Background Entitlement to sickness benefits is a legal process requiring health-related reduced work capacity confirmed by a physician via a sickness certificate. However, there is a knowledge gap concerning ...

Background Fake news and alternative facts have become commonplace in these so-called “post-factual times.” What about medical research - are scientific facts fake as well? Many recent disclosures have ...

Background Earlier studies show that the main reasons for admission to long-term nursing home care are cognitive impairment and functional impairments of activities of daily life. However, descriptive ...

In Norway, cervical cancer is the third most common cancer among mid-adult women who are in their productive social and working years. This is despite substantial reductions in cervical cancer incidence following more than ...

In this article we explore how diagnostic and therapeutic technologies shape the lived experiences of illness for patients. By analysing a wide range of examples, we identify six ways that technology can (trans)form the ...

Background Making use of good, evidence based routines, for management of normal childbirth is essential to ensure quality of care and prevent, identify and manage complications if they occur. Two essential ...

Background Close to half of all deaths in Norway occur in nursing homes, which signals a need for good communication on end-of-life care. Advance care planning (ACP) is one means to that end, but in Norwegian ...

Background Previous works that uses patterns of prior spending to predict future mental health care expenses (utilization models) are mainly concerned with demand (need) variables. In this paper, we introduce ...

Background High experienced continuity is known to be associated with lower needs for supportive care and most likely higher quality of life. On this background, the aim of this study was to investigate if ...

This thesis investigates two aspects of health in older ages, namely functional limitations and disability, and the influence of educational level on mortality and life expectancy. Functional limitations and mild ...

Background Degenerative lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS) is a prevalent condition in adults over the age of 55 years. The condition is associated with activity limitations that are related to increased pain ...

Background Vascular risk factors increase the risk of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), but there is limited evidence on whether comorbid vascular conditions and risk factors have an impact on disease progression. ...

Background Several countries have implemented vaccination against human papillomavirus (HPV) for adolescent girls and must decide whether and how to adapt cervical cancer (CC) screening for these low-risk women. We aimed ...

Background Completing upper secondary education is associated with higher work participation and less health-related absence from work. Although these outcomes are closely interrelated, most studies focus ...

In this thesis we aimed to evaluate the method and the efficacy of acupuncture treatments for infantile colic. We did a pilot study and then carried out a multi-centre randomised controlled trial. We did a systematic ...

Background The aim of this article is to give more insight into what ethical challenges clinicians in mental healthcare experience and discuss with a Clinical Ethics Committee in psychiatry in the Region ...

Background Many of the elderly in nursing homes are very ill and have a reduced quality of life. Life expectancy is often hard to predict. Decisions about life-prolonging treatment should be based on a ...

Background Non-attendance and late arrivals diminish patient flow in outpatient clinics. On the other hand, patient earliness may also be undesirable. Physicians often experience that older patients are ...

Background Computerised decision support (CDS) based on trustworthy clinical guidelines is a key component of a learning healthcare system. Research shows that the effectiveness of CDS is mixed. ...

Background Studies have shown that dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT) is effective in reducing self-harm in adults and adolescents. Aims ...

Background Overweight and obese adolescents are reported to be less physically active than their peers. Research-based knowledge about their views may contribute to a better understanding of key factors ...

Although the breastfeeding prevalence is higher in Norway than in most other high-income countries, there is a gap between recommendations and current breastfeeding practice. The aims of this thesis were to assess the ...

Background Female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) is a great concern, considering all the potential health implications. Use of health care services related to FGM/C by women who have been subjected to ...

Background: Few studies have examined changes in the pain experience of patients with COPD and predictors of pain in these patients. Objectives: The objectives of the study were to examine whether distinct groups of COPD ...

Background Patient age is among the most controversial patient characteristics in clinical decision making. In personalized cancer medicine it is important to understand how individual characteristics do ...

As part of a major project to investigate protective and diagnostic immune markers against tuberculosis (TB), we measured antibody isotype responses to Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) antigens (LAM, Rv2031, and HBHA) in ...

