1,720,992 research outputs found
Quality of life and life satisfaction in former athletes:: a systematic review and meta-analysis
No full textBackground: sport participation has many physical and psychosocial benefits, but there is also an inherent risk of injury, subsequent osteoarthritis, and psychological challenges that can negatively impact quality of life (QOL). Considering the multifaceted impacts of sport participation on QOL across the lifespan, there is a need to consolidate and present the evidence on QOL in former sport participants.Objective: to evaluate QOL and life satisfaction in former sport participants, and determine what factors are associated with QOL and life satisfaction in this population.Methods: eight electronic databases were systematically searched in 07/2018 to retrieve all articles that evaluated QOL or life satisfaction in former sport participants. Two authors independently screened titles/abstracts and full texts, extracted data and appraised methodological quality using a modified Downs and Black Checklist. Random effects meta-analysis estimated pooled mean and 95% CI for Mental Component Scores (MCS) and Physical Component Scores (PCS) derived from the SF-12, SF-36, VR-12 and VR-36 measures. MCS and PCS were pooled for all former sport participants, as well as professional- and collegiate-athlete subgroups. Data that were inappropriate for meta-analysis (i.e. EQ-5D, PROMIS and life-satisfaction outcomes) were collated and reported descriptively.Results: seventeen articles evaluated QOL or life satisfaction in a total of 6692 former athletes (8 studies (n=4255) former professional athletes; 6 studies (n=1946) former collegiate athletes; 2 studies (n=491) included both) with a mean age ranging from 21-66 years. Most studies were cross-sectional (15 of 17 articles) and 12 studies had a moderate risk of bias (n=1 high-risk, n=4 low-risk). Unpublished data were provided for five studies. Meta-analysis of 7 studies resulted in a pooled PCS mean(95% CI) of 50.0(46.6 to 53.3) (former professional athletes from 2 studies: 46.7(42.1 to 51.2), former collegiate athletes from 5 studies: 51.2(48.4 to 53.9)) and a pooled MCS of 51.4(50.5 to 52.2) (former professional athletes: 52.7(51.3 to 54.2), former collegiate athletes:27 50.9(50.0 to 51.8)). Factors associated with worse QOL or life satisfaction in former athletes included involuntary retirement from sport (3 studies), collision/high-contact sport compared with low/no-contact sport (3 studies), ≥3 concussions compared with no/fewer concussions (2 studies), increased BMI (worse PCS, 3 studies), and osteoarthritis or musculoskeletal issues (worse PCS and MCS, 3 studies; worse PCS but not MCS, 2 studies).Conclusions: former athletes had similar PCS and better MCS, compared to general-population norms. Former athletes with impaired PCS reported better MCS than population norms, highlighting the need to use an instrument that differentiates between physical and mental components of QOL in former sport participants. Factors associated with worse QOL that may explain between-study variation include involuntary retirement, collision/high contact sports, concussion, BMI and osteoarthritis
Evaluating patients' expectations from a novel patient-centered perspective predicts knee arthroplasty outcome
No full textBackground
One-in-five patients are dissatisfied following knee arthroplasty and <50% have fulfilled expectations. The relationship between knee-arthroplasty expectations and surgical outcome remains unclear.
Purpose
Are expectations regarding the impact of pain on postoperative life predictive of one-year outcome? Does the impact of pain on preoperative quality of life (QOL) influence this relationship?
Methods
Longitudinal cohort of 1044 uni-compartmental (43%) or total knee-arthroplasty (57%) (UKA or TKA) patients, aged mean 69 ± 9 years. Preoperatively, patients reported the impact of pain on QOL and expected impact of pain on life one-year post-arthroplasty. One-year postoperative outcomes: non-return to desired activity, surgical dissatisfaction, not achieving Oxford Knee Score minimal important change (OKS <MIC). Logistic regression including covariates was performed for all patients and subgroups (better vs worse pre-operative pain-related QOL; UKA vs TKA).
Results
Expecting moderate-to-extreme pain (vs no pain) predicted non-return to activity (odds ratio [95% confidence interval], 2.3 [1.3, 4.1]), dissatisfaction (4.0 [1.7, 9.3]), OKS <MIC (3.1 [1.5, 6.3]). Expecting mild pain (vs no pain) predicted worse outcomes for patients with better preoperative pain-related QOL (non-return to activity: 2.7 [1.5, 4.8], OKS <MIC: 2.5 [1.1, 5.5]). Expecting moderate-to-extreme pain (vs. no pain) predicted worse outcomes for patients with worse preoperative pain-related QOL (non-return to activity: 2.4 [1.1, 5.5], dissatisfaction: 5.0 [1.7, 14.8], OKS <MIC: 3.4 [1.4, 8.6]). The odds of a poor outcome in people with worse expectations was higher for UKA patients.
Conclusions
Expecting a worse outcome predicted surgical dissatisfaction, less clinical improvement and non-return to desired activity. Patients expecting a more optimistic outcome relative to preoperative status achieved better surgical outcomes
Predictors of return to desired activity 12 months following unicompartmental and total knee arthroplasty
No full textBackground and purpose — 1 in 5 patients are dissatisfied following unicompartmental or total knee arthroplasty (UKA or TKA). This may be partly explained by failing to return to desired activity post-arthroplasty. To facilitate return to desired activity, a greater understanding of predictors of return to desired activity in UKA and TKA patients is needed. We compared rates of return to desired activity 12 months following UKA vs. TKA, and identified and compared predictors of return to desired activity 12 months following UKA vs. TKA. Patients and methods — Patients were prospectively recruited from 2 hospitals prior to undergoing UKA or primary TKA. Patients reported preoperatively the activity/activities that were limited due to their knee that they wished to return to after arthroplasty. At 12-months postoperatively, patients reported whether they had returned to these activities (‘return to desired activity’). Preoperative predictors evaluated were age, sex, BMI, education, comorbidities, pain expectations, Oxford Knee Score (OKS), UCLA Activity Score, and EQ-5D. Generalized linear models assessed the relationship between potential predictors and return-to-desired-activity. Results — The response rate of all patients eligible for 12-month follow-up was 74%. TKA patients (n = 575) were older (mean (SD) 70 (9) vs. 67 (10)) with a greater BMI (31 (6) vs. 30 (5)) than patients undergoing UKA (n = 420). 75% of UKA and 59% of TKA patients returned to desired activity. TKA patients had a greater risk of non-return to desired activity than patients undergoing UKA (risk ratio (95% CI) 1.5 (1.2–1.8)). Predictors of non-return to desired activity following UKA were worse OKS (0.96 (0.93–0.99)), higher BMI (1.04 (1.01–1.08)), and worse expectations (1.9 (1.2–2.8)). Predictors of non-return to desired activity following TKA were worse EQ-5D (0.53 (0.33–0.85)) and worse OKS (0.98 (0.96–1.0)). Interpretation — UKA patients were more likely to return to desired activity than TKA patients. Predictors of return to desired activity differed following UKA and TKA. Optimizing selection of arthroplasty procedure based on patient characteristics and targeting predictors of poor outcome may facilitate return to desired activity with potential to enhance postoperative satisfaction.</p
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
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