How credible is lay health information on the World Wide Web? - A study of information about the effects of interventions

Background: The World Wide Web is a source to a wealth of health information that was previously unavailable to lay people. Formal studies have raised concerns about the credibility of online materials on the Web; most of them have been performed on English-language websites. Objectives: To investigate the credibility of Norwegian-language lay information about the effects of interventions on the World Wide Web. Methods: I performed a cross-sectional study of Norwegian lay health webpages on two specific topics: 1) Effect of low glycemic diets for weight reduction. 2) Effects of taking extra calcium supplementation during pregnancy to prevent pre-eclampsia and other related outcomes. Webpages were identified via four search engines and SMIL. Information on the included webpages was compared to the results of Cochrane reviews. I used a set of commonly used technical criteria to evaluate the transparency of webpages/sites. Furthermore, I compared the Webpages compliance with the criteria to their accuracy scores to see if there was an association between accuracy (information credibility) and the technical criteria (surface credibility). Results: 56 webpages were included, 49 from commercial providers. Overall, only above 40% of the webpages were evaluated as accurate. The low glycemic diets web pages were more inaccurate than the calcium supplementation webpages. There were no apparent differences between accurate webpages and inaccurate webpages in complying with the technical criteria. Conclusion: Lay health information on the Web seems to be inaccurate, unclear and sometimes inconsistent. Technical criteria will not sufficiently distinguish accurate materials from inaccurate materials. Further research is needed on other, more clinical topics to ensure the inclusion of public agency websites.Master i bibliotek- og informasjonsvitenska

Kunnskapsbasert praksis i norske fagbibliotek

Artiklen præsenterer arbejdet med kunnskapsbasert praksis (KBP) (et særligt norsk begreb, der er en oversættelse af evidence-based practice, EBP) i norske forskningsbiblioteker med særligt fokus på sundhedssektorens biblioteker. Artiklen opererer med en bred definition af KBP, hvor kundskaben hidrører fra tre kilder: professionen, brugerne og forskningen. Det understreges i artiklen, at arbejdet med KBP er todelt: rettet mod forskningsbibliotekernes brugere og mod bibliotekernes egen praksis. Artiklen præsenterer forskellige aktiviteter i forskningsbiblioteker relateret til KBP: kurser i bl.a. statistisk metode, seminarer, en særlig, akkrediteret KBP videreuddannelse, læsegrupper og besøg af internationale evidenskapaciteter. Artiklen kommer også ind på kvaliteten af den bibliotekariske evidensbase og på mulighederne for at producere systematiske reviews for bibliotekfeltet. Endelig understreges betydningen af netværksdannelse og bibliotekarprofessionens centrale rolle både med hensyn til både at konsumere og generere forskning.

From partner to rival: changes in media frames of China in German print coverage between 2000 and 2019

Western countries’ relations with China are characterised by a dichotomy of partnership and conflict, of rapprochement and demarcation. To date, research lacks longitudinal studies that examine how these economic and political tendencies become manifest in the image of China conveyed by Western media. Taking Germany as an example, this study aims to shed light on the development of China coverage in print media between 2000 and 2019. Following a triangulating mixed-method approach, the results of computational topic1 modelling (N = 55,893) are complemented by semi-standardised interviews with China correspondents. A framing analysis shows that China was depicted as a valuable economic partner until a rivalry frame started to become dominant in 2016/17. This shift was accompanied by a significant increase in media interest

Review: Exercise for depression in children and adolescents - a systematic review and meta-analysis

publishedVersio

Elemental Inventory in Fish Otoliths Reflects Natal Origin of Atlantic Herring (Clupea harengus) From Baltic Sea Juvenile Areas

Despite centuries of human exploitation and research on Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus) in Europe, there is still much uncertainty on where major nursery areas are located. However, understanding the quantitative contribution of particular coastal systems to adult fish populations is of utmost importance to secure sustainable fish resources. Routinely, marker elements indicating certain hydrological conditions, which are incorporated into calcified structures, the so-called otoliths, are used to trace the origin of fish. However, as in the Baltic Sea, small and large scale salinity gradients potentially masking specific salinity signals. Based on the entire elemental inventory of the otolith core region, indicating the chemical signature of the spawning area, we developed a unique elemental fingerprinting index (EFI), allowing comparisons of multi-elemental chemical signatures from within and between herring juvenile areas. Our results show significantly distinct chemical “fingerprints” on the scale of particular bays and estuaries, which were not detectable with the usual marker elements. We further demonstrate that heavy metals levels drive the potential to distinguish natal origin of herring. These findings provide an essential baseline for further studies on the impact of small scale productivity for exploited fish resources and central components of marine food webs

Reduced Reproductive Success of Western Baltic Herring (Clupea harengus) as a Response to Warming Winters

Shallow estuaries, bays, and lagoons are generally considered hot spots of ocean productivity that often adjust rapidly to seasonal variations in atmospheric temperatures. During spring when biological reproductive processes begin in the temperate zones, regional climate variability can be immense and uncovering a non-linear biological response, such as fish recruitment to changing temperature regimes might be challenging. Using herring as a paradigm for a response of coastal spring productivity to regional climate drivers, we demonstrated how the annual timing of spawning periods can significantly affect the reproductive success of spring-spawning herring (Clupea harengus) in the western Baltic Sea. An investigation of spawning phenology in consecutive years indicated a temperature threshold range of 3.5–4.5°C triggering initial spawning in the coastal zone. Based on this finding, we analyzed the timing of larval hatching peaks, larval survival and recruitment to the adult population relative to multi-decadal time-series of seasonal sea-surface temperatures. The results revealed that the late seasonal onset of cold periods the corresponding elongation of the period where larvae hatch from the eggs and early larval hatching peaks significantly reduced larval production in a coastal nursery area and finally lead to a reduced abundance of juveniles in the entire distribution area. Using a combination of field research and time series analysis, we presented precedence for shifting regional winter regimes providing a present-day stressor to reproductive capacity of a central component of the coastal food web

