Identifying evidence of the effectiveness of photovoice: a systematic review and meta-analysis of the international healthcare literature

BACKGROUND: Photovoice (PV) was conceptualized in the early 1990s to engage community members in capturing/communicating their lived experience narratives through photography. However, no meta-analyses in health research have assessed whether PV achieves its purported effects. METHODS: We carried forward any relevant references from a previous review identifying PV studies before 2008 and searched MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials from 2008 up until October 2019. We included both published and grey literature, in any population or context. We assessed quality with the Effective Public Health Practice Project's (EPHPP) tool and pooled studies using the standardized mean difference (SMD) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). RESULTS: Twenty-eight studies were included, showing significant post-treatment effects only for health knowledge (SMD, 95% CIs = 0.41, 0.09 to 0.73, n = 16) and community functions (SMD, 95% CIs = 0.22, 0.03 to 0.40, n = 4). Strong heterogeneity was indicated for health knowledge, potentially explained by a larger effect in ethnic minority populations. There was insufficient follow-up data for health knowledge, while in follow-up for community functions the post-treatment effect was lost. CONCLUSIONS: PV's post-treatment effect on health knowledge did not translate into positive health behaviours or physical and mental health outcomes, longer-term community functions, or health service outcomes

Influence of Hydrodynamic Interactions on the Adsorption Process of Large Particles

We have studied the adsorption process of non-Brownian particles on a line incorporating hydrodynamic interactionsa and we have numerically analyzed their effect on typical relevant quantities. We compare our model to the ballistic deposition model (BM) and address the limitations of BM in experimental situations. The results obtained can explain some differences observed between recent experiments and BM predictions.Comment: 10 pages, LaTeX. 4 Figures upon reques

Identifying evidence of the effectiveness of photovoice: a systematic review and meta-analysis of the international healthcare literature

Background: Photovoice (PV) was conceptualized in the early 1990s to engage community members in capturing/communicating their lived experience narratives through photography. However, no meta-analyses in health research have assessed whether PV achieves its purported effects. Methods: We carried forward any relevant references from a previous review identifying PV studies before 2008 and searched MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials from 2008 up until October 2019. We included both published and grey literature, in any population or context. We assessed quality with the Effective Public Health Practice Project’s (EPHPP) tool and pooled studies using the standardized mean difference (SMD) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Results: Twenty-eight studies were included, showing significant post-treatment effects only for health knowledge (SMD, 95% CIs = 0.41, 0.09 to 0.73, n = 16) and community functions (SMD, 95% CIs = 0.22, 0.03 to 0.40, n = 4). Strong heterogeneity was indicated for health knowledge, potentially explained by a larger effect in ethnic minority populations. There was insufficient follow-up data for health knowledge, while in follow-up for community functions the post-treatment effect was lost. Conclusions: PV’s post-treatment effect on health knowledge did not translate into positive health behaviours or physical and mental health outcomes, longer-term community functions, or health service outcomes.</p

High throughput transepithelial electrical resistance (TEER) measurements on perfused membrane-free epithelia

Assessment of epithelial barrier function is critically important for studying healthy and diseased biological models. Here we introduce an instrument that measures transepithelial electrical resistance (TEER) of perfused epithelial tubes in the microfluidic OrganoPlate platform. The tubules are grown in microfluidic channels directly against an extracellular matrix, obviating the need for artificial filter membranes. We present TEER measurements on Caco-2 intestinal and renal proximal tubule epithelium. Forty tubules on one single plate were interrogated in less than a minute. We show that TEER measurement is significantly more sensitive than a fluorescent reporter leakage assay in response to staurosporine. We demonstrate a 40-channel time-lapse data acquisition over a 25 hour time period under flow conditions. We furthermore observed a 50% reduction in Caco-2 TEER values following exposure to a cocktail of inflammatory cytokines. To our best knowledge, this is the first instrument of its kind that allows routine TEER studies in perfused organ-on-a-chip systems without interference by artificial filter membranes. We believe the apparatus will contribute to accelerating routine adoption of perfused organ-on-a-chip systems in academic research and in industrial drug development.Analytical BioScience