Enhancing research quality and reporting: why the Journal of Comorbidity is now publishing study protocols

The Journal of Comorbidity was launched in 2011 and has since become established as a high-quality journal that publishes open-access, peer-reviewed articles, with a focus on advancing the clinical management of patients with comorbidity/multimorbidity. To further enhance research quality and reporting of studies in this field, the journal is now offering authors the opportunity to publish a summary of their study protocols – a move designed to generate interest and raise awareness in ongoing clinical research and to enable researchers to detail their methodologies in order that replication by scientific peers is possible

Take the sex out of STI screening! Views of young women on implementing chlamydia screening in General Practice

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Australia is developing a chlamydia screening program. This study aimed to determine the attitudes of young women to the introduction of chlamydia screening in Australian General Practice.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>In-depth face-to-face interviews with 24 young women from across Victoria, Australia, attending a randomly selected sample of general practices.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Young women reported that they would accept age-based screening for chlamydia in general practice, during both sexual-health and non-sexual-health related consultations. Trust in their general practitioner (GP) was reported to be a major factor in the acceptability of chlamydia screening. The women felt chlamydia screening should be offered to <it>all </it>young women rather than targeted at "high risk" women based on sexual history and they particularly emphasised the importance of normalising chlamydia screening. The women reported that they did not want to be asked to provide a sexual history as part of being asked to have a chlamydia test. Some reported that they would lie if asked how many partners they had had</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Women do not want a sexual history taken when being asked to have a chlamydia test while attending a general practitioner. They prefer the offer of chlamydia screening to be based on age rather than assessment of sexual risk. Chlamydia screening needs to be normalised and destigmatised.</p

First-Year Maternal Employment and Child Outcomes: Differences Across Racial and Ethnic Groups

We use data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study to examine associations between first-year maternal employment and child outcomes for 3-year-old white, Black, and Hispanic children. We find that first-year maternal employment is associated with lower vocabulary scores for white, but not Black or Hispanic, children and with elevated levels of aggressive behavior problems for Hispanic, but not white or Black, children. Factors such as the timing and intensity of employment, family structure, and maternal education sometimes moderate these associations, but do not explain differences across racial and ethnic groups. Child care and parenting behaviors do not appear to mediate associations between first-year maternal employment and children’s outcomes and cannot explain racial and ethnic differences in these associations.

First-year maternal employment and child outcomes: Differences across racial and ethnic groups

We use data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study to examine associations between first-year maternal employment and child outcomes for 3-year-old White, Black, and Hispanic children (N = 1483). Results from OLS regressions and propensity score matching models indicate that first-year maternal employment is associated with lower vocabulary scores for White, but not Black or Hispanic, children and with elevated levels of behavior problems for Hispanic, but not White or Black, children. Factors such as type of child care, maternal depressive symptoms and stress, and parenting behaviors (including measures of discipline, nurturance, and provision of cognitively stimulating materials) do not mediate these associations between first-year maternal employment and children's outcomes or explain the differential associations across racial and ethnic groups, suggesting the need to look at other explanations for these associations, as well as the need for better measurement of parenting, especially mother–child interaction

Hierarchical variation in phenotypic flexibility across timescales and associated survival selection shape the dynamics of partial seasonal migration

We thank everyone from UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology and University of Aberdeen (UoA) who contributed to data collection, particularly Hannah Grist and Jenny Sturgeon; NatureScot for access to the Isle of May National Nature Reserve; Scottish Ornithologists' Club (SOC) for their support; and all volunteer observers, particularly Raymond Duncan and Moray Souter. This work was funded by Natural Environment Research Council (NERC; award NE/R000859/1 and award NE/R016429/1 as part of the UK-SCaPE programme delivering National Capability), Norwegian Research Council (SFF-III grant 223257), NTNU, UK Royal Society, Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland (MASTS), SOC and UoA.Peer reviewedPostprin

Additive genetic and environmental variation interact to shape the dynamics of seasonal migration in a wild bird population

We thank everyone who contributed to long-term field data collection, particularly Raymond Duncan, Sarah Fenn, Hannah Grist, Calum Scott, Jenny Sturgeon, Moray Souter, John Anderson, and Harry Bell; and thank NatureScot for allowing work on the Isle of May National Nature Reserve, and Isle of May Bird Observatory Trust for supporting the longterm ringing of shags. We thank Stefanie Muff for helpful discussions, and Rita Fortuna and Thomas R. Haaland for useful comments on a manuscript draft. The current study was funded by Natural Environment Research Council (NERC; awards NE/M005186/1, NE/R000859/1, and NE/R016429/1 as part of the UK-SCaPE program delivering National Capability), Norwegian Research Council (SFF-III grant 223257, FRIPRO grant 313570), NTNU and University of Aberdeen. Analyses were performed using the IDUN cluster of NTNUPeer reviewedPublisher PD