Background Studies report high rates of contact with general practitioners (GPs) in primary care in the time leading up to suicide, particularly among individuals with a history of mental health contact. ...

Background Chikungunya (CHIK) is a viral disease transmitted by mosquitoes. The first cases in Brazil were confirmed in 2014. Between 2016 and 2017, over 300,000 cases were identified during this period, ...

Background Antibiotic innovation has dwindled to dangerously low levels in the past 30 years. Since resistance continues to evolve, this innovation deficit can have perilous consequences on patients. A ...

Many financial, organizational, regulatory, ethical and societal challenges may hinder or delay the provision of personalized medicine (PM) to people. PM aims to adapt prevention, diagnosis and treatment to the molecular ...

Background Stroke is a major public health threat globally. Psychosocial well-being may be affected following stroke. Depressive symptoms, anxiety, general psychological distress and social isolation are ...

Background Effects of depression on parenting and on cognitive development of newborns are augmented when symptoms continue throughout the first postnatal year. Current classification systems recognize ...

Background What is good bioethics? Addressing this question is key for reinforcing and developing the field. In particular, a discussion of potential quality criteria can heighten awareness and contribute ...

Background Despite extensive publication of clinical guidelines on how to manage musculoskeletal pain and back pain in particular, these efforts have not significantly translated into decreases in work ...

Aims: Despite the excess mortality and morbidity associated with acute poisoning by substances of abuse, follow-up is frequently not organised. We assessed morbidity, including repeated poisoning, and follow-up after acute ...

Background: Leisure-time physical activity (PA) has been proposed as a protective factor against dementia, whereas psychological distress is associated with an increased risk of dementia. We investigated the associations ...

Objective There is a need for simple tools to evaluate physical performance in patients with COPD before and after pulmonary rehabilitation. The aims of this study were to evaluate changes in short physical ...

The overall goal of this thesis was to increase the knowledge about vitamin D status and vitamin D deficiency in pregnancy in a multi-ethnic population in Oslo, Norway. We used data from the STORK Groruddalen study, a ...

Background Cluster randomized controlled trials are often used in research in primary care but creates challenges regarding biases and confounders. We recently presented a study on low back pain from primary ...

Background Diagnostic imaging has been a part of medicine for the last century. It has been difficult to implement guidelines in this field, and unwarranted imaging has been a frequent problem. Some work ...

High quality care relies on interprofessional teamwork. We developed a short simulation-based course for final year medical, nursing and nursing anaesthesia students, using scenarios from emergency medicine. The aim of ...

Objective: To identify and classify all clinical decisions that emerged in a sample of patient–physician encounters and compare different categories of decisions across clinical settings and personal characteristics. Design: ...

Background Equity of access to and utilization of healthcare across socio-economic groups is important to achieve universal health coverage. Although the utilization of antenatal and delivery care has been ...

Background Professionals within the mental health services face many ethical dilemmas and challenging situations regarding the use of coercion. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the significance of ...

Background Governments are facing tough choices about whether to fund new, promising but highly expensive drugs within the public healthcare system. Decisions that some drugs are not sufficiently beneficial ...

Background Computerised clinical decision support (CDS) can potentially better inform decisions, and it can help with the management of information overload. It is perceived to be a key component of a ...

Background Primary headaches are associated with psychological distress, neuroticism and disability. However, little is known about headache-related disability and psychological distress among people with ...

Background The consequences of living with obstetric fistula are multifaceted and very devastating for women, especially those living in poor resource settings. Due to uncontrollable leakages of urine ...

Background Post-infectious fatigue syndrome (PIFS), also known as post-viral fatigue syndrome, is a complex condition resulting in physical, cognitive, emotional, neurological, vocational and/or role ...

Background When reading a report of a clinical trial, it should be possible to judge whether the results are relevant for your patients. Issues affecting the external validity or generalizability of a trial ...

