OBJECTIVES: Increasing protein or amino acid intake has been promoted as a promising strategy to increase muscle mass and strength in elderly people, however, long-term intervention studies show inconsistent findings. Therefore, we aim to determine the impact of protein or amino acid supplementation …

Patients with schizophrenia have a higher mortality risk than patients suffering from any other psychiatric disorder. Previous research is inconclusive regarding the association of antipsychotic treatment with long-term mortality risk. To this aim, we systematically reviewed the literature and performed …

Background: Access to affordable and effective health care is a challenge in low- and middle- income countries. Out-of-pocket expenditure for health care is a major cause of impoverishment. One way to facilitate access and overcome catastrophic expenditure is through a health insurance mechanism, whereby …

Background Preference-weighted multi-faceted endpoints have the potential to facilitate comparative effectiveness research that incorporates patient preferences. The Older Persons and Informal Caregivers Survey—Composite endpoint (TOPICS-CEP) is potentially a valuable outcome measure for evaluating interventions …

The aim of the current study was to examine the effectiveness of a school-centered multicomponent PA intervention, called ‘Active Living’, on children's daily PA levels. A quasi-experimental design was used including 9 intervention schools and 9 matched control schools located in the Netherlands. The …

Background: Improved preferred gait speed in older adults is associated with increased survival rates. There are inconsistent findings in clinical trials regarding effects of exercise on preferred gait speed, and heterogeneity in interventions in the current reviews and meta-analyses. Objective: to determine …

Background Rapid development in health care has resulted in an increasing number of screening and treatment options. Consequently, there is an urgency to provide people with relevant information about benefits and risks of healthcare options in an unbiased way. Decision aids help people to make decisions …

Dysphagia is a potentially harmful feature, also in Parkinsons disease (PD). As published prevalence rates vary widely, we aimed to estimate the prevalence of oropharyngeal dysphagia in PD in a meta-analysis. We conducted a systematic literature search in February 2011 and two independent reviewers selected …

Background: Falls are a major health problem among the elderly, particularly in nursing homes. Abnormalities of balance and gait, psychoactive drug use, and dementia have been shown to contribute to fall risk. Methods: We conducted a systematic review of the literature to investigate which psychoactive …

STUDY DESIGN: Meta-analysis. OBJECTIVES: To define the accuracy of clinical tests for assessing anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) ruptures. BACKGROUND: The cruciate ligaments, and especially the ACL, are among the most commonly injured structures of the knee. Given the increasing injury prevalence, there …