervention as the alignment might improve their retention rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective Globally, suicide is an important cause of mortality. In low- and middle income settings, it is difficult to find unequivocal data to establish suicide rates. The objective of this review is to synthesize the reporting of suicide incidence in six south Asian countries. Methods We conducted a scoping review combining peer-reviewed studies (PubMed, PsycINFO, EMBASE) with in-country searches for grey literature in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, India, Nepal and Bangladesh. The review included mapping reported suicide rates, quality appraisals of the studies, use of definitions of suicide and means of committing suicide. Results In total, 114 studies and reports were included in the review, including 50 peer-reviewed publications. Reported suicide rates varied widely from 0.43/100,000 to 331.0/100,000. The average suicide rate across studies was found to be high compared to the world average, however many studies were of poor quality or not representative. The majority of studies failed to explicitly define suicide (84% of the published articles and 92% of the grey literature documents). Poisoning and hanging were consistently the most common methods of committing suicide on the sub-continent. Conclusions The reported suicide rates in South Asia are high compared to the global average, but there is a paucity of reliable data on suicide rates in South Asia. Reports are likely to diminish rather than exaggerate the magnitude of suicide rates. There is an urgent need to establish new, or evaluate existing, national suicide surveillance systems in the South Asian countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Patients who do not attend (' DNA') health appointments have been identified as a service problem incurring significant costs to the NHS. In order to explore the causes, effects and costs of child DNAs, we carried out a scoping study to map the literature and identify gaps in the research. Given the breadth of issues underpinning DNAs, a scoping study, including research studies, audits, policy documents and conference abstracts, was the most useful way to map the field. To foster public and patient participation, we sought advice from parents participating in the National Children's Bureau's Family Research Advisory Group. From a pool of 1997 items, we found few UK studies with non-attendance of 0-10 year olds as a primary focus, though many more incidentally reported DNA rates. Overall, four topics predominated: the conceptualization of DNAs; the correlates of non-attendance; initiatives to reduce non-attendance; and the relationship between non-attendance and safeguarding. The Family Research Advisory Group identified broadly similar issues, but with a stronger emphasis on communication and practical matters. While there may be circumstances where failing to attend appointments makes little or no difference to a child (or even benefits them) it is likely that there are children whose health or well-being are compromised as a result of failing to attend appointments. Both 'over' and 'under'-attendance can be a source of anxiety to health professionals. Areas where further work is needed include robust evaluation of the effectiveness, cost-effectiveness and maintenance of measures to reduce DNAs and a better understanding of the relationship of safeguarding to non-attendance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on decision making in an imprecise environment has gained and will continue to gain overriding importance in recent years. In this context, decision making on the location of hazardous plant installations is an issue of relevance. The authors believe that there is a need of a standard model to overcome the discrepancies in Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for rationalization of site selection. An inappropriate choice of a site for an upcoming hazardous industrial plant may lead to further degradation of existing environment thus resulting in hazardous effects on mankind as well as all other living organisms. It could be argued that there exists quantifiable (measurable parameters) and epistemic (non measurable parameters) uncertainties in the scoping phase and the overall EIA process. The uncertainties could be modeled using soft computing techniques in ranking the sites for upcoming hazardous industry and justify the results in linguistic terms. The case study in the paper relates to the application of Back propagation Artificial Neural Network (BP-ANN), Learning Vector Quantization (LVQ-ANN), Ant Colony optimization with Fuzzy Soft Sets (FSS) and Fuzzy Indexing (FI), in ranking the existing/upcoming power plant locations in India. Comparative evaluation of these methods is also an integral part of the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper consolidates international responses to the argument that there is a need to strengthen impact assessment (IA) through greater integration and focus. It is based on invited reflections by various international authors in the field of IA. The main conclusions are that power and context are important underlying reasons for the diversity of IA types; that in certain instances IA legislation works against achieving integration and focus; and that there is a pressing need to be able to measure and demonstrate added value and effectiveness in practice. The paper concludes by setting a research agenda reflecting the need to better understand why diversity exists in IA, what stakeholders expect from the process and how to improve practice based on greater understanding of what the various types of IA deliver. