Background Postal questionnaires are often used to assess the results of nasal septoplasty, but response rates vary widely. This study assesses strategies designed to increase the response rate. ...

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 ...

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 Anthrax is a globally distributed disease affecting primarily herbivorous mammals. It is caused by the soil-dwelling and spore-forming bacterium Bacillus anthracis. The dormant B. anthracis spores ...

Genomic locations are represented as coordinates on a specific genome build version, but the build information is frequently missing when coordinates are provided. We show that this information is essential to correctly ...

Background The prevalence of psychotropic drug (PTD) use in NH residents is high, but few have explored prevalence and persistency in PTD in NH residents and factors associated with persistency. This at the ...

Background Childhood rubella infection is a mild, self-limiting illness. Rubella infection among pregnant women however, is a major public health concern. Depending on gestation age, it may result in fetal ...

Background Different methods in pharmacoepidemiology can be used to study hypnotic use in children. But neither questionnaire-based data nor prescription records can be considered a “gold standard”. This ...

The Lower Miocene Nukhul Formation was deposited early during early stages of Gulf of Suez rifting. Outcrop of this Formation at Gebel el Zeit, Egypt is up to 100 m (328 ft) thick and consist of lower sandstone-dominated ...

Background Pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer-related death. While surgical resection remains the foundation for potentially curative treatment, survival benefit is achieved with adjuvant ...

Background To study whether thyroid function was associated with risk of hip or knee replacement due to primary osteoarthritis. Methods In a ...

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 This paper studies the effect of mosquito abundance and malaria incidence in the last 3 weeks, and their interaction, on the hazard of time to malaria in a previously studied cohort of children ...

Background There are several posterior decompression techniques for lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS). There is a trend towards performing less invasive surgical procedures, but no multicentre randomized ...

Background Studies of elderly patients with Garden-I and Garden-II femoral neck fractures (FNFs) suggest that a preoperative posterior tilt of the femoral head of at least 20° increases the risk of fixation ...

Background People with multiple sclerosis have high risk of osteoporosis and fractures. A poor vitamin D status is a risk factor for MS, and vitamin D supplementation has been recommended both to prevent ...

Background Overdoses from so-called “club drugs” (GHB/GBL) have become a more frequent cause of overdoses attended by ambulance services. Given its availability, affordability, and lack of awareness of ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 Patients with type 1 diabetes (T1D) are at increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Measures of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) function provide a better risk estimate for future CVD events ...

Background A common task for scientists relies on comparing lists of genes or genomic regions derived from high-throughput sequencing experiments. While several tools exist to intersect and visualize sets ...

Background There is a distinct difference between what we know and what we do in healthcare: a gap that is impairing the quality of the care and increasing the costs. Quality improvement efforts have been ...

Purpose To compare target volume delineation of anal cancer using positron emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with respect to inter-observer and inter-modality variability. ...

Background Evidence is lacking on whether fat infiltration in the multifidus muscles affects outcomes after total disc replacement (TDR) surgery and if it develops after surgery. The aims of this study were ...

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 ...

Background The pathophysiology and outcome of meningococcal septic shock is closely associated with the plasma level of N. meningitidis lipopolysaccharides (LPS, endotoxin) and the circulating level of ...

The concept of foetal programming (FP) originated from human epidemiological studies, where foetal life nutrition was linked to health and disease status later in life. Since the proposal of this phenomenon, it has been ...

Background Understanding the determinants of persistent smoking after a coronary event constitutes the basis of modelling interventions of smoking cessation in secondary prevention programs. We aim to ...

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 ...

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 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 Effects of return to work (RTW) interventions vary, and more knowledge is needed about the factors that contribute to RTW. This study investigated changes in work participation and mental health, ...

Background Natural transformation enables acquisition of adaptive traits and drives genome evolution in prokaryotes. Yet, the selective forces responsible for the evolution and maintenance of natural ...

Background Primary infection with Toxoplasma gondii during pregnancy may pose a threat to the fetus. Women infected prior to conception are unlikely to transmit the parasite to the fetus. If maternal serology ...

Objective Cervicogenic headache is a disabling headache where pharmacological management have limited effect. Thus, non-pharmacological management is warranted. Our objective was therefore to investigate ...

Background Reducing LDL cholesterol (LDL-C) with statin-based therapy reduces the risk of major atherosclerotic events among patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD), with no evidence of an excess risk ...

Background Though nausea and vomiting is very common during pregnancy, no studies have investigated the impact of this condition on the women’s daily lives in a Scandinavian population. The aim of this study ...

Background New targeted therapies and improved treatment strategies have dramatically improved the outcomes of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). However, it is unknown whether different early aggressive ...

Background The mortality of septicaemia, meningitis and encephalitis caused by Listeria monocytogenes is 20–40%. Twenty-one cases of invasive listeriosis associated with alemtuzumab, including at least 16 ...

Background Treatment-limiting decisions (TLD) for severe traumatic brain injury (sTBI) have been sparsely studied. This study determine prevalence, main reason for, categories and timing of TLDs in a ...

Background The use of restraints in adolescent psychiatric settings requires particular professional, ethical, and legal considerations. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the number of ...

Background Outcomes from studies on season of birth bias in eating disorders have been inconsistent. This inconsistency has been explained by differences in methodologies resulting in different types of ...

In 2000, the Chinese government initiated a campaign to develop Western China and reduce local and regional inequality. Privatisation has been a central component of the campaign. This article studies the relationship ...