Background: The prevalence of diabetes is increasing and with the requirements for self-management and risk of late complications, it remains a challenge for the individual and society. Patients can benefit from support ...

Background: Forthcoming cervical cancer screening strategies involving human papillomavirus (HPV) testing for women not vaccinated against HPV infections may increase colposcopy referral rates. We quantified health and ...

Objectives: It is unclear whether maternal air pollution exposure during pregnancy induces changes in the developing respiratory system of a child and whether it has consequences for respiratory health in early childhood. ...

The aim of this thesis was to investigate mHealth for diabetes self-management. A three-armed randomized controlled trial for persons with type 2 diabetes evaluated a mobile diabetes diary app with or without health ...

Background Excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS, defined as Epworth sleepiness scale score > 10) is a common symptom, with a prevalence of 10–20% in the general population. It is associated with headache and ...

Background Municipal drinking water contaminated with the parasite Giardia lamblia in Bergen, Norway, in 2004 caused an outbreak of gastrointestinal infection in 2500 people, according to the Norwegian ...

Background Knowledge translation (KT) is a buzzword in modern medical science. However, there has been little theoretical reflection on translation as a process of meaning production in KT. In this paper, ...

Background New technologies facilitate the enhancement of a wide range of human dispositions, capacities, or abilities. While it is argued that we need to set limits to human enhancement, it is unclear where ...

Background In Norway, as in many Western countries, a shift from institutional care to home care is taking place. Our knowledge is limited regarding which needs for nursing interventions patients being cared ...

Background The increased use of information technology in every day health care creates vast amounts of stored health data that can be used for research. The secondary research use of routinely collected ...

Background The drive towards patient involvement in health services has been increasingly promoted. The World Health Organisation emphasizes the family’s perspective in comprehensive care. Internationally ...

Background It has been discussed whether the relationship between a patient on sick leave and his/her general practitioner (GP) is too close, as this may hinder the GP’s objective evaluation of need for ...

Background Substantial variations are still to be found in the strength of general practice/family medicine (GP/FM) across Europe regarding governance, workforce competence and performance, as well as ...

Objective: Accurate outcome prediction models for patients with mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI) are key for prognostic assessment and clinical decision-making. Using multivariate machine learning, we tested the unique ...

Background: The Balance Evaluation Systems Test (BESTest) was developed to assess underlying systems for balance control in order to be able to individually tailor rehabilitation interventions to people with balance ...

Background Various indicators of childhood socioeconomic position have been related to cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk in adulthood. We investigated the impact of shared family factors on the educational ...

Background Research into personal health data holds great potential not only for improved treatment but also for economic growth. In these years many countries are developing policies aimed at facilitating ...

Objective To determine the effectiveness of the Targeted Interdisciplinary Model for Evaluation and Treatment of Neuropsychiatric Symptoms (TIME) for treatment of moderate to severe agitation in people with dementia. Methods ...

There is evidence to suggest that high birth weight increases subsequent BMI. However, little attention has been paid to variations in this impact between population groups. This study investigates the relationship between ...

Background and study aims: Some guidelines recommend a minimum standard of 90 % cecal intubation rate (CIR) in routine clinics and 95 % in screening colonoscopy, while others have not made this distinction – both with ...

STUDY QUESTION Among babies born by ART, do singleton survivors of a vanishing twin have lower birth weight than other singletons? SUMMARY ANSWER Vanishing twin syndrome (VTS) was associated with lower birth weight among ...

Background The study is an exploration of a joint consultation model, a collaboration between general practitioners (GPs) and specialists from child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) in Lillehammer, ...

Background Health and disease are core concepts in health care and have attracted substantial interest and controversy. In recent and interesting contributions to the debate it has been argued that the ...

Background Eating disorders are psychiatric illnesses with potentially life-threatening consequences. Inpatient treatment is typically required for the most severely ill patients, who are often emaciated ...