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We suggest that the impact assessment community has lost its way based on our observation that impact assessment is under attack because of a perceived lack of efficiency. Specifically, we contend that the proliferation of different impact assessment types creates separate silos of expertise and feeds arguments for not only a lack of efficiency but also a lack of effectiveness of the process through excessive specialisation and a lack of interdisciplinary practice. We propose that the solution is a return to the basics of impact assessment with a call for increased integration around the goal of sustainable development and focus through better scoping. We rehearse and rebut counter arguments covering silo-based expertise, advocacy, democracy, sustainability understanding and communication. We call on the impact assessment community to rise to the challenge of increasing integration and focus, and to engage in the debate about the means of strengthening impact assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Determination of significance is widely recognised as an important step in environmental assessment (EA) processes. The prescriptive literature and guidance on significance determination is comprehensive within the field of EA, whereas descriptive and explorative studies of how we go about making sense, or construct meaning, of actions to determine significance are few. This article makes use of sense-making theory to explore how sense-making among EA researchers and practitioners influences significance determination. Focus is on the situation when persons have their first look at information about a strategic choice and as part of this make their initial judgement of significance. An experiment is designed and conducted to investigate how persons make sense of a specific case and determine significance in a screening and scoping context. The experiment indicates patterns in the test persons' sense-making, including important differences in the way individuals screen and scope. These patterns concern what we notice, how fast we frame the choice, and when we are critical about the provided information. The indications provide a basis for reflections on practice and on how to organise EA processes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background: Reporting guidelines have been available for the past 17 years since the inception of the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials statement in 1996. These guidelines were developed to improve the quality of reporting of studies in medical literature. Despite the widespread availability of these guidelines, the quality of reporting of medical literature remained suboptimal. In this study, we assess the current adherence practice to reporting guidelines; determine key factors associated with better adherence to these guidelines; and provide recommendations to enhance adherence to reporting guidelines for future studies. Methods: We undertook a systematic scoping review of systematic reviews of adherence to reporting guidelines across different clinical areas and study designs. We searched four electronic databases (Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Web of Science, Embase, and Medline) from January 1996 to September 2012. Studies were included if they addressed adherence to one of the following guidelines: Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT), Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA), Quality of Reporting of Meta-analysis (QUOROM), Transparent Reporting of Evaluations with Nonrandomized Designs (TREND), Meta-analysis Of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (MOOSE) and Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE). A protocol for this study was devised. A literature search, data extraction, and quality assessment were performed independently by two authors in duplicate. This study reporting follows the PRISMA guidelines. Results: Our search retrieved 5159 titles, of which 50 were eligible. Overall, 86.0% of studies reported suboptimal levels of adherence to reporting guidelines. Factors associated with better adherence included journal impact factor and endorsement of guidelines, publication date, funding source, multisite studies, pharmacological interventions and larger studies. Conclusion: Reporting guidelines in the clinical literature are important to improve the standards of reporting of clinical studies; however, adherence to these guidelines remains suboptimal. Action is therefore needed to enhance the adherence to these standards. Strategies to enhance adherence include journal editorial policies endorsing these guidelines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: There is a growing need to identify Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) for marine species. For seabirds, MPAs include those near breeding colonies, offshore foraging areas, inshore habitats for wintering species, and migratory bottlenecks. However, frequently there is a lack of readily available current and comprehensive data on foraging areas used by species from particular colonies. Therefore, representative breeding season foraging ranges for each species may be useful alongside other datasets for scoping candidate MPAs. We reviewed studies that estimated foraging range for 25 species of UK breeding seabirds. For representative foraging ranges, we prioritised studies, giving highest value to those based on direct tracking of birds (21%); then those involving indirect estimates using flight speeds and time activity (12%) followed by, boat, aerial, and land-based ‘survey’ observations (46%); and finally we gave lowest value to speculative estimates (21%). Highest confidence was placed in the foraging ranges of northern gannet (Morus bassanus), black-legged kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla), and common guillemot (Uria aalge), and lowest for common gull (Larus canus), common eider (Somateria mollissima), Leach’s (Oceanodroma leucorhoa) and European storm petrels (Hydrobates pelagicus). Both annual and colony-specific variation was evident for some species. Manx shearwater (Puffinus puffinus), northern gannet, and northern fulmar (Fulmarus glacialis), had the largest foraging ranges (maximum ranges >330, 590 and 580km, respectively), whereas red-throated diver (Gavia stellata) and little tern (Sternula albifrons) had the smallest (maximum ranges 9 and 11km, respectively). Representative foraging ranges may be useful to suggest likely colony-specific foraging areas, prior to habitat-association modelling for defining candidate MPAs. The approach here has international applicability, and would help progress towards more comprehensive protection of seabird populations. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]