The 2016 HIGh Heels: Health effects And psychosexual BenefITS (HIGH HABITS) study: systematic review of reviews and additional primary studies.

This is the final version of the article. Available from BioMed Central via the DOI in this record.NOTE: Erratum to: BMC Public Health, Vol. 18 Erratum An error occurred during the publication of a number of articles in BMC Public Health. These articles were erroneously published in volume number 18, which is listed with a publication date of 2018. However, these articles were published in final form in the year 2017. The erratum listing the actual publication dates and the correct citation for each affected article is at https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-017-4709-6BACKGROUND: High-heeled shoes (high heels) are frequently worn by many women and form an important part of female gender identity. Issues of explicit and implicit compulsion to wear high heels have been noted. Previous studies and reviews have provided evidence that high heels are detrimental to health. However, the evidence base remains fragmented and no review has covered both the epidemiological and biomechanical literature. In addition, no review has considered the psychosexual benefits that offer essential context in understanding the public health challenge of high heels. METHODS: We searched seven major bibliographic databases up to November 2016, in addition to supplementary searches. We initially identified all review articles of any design that assessed either the psychosexual benefits or negative musculoskeletal health effects of high heels, the latter looking at both the epidemiological and biomechanical perspectives. We additionally considered additional primary studies on areas that had not been reviewed before or in which a marked lack of evidence had been noted. Data were extracted onto standardised forms. Proportionate second review was conducted. RESULTS: A total of 506 unique records were identified, 27 full-text publications were screened and 20 publications (7 reviews and 13 additional studies) were included in our evidence synthesis. The most up-to-date epidemiological review provides clear evidence of an association between high heel wear and hallux valgus, musculoskeletal pain and first-party injury. The body of biomechanical reviews provides clear evidence of changes indicative of increased risk of these outcomes, as well as osteoarthritis, which is not yet evidenced by epidemiological studies. There were no reviews on psychosexual benefits, but all five identified original studies provided evidence of increased attractiveness and/or an impact on men's behaviour associated with high heel wear. With regard to second-party injury, evidence is limited to one descriptive study and eight case reports. CONCLUSIONS: Our evidence synthesis clearly shows that high heels bring psychosexual benefits to women but are detrimental to their health. In light of this dilemma, it is important that women's freedom of choice is respected and that any remaining issues of explicit or implicit compulsion are addressed

A quantitative content analysis of person-first language use in healthcare research, healthcare practice, and by support groups for people with disabilities

This is the final version of the article. Available from Scientific Research Publishing via the DOI in this record.This article reports the results of an original quantitative linguistic study that investigated patterns of language use referring to people with disabilities in three data source types: written by support groups run for and by people with disabilities, healthcare researchers, and healthcare providers respectively. Quantitative content analysis was used to categorize the language use in a target sentence in each of the 9000 data sources in terms of whether it emphasized the person (person-first language) or the disability (non-person-first language) following published guidelines. Statistical analysis was conducted using appropriate logistic regression models. There was a significant increase in the use of person-first language in healthcare research articles over the time period 1994-2013, although it remained a minority usage. Use of person-first language was significantly higher in documents produced by support groups run by people with disabilities than in documents produced by healthcare researchers and practitioners. This suggests that healthcare researchers and providers may be more likely to refer to people with disabilities in terms that emphasize the disability rather than the person. Further research is required to confirm these patterns and investigate whether there is a disparity between the wishes of people with disabilities and the language behavior of healthcare researchers and practitioners

Are political features associated with population health outcomes? : a systematic review of internationally comparative studies

Peer reviewedPostprin

How much evidence is there that political factors are related to population health outcomes? An internationally comparative systematic review

This is the final version. Available from on open access from BMJ Publishing Group via the DOI in this recordObjectives To provide a 7-year update of the most recent systematic review about the relationships between political features and population health outcomes. Setting Internationally comparative scholarly literature. Data sources Ten scholarly bibliographic databases plus supplementary searches in bibliographies and Google Scholar were used to update a previous systematic review. The final search was conducted in November 2017. Primary and secondary outcome measures Any population health outcome measure, apart from healthcare spending. Results 73 unique publications were identified from the previous systematic review. The database searches to update the literature identified 45 356 raw records with 35 207 remaining following de-duplication. 55 publications were identified from supplementary searches. In total, 258 publications proceeded to full-text review and 176 were included in narrative synthesis. 85 studies were assessed at low risk of bias, 89 at moderate risk of bias and none at high risk of bias. Assessment could not be conducted for two studies that had only book chapters. No meta-analysis was conducted. 102 studies assessed welfare state generosity and 79 found a positive association. Of the 17 studies that assessed political tradition, 15 were found to show a positive association with the left-of-centre tradition. 44 studies assessed democracy and 34 found a positive association. 28 studies assessed globalisation and 14 found a negative association, while seven were positive and seven inconclusive. Conclusions This review concludes that welfare state generosity, left-of-centre democratic political tradition and democracy are generally positively associated with population health. Globalisation may be negatively associated with population health, but the results are less conclusive. It is important for the academic public health community to engage with the political evidence base in its research as well as in stakeholder engagement, in order to facilitate positive outcomes for population health

Effect of fixed-ratio insulin combinations on adherence in type 2 diabetes: Systematic review.