The Journal of Comorbidity affiliates with the Scottish School of Primary Care

The Journal of Comorbidity is pleased to announce a new partnership with the Scottish School of Primary Care (SSPC). The SSPC is a virtual school comprising all Scottish academic departments with significant primary care research output. This currently includes the Universities of Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Stirling, and St. Andrew’s. This is the second important partnership that the journal has formed to strengthen ties with professional primary care networks with an interest in comorbidity and multimorbidity research. It is anticipated that this new collaboration will increase the journal’s reach and help cultivate research, discussion, and knowledge about comorbidity and multimorbidity.The Scottish School of Primary CareSince its inception in 2000, the SSPC has established a reputation for research excellence, attracting new research funding to Scottish universities. The school aims to support the development of a sustainable, equitable, high-quality primary care service that meets the needs of the people of Scotland. Working towards this vision, the SSPC’s current strategic objectives are to:Inform key stakeholders by collating relevant available national and international evidence, as well as actively contributing to the growing evidence baseSupport the continuing growth of academic primary care in ScotlandPromote Scottish academic primary care internationally.Journal of Comorbidity 2017;7(1):112–11

MEG abnormalities and mechanisms of surgical failure in neocortical epilepsy

Objective: Epilepsy surgery fails to achieve seizure freedom in 30%–40% of cases. It is not fully understood why some surgeries are unsuccessful. By comparing interictal magnetoencephalography (MEG) band power from patient data to normative maps, which describe healthy spatial and population variability, we identify patient-specific abnormalities relating to surgical failure. We propose three mechanisms contributing to poor surgical outcome: (1) not resecting the epileptogenic abnormalities (mislocalization), (2) failing to remove all epileptogenic abnormalities (partial resection), and (3) insufficiently impacting the overall cortical abnormality. Herein we develop markers of these mechanisms, validating them against patient outcomes. Methods: Resting-state MEG recordings were acquired for 70 healthy controls and 32 patients with refractory neocortical epilepsy. Relative band-power spatial maps were computed using source-localized recordings. Patient and region-specific band-power abnormalities were estimated as the maximum absolute z-score across five frequency bands using healthy data as a baseline. Resected regions were identified using postoperative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). We hypothesized that our mechanistically interpretable markers would discriminate patients with and without postoperative seizure freedom. Results: Our markers discriminated surgical outcome groups (abnormalities not targeted: area under the curve [AUC] = 0.80, p = .003; partial resection of epileptogenic zone: AUC = 0.68, p = .053; and insufficient cortical abnormality impact: AUC = 0.64, p = .096). Furthermore, 95% of those patients who were not seizure-free had markers of surgical failure for at least one of the three proposed mechanisms. In contrast, of those patients without markers for any mechanism, 80% were ultimately seizure-free. Significance: The mapping of abnormalities across the brain is important for a wide range of neurological conditions. Here we have demonstrated that interictal MEG band-power mapping has merit for the localization of pathology and improving our mechanistic understanding of epilepsy. Our markers for mechanisms of surgical failure could be used in the future to construct predictive models of surgical outcome, aiding clinical teams during patient pre-surgical evaluations

MEG abnormalities highlight mechanisms of surgical failure in neocortical epilepsy

Neocortical epilepsy surgery fails to achieve post-operative seizure freedom in 30-40% of cases. It is not fully understood why surgery in some patients is unsuccessful. Comparing interictal MEG bandpower from patients to normative maps, which describe healthy spatial and population variability, we identify patient specific abnormalities relating to surgical failure. We propose three mechanisms contributing to poor surgical outcome; 1) failure to resect abnormalities, 2) failing to remove all epileptogenic abnormalities, and 3) insufficiently impacting the overall cortical abnormality. We develop markers of these mechanisms, validating them against patient outcomes. Resting-state MEG data were acquired for 70 healthy controls and 32 patients with refractory neocortical epilepsy. Relative bandpower maps were computed using source localised recordings from healthy controls. Patient and region-specific bandpower abnormalities were estimated as the maximum absolute z-score, using healthy data as a baseline. Resected regions were identified from post-operative MRI. We hypothesised our mechanism markers would discriminate patient's post-surgery seizure outcomes. Mechanisms of surgical failure discriminate surgical outcome groups (Abnormalities not targeted: AUC=0.80, Partial resection of the epileptogenic zone: AUC=0.68, Insufficient cortical abnormality impact: AUC=0.64). Leveraging all markers together found that 95% of those who were not seizure free had markers of surgical failure in at least one of the three proposed mechanisms. In contrast, of those patients markers for any mechanism, 80% were seizure-free. Abnormality mapping across the brain is important for a wide range of neurological conditions. Here we demonstrated that interictal MEG bandpower mapping has merit for localising pathology and improving our mechanistic understanding of epilepsy