Systematic review and meta-analysis of the provision of preventive care for modifiable chronic disease risk behaviours by mental health services

People with mental illness experience increased chronic disease burden, contributed to by a greater prevalence of modifiable chronic disease risk behaviours. Policies recommend mental health services provide preventive care for such risk behaviours. Provision of such care has not previously been synthesised. This review assessed the provision of preventive care for modifiable chronic disease risk behaviours by mental health services. Four databases were searched from 2006 to 2017. Eligible studies were observational quantitative study designs conducted in mental health services, where preventive care was provided to clients for tobacco smoking, harmful alcohol consumption, inadequate nutrition, or inadequate physical activity. Two reviewers independently screened studies, conducted data extraction and critical appraisal. Results were pooled as proportions of clients receiving or clinicians providing preventive care using random effects meta-analyses, by risk behaviour and preventive care element (ask/assess, advise, assist, arrange). Subgroup analyses were conducted by mental health service type (inpatient, outpatient, other/multiple). Narrative synthesis was used where meta-analysis was not possible. Thirty-eight studies were included with 26 amenable to meta-analyses. Analyses revealed that rates of assessment were highest for smoking (78%, 95% confidence interval [CI]:59%–96%) and lowest for nutrition (17%, 95% CI:1%–35%); with variable rates of care provision for all behaviours, care elements, and across service types, with substantial heterogeneity across analyses. Findings indicated suboptimal and variable provision of preventive care for modifiable chronic disease risk behaviours in mental health services, but should be considered with caution due to the very low quality of cumulative evidence

The scientific impact of Mexican steroid research 1935-1965 : a bibliometric and historiographic analysis

We studied steroid research from 1935 to 1965 that led to the discovery of the contraceptive pill and cortisone. Bibliometric and patent file searches indicate that the Syntex industrial laboratory located in Mexico and the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) produced about 54% of the relevant papers published in mainstream journals, which in turn generated over 80% of the citations and in the case of Syntex, all industrial patents in the field between 1950 and 1965. This course of events, which was unprecedented at that time in a developing country, was interrupted when Syntex moved its research division to the US, leaving Mexico with a small but productive research group in the chemistry of natural products