Background: Although health care reforms may improve efficiency at the macro level, less is known regarding their effects on the utilization of health care personnel. Following the 2002 Norwegian hospital reform, we studied ...

Background Peri-conceptional use of folic acid supplements is recommended to prevent neural tube defects. Correct supplement use seems to be less common among ethnic minorities. We examined ethnic differences ...

A meta-analysis of publicly available summary statistics on multiple sclerosis combined with three Nordic multiple sclerosis cohorts (21,079 cases, 371,198 controls) revealed seven sequence variants associating with multiple ...

Background Low back pain (LBP) is the most common reported musculoskeletal disorder, with large prevalence numbers and high costs. Focus on early identification of patients at risk of developing chronic LBP ...

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate whether a previously identified modification of Viennese method of perineal protection remains most effective for reduction of perineal tension in cases with substantially ...

Background Measuring the size of the infectious pool of tuberculosis (TB) is essential to understand the burden and monitor trends of TB control program performance. This study applied the concept of TB ...

Background People with deliberate self-poisoning and personality disorders are in increased risk for suicide. Intention and psychiatric features are important factors in a psychiatric evaluation and for ...

Primary objectives: To assess longitudinal trajectories of overall disability after moderate-to-severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) and to examine whether those trajectories could be predicted by socio-demographic and ...

Background Very preterm (VPT) children, with a birth weight below 1500 g or delivered before 32 weeks of gestational age, are at increased risk of poorer long-term health outcomes and higher rates of ...

Background Frail residents in the nursing home sector call for extra care in prescribing. The Norwegian General Practice Nursing Home (NORGEP-NH) list of 34 explicit criteria for potentially inappropriate ...

Objectives To compare the quality of care—using unplanned acute hospital readmissions as a quality measure—among patients treated at private for-profit hospitals (PFPs), private non-profit hospitals (PNPs) and public ...

Background: This study was part of the international research project “Circumpolar Indigenous Pathways to Adulthood” (CIPA). Objectives: To explore ethnic identity negotiation, an unexplored theme, among indigenous North ...

This article examines physiotherapists’ lived experience of practicing physiotherapy in primary care, focusing on clinical reasoning and decision-making in the case of a patient we call Eva. The material presented derives ...

Background Road traffic noise has been associated with adverse health effects including sleep disturbances. Use of sleep medication as an indicator of sleeping problems has rarely been explored in studies ...

Nodding syndrome (NS) is a debated scientific topic. A recently published study suggests that NS is an autoimmune disorder based on findings of cross-reacting antibodies between neuronal structures and a protein present ...

Background and Objectives: Adolescence is a time of substantial change, bringing about the transition from childhood into adulthood. Patterns for future health behaviors are developed and continue into adult life. Little ...

This thesis is concerned with knowledge translation in participatory research. The background for the thesis is the concerted efforts within medicine and health care to promote uptake of research-based knowledge in practice, ...

Objective: To investigate longitudinal changes in cortical and subcortical volumes in patients with mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI) and to evaluate whether such changes were associated with self-reported post-concussive ...

Background: Prevalence of musculoskeletal pain among adolescents is high, and pain in adolescence increases the risk of chronic pain in adulthood. Studies have shown conflicting evidence regarding associations between ...

The question whether universal growth charts can be used in multi-ethnic settings is of general interest. The Intergrowth-21st (IG-21) fetal growth and newborn size standards are suggested to represent optimal fetal growth ...

Purpose: This exploratory study is situated in a critical tradition. It aims to describe and analyse the reliance on percentage assessments of functional capacity among a group of young adults in rehabilitation after serious ...

Background Huntington’s disease (HD) is a rare neurodegenerative disorder with a prevalence of 6 per 100.000. Despite increasing research activity on HD, evidence on healthcare utilization, patients’ needs ...

Background A subgroup of patients continue to report pain with walking 12 months after total knee arthroplasty (TKA). The association between walking pain and self-rated health (SRH) after TKA is not known. ...