This is the final version. Available from Elsevier via the DOI in this record. AIMS: To systematically review evidence on the effect of fixed-ratio combinations on adherence in people with type 2 diabetes. METHODS: Systematic searches were conducted using MEDLINE and EMBASE in March 2023. Standardised screening, data extraction and risk of bias assessment were conducted. All review procedures were conducted independently by two reviewers. Eligible studies assessed the effect of fixed-ratio combinations on adherence in people with type 2 diabetes. Narrative synthesis was conducted to analyse findings. RESULTS: A total of 488 records were identified, of which 37 proceeded to full-text screening and 7 - each representing a unique study - were included in the systematic review. Among the included studies, 3 were randomised controlled trials and 4 were cohort studies. Following narrative synthesis, it was shown that fixed-ratio combinations improved patient satisfaction and treatment adherence. CONCLUSIONS: Available evidence supports a benefit for fixed-ratio combinations on patient satisfaction and treatment adherence in people with type 2 diabetes

The Politics of Women’s Fashion in the Cultural West: A Perspective

This is the final version of the article. Available from Scientific Research Publishing via the DOI in this record.In this perspective piece, we discuss the politics of fashion in the cultural West. We cover issues of social expectation and individual freedom. We comment on where society draws the line with regard to public decency. We also comment on how the approach taken by society to health and public safety issues related to fashion differs markedly from that taken to other similar item

Sleep and Pain : A Systematic Review of Studies of Mediation

DW is funded by a Versus Arthritis Foundation Fellowship [grant number 21742].Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Speech and communication in Parkinson’s disease: a cross-sectional exploratory study in the UK

Objective: To assess associations between cognitive status, intelligibility, acoustics and functional communication in PD. Design: Cross-sectional exploratory study of functional communication, including a within-participants experimental design for listener assessment. Setting: A major academic medical centre in the East of England, UK. Participants: Questionnaire data were assessed for 45 people with Parkinson’s disease (PD), who had self-reported speech or communication difficulties and did not have clinical dementia. Acoustic and listener analyses were conducted on read and conversational speech for 20 people with PD and 20 familiar conversation partner controls without speech, language or cognitive difficulties. Main outcome measures: Functional communication assessed by the Communicative Participation Item Bank (CPIB) and Communicative Effectiveness Survey (CES). Results: People with PD had lower intelligibility than controls for both the read (mean difference 13.7%, p=0.009) and conversational (mean difference 16.2%, p=0.04) sentences. Intensity and pause were statistically significant predictors of intelligibility in read sentences. Listeners were less accurate identifying the intended emotion in the speech of people with PD (14.8% point difference across conditions, p=0.02) and this was associated with worse speaker cognitive status (16.7% point difference, p=0.04). Cognitive status was a significant predictor of functional communication using CPIB (F=8.99, p=0.005, η2 = 0.15) but not CES. Intelligibility in conversation sentences was a statistically significant predictor of CPIB (F=4.96, p=0.04, η2 = 0.19) and CES (F=13.65, p=0.002, η2 = 0.43). Read sentence intelligibility was not a significant predictor of either outcome. Conclusions: Cognitive status was an important predictor of functional communication—the role of intelligibility was modest and limited to conversational and not read speech. Our results highlight the importance of focusing on functional communication as well as physical speech impairment in speech and language therapy (SLT) for PD. Our results could inform future trials of SLT techniques for PD

Sleep and Pain: A Systematic Review of Studies of Mediation

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available on open access from Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins via the DOI in this recordOBJECTIVES: A relationship between sleep and pain is well established. A better understanding of the mechanisms that link sleep and pain intensity is urgently needed to optimise pain management interventions. The objective of this systematic review was to identify, synthesise and critically appraise studies that have investigated putative mediators on the path between sleep and pain intensity. METHODS: A systematic search of five electronic bibliographic databases (EMBASE, MEDLINE, CINAHL, PsycINFO and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials) was conducted. Eligible studies had to apply a formal test of mediation to variables on the path between a sleep variable and pain intensity or vice versa. All searches, data extraction and quality assessment were conducted by at least two independent reviewers. RESULTS: The search yielded 2,839 unique articles, nine of which were eligible. Of 13 mediation analyses, 11 investigated pathways from a sleep variable to pain intensity. Putative mediators included affect/mood, depression and/or anxiety, attention to pain, pain helplessness, stress, fatigue, and physical activity. Two analyses investigated pathways from pain intensity to a sleep variable, examining the potentially mediating role of depressive symptoms and mood. While evidence supported a mediating role for psychological and physiological aspects of emotional experiences and attentional processes, methodological limitations were common, including use of cross-sectional data and minimal adjustment for potential confounders. DISCUSSION: A growing body of research is applying mediation analysis to elucidate mechanistic pathways between sleep and pain intensity. Currently sparse evidence would be illuminated by more intensively collected longitudinal data and improvements in analysis.Systematic review registration: PROSPERO registration number CRD42016049240.This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (CCBY), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.Versus Arthritis Foundatio