Caught in the middle: bottom‑up and top‑down processes impacting recruitment in a small pelagic fsh

Understanding the drivers behind fluctuations in fish populations remains a key objective in fishery science. Our predictive capacity to explain these fluctuations is still relatively low, due to the amalgam of interacting bottom-up and top-down factors, which vary across time and space among and within populations. Gaining a mechanistic understanding of these recruitment drivers requires a holistic approach, combining field, experimental and modelling efforts. Here, we use the Western Baltic Spring-Spawning (WBSS) herring (Clupea harengus) to exemplify the power of this holistic approach and the high complexity of the recruitment drivers (and their interactions). Since the early 2000s, low recruitment levels have promoted intense research on this stock. Our literature synthesis suggests that the major drivers are habitat compression of the spawning beds (due to eutrophication and coastal modification mainly) and warming, which indirectly leads to changes in spawning phenology, prey abundance and predation pressure. Other factors include increased intensity of extreme climate events and new predators in the system. Four main knowledge gaps were identified related to life-cycle migration and habitat use, population structure and demographics, life-stage specific impact of multi-stressors, and predator–prey interactions. Specific research topics within these areas are proposed, as well as the priority to support a sustainable management of the stock. Given that the Baltic Sea is severely impacted by warming, eutrophication and altered precipitation, WBSS herring could be a harbinger of potential effects of changing environmental drivers to the recruitment of small pelagic fishes in other coastal areas in the world.publishedVersio

Establishing a library of resources to help people understand key concepts in assessing treatment claims—The “Critical thinking and Appraisal Resource Library” (CARL)

Background People are frequently confronted with untrustworthy claims about the effects of treatments. Uncritical acceptance of these claims can lead to poor, and sometimes dangerous, treatment decisions, and wasted time and money. Resources to help people learn to think critically about treatment claims are scarce, and they are widely scattered. Furthermore, very few learning-resources have been assessed to see if they improve knowledge and behavior. Objectives Our objectives were to develop the Critical thinking and Appraisal Resource Library (CARL). This library was to be in the form of a database containing learning resources for those who are responsible for encouraging critical thinking about treatment claims, and was to be made available online. We wished to include resources for groups we identified as ‘intermediaries’ of knowledge, i.e. teachers of schoolchildren, undergraduates and graduates, for example those teaching evidence-based medicine, or those communicating treatment claims to the public. In selecting resources, we wished to draw particular attention to those resources that had been formally evaluated, for example, by the creators of the resource or independent research groups. Methods CARL was populated with learning-resources identified from a variety of sources—two previously developed but unmaintained inventories; systematic reviews of learning-interventions; online and database searches; and recommendations by members of the project group and its advisors. The learning-resources in CARL were organised by ‘Key Concepts’ needed to judge the trustworthiness of treatment claims, and were made available online by the James Lind Initiative in Testing Treatments interactive (TTi) English (www.testingtreatments.org/category/learning-resources).TTi English also incorporated the database of Key Concepts and the Claim Evaluation Tools developed through the Informed Healthcare Choices (IHC) project (informedhealthchoices.org). Results We have created a database of resources called CARL, which currently contains over 500 open-access learning-resources in a variety of formats: text, audio, video, webpages, cartoons, and lesson materials. These are aimed primarily at ‘Intermediaries’, that is, ‘teachers’, ‘communicators’, ‘advisors’, ‘researchers’, as well as for independent ‘learners’. The resources included in CARL are currently accessible at www.testingtreatments.org/category/learning-resources Conclusions We hope that ready access to CARL will help to promote the critical thinking about treatment claims, needed to help improve healthcare choices

Randomised controlled trial of a theoretically grounded tailored intervention to diffuse evidence-based public health practice [ISRCTN23257060]

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have shown that Norwegian public health physicians do not systematically and explicitly use scientific evidence in their practice. They work in an environment that does not encourage the integration of this information in decision-making. In this study we investigate whether a theoretically grounded tailored intervention to diffuse evidence-based public health practice increases the physicians' use of research information. METHODS: 148 self-selected public health physicians were randomised to an intervention group (n = 73) and a control group (n = 75). The intervention group received a multifaceted intervention while the control group received a letter declaring that they had access to library services. Baseline assessments before the intervention and post-testing immediately at the end of a 1.5-year intervention period were conducted. The intervention was theoretically based and consisted of a workshop in evidence-based public health, a newsletter, access to a specially designed information service, to relevant databases, and to an electronic discussion list. The main outcome measure was behaviour as measured by the use of research in different documents. RESULTS: The intervention did not demonstrate any evidence of effects on the objective behaviour outcomes. We found, however, a statistical significant difference between the two groups for both knowledge scores: Mean difference of 0.4 (95% CI: 0.2–0.6) in the score for knowledge about EBM-resources and mean difference of 0.2 (95% CI: 0.0–0.3) in the score for conceptual knowledge of importance for critical appraisal. There were no statistical significant differences in attitude-, self-efficacy-, decision-to-adopt- or job-satisfaction scales. There were no significant differences in Cochrane library searching after controlling for baseline values and characteristics. CONCLUSION: Though demonstrating effect on knowledge the study failed to provide support for the hypothesis that a theory-based multifaceted intervention targeted at identified barriers will change professional behaviour