Background Treatment services to patients with substance use disorders (SUDs), including those mandated to treatment, needs to be evaluated and evidence based. The Norwegian Municipal Health Care Act (NMHCA) ...

Background In high-income countries, the incidence of severe postpartum hemorrhage (PPH) has increased. This has important public health relevance because severe PPH is a leading cause of major maternal ...

Background Several tools have been developed to measure safety attitudes of health care providers, out of which the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire (SAQ) is regarded as one of the most appropriate ones. In ...

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. ...

Background Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is a significant risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD) in later life, but the mechanism remains unclear. Adipokine imbalance in the presence of metabolic ...

Background An increasing number of patients are treated with direct-acting oral anticoagulants (DOACs), but the optimal way to reverse the anticoagulant effect is not known. Specific antidotes are not ...

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 ...

We kindly thank the journal for the opportunity to respond to the recent comments made regarding our manuscript entitled “Acute mountain sickness among tourists visiting the high-altitude city of Lhasa, Tibet, China at ...

Background Obesity, a major cause of death and disability, is increasing worldwide. Obesity is characterized by a chronic, low-grade inflammatory state which is suggested to play a critical role in the ...

Background Despite its commonality, there is a paucity of literature on miscarriage in non-Western societies. In particular, there is little understanding of how people ascribe cause to miscarriage. This ...

Background The clinical course of IgA nephropathy (IgAN) is variable and complement activation may predict prognosis. The present study investigated whether glomerular abundance of complement proteins ...

Background Epidemiological studies have shown that long-term exposure to paracetamol during pregnancy is associated with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The mechanism by which paracetamol ...

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 The growth of tumor cells is accompanied by mutations in nuclear and mitochondrial genomes creating marked genetic heterogeneity. Tumors also contain non-tumor cells of various origins. An observed ...

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 ...

Aim The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effect on peri-implant mucosal inflammation from the use of a novel instrument made of chitosan in the non-surgical treatment of mild peri-implantitis ...

Background Gender differences in short-term mortality in acute myocardial infarction (AMI) have been studied extensively, whereas gender differences in long-term mortality and cause of death largely remain ...

Background Lack of Hepatitis C virus (HCV) incidence data in (Norwegian) high-risk groups impedes the ability to make informed decisions on prevention measures. Thus we rely on modelling to estimate the ...

Background Traditionally, drug prescription and follow up have been the sole responsibility of physicians. However, interprofessional medication reviews (IMRs) have been developed to prevent drug discrepancies ...

Background The specific role of major socio-economic indicators in influencing food preparation behaviours could reveal distinct socio-economic patterns, thus enabling mechanisms to be understood that ...

Background There is a lack of comprehensive patient-datasets regarding prevalence of severe hypertriglyceridemia (sHTG; triglycerides ≥10 mmol/L), frequency of co-morbidities, gene mutations, and gene ...

Background Decentralised acute care services have, through the establishment of municipality acute wards (MAWs), been launched in Norway. The aim is to provide treatment for patients who otherwise would ...

Background Chlorhexidine is the gold standard of dental plaque prevention. The aim of the present study was to compare the plaque and gingivitis inhibiting effect of commercial products containing 0.2%, ...

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 For an individual participant data (IPD) meta-analysis, multiple datasets must be transformed in a consistent format, e.g. using uniform variable names. When large numbers of datasets have to be ...

Background Epigenetic information can be used to identify clinically relevant genomic variants single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of functional importance in cancer development. Super-enhancers are ...

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 VascuQoL-6 (VQ-6) health-related quality of life questionnaire, a short version of the disease-specific VascuQoL-25, was developed for clinical practice and use in vascular registries. The ...

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 A fusion gene is a hybrid gene consisting of parts from two previously independent genes. Chromosomal rearrangements leading to gene breakage are frequent in high-grade serous ovarian carcinomas ...

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 Non-adherence is a major public health problem despite treatment advances. Poor drug adherence in patients with psychosis is associated with more frequent relapse, re-hospitalization, increased ...

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 Medical certificates influence the distribution of economic benefits in welfare states; however, the qualitative aspects of these texts remain largely unexplored. The present study is the first ...

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 ...

Background Exercise is an important component of a healthy lifestyle, the development of which is a relapse prevention strategy for those with alcohol use disorder. However, it is a challenge to create ...

Background Knowledge on infant feeding among pregnant women is essential when promoting optimal breastfeeding practices. This study aimed to assess the knowledge of women on optimal breastfeeding during ...

Background Air travel may imply a health hazard for patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) due to hypobaric environment in the aircraft cabin. The objective was to identify pre-flight variables, which might ...

Background Comprehensive and psychometrically tested measures of availability and accessibility of food are needed in order to explore availability and accessibility as determinants and predictors of dietary ...

Background Overweight and atopic dermatitis (AD) are major health problems in most industrialised countries, but the relationship between overweight and AD in infants and young children is unclear. We ...

Background Individuals with bipolar disorder present with moderate impairments in social cognition during the euthymic state. The impairment extends to theory of mind and to the perception of emotion in ...

Background Cellular angiofibroma is a rare benign mesenchymal neoplasm with morphological and immunohistochemical similarities to spindle cell lipoma. Karyotypic information on cellular angiofibroma is ...

Background Fulminant meningococcal sepsis, characterized by overwhelming innate immune activation, mostly affects young people and causes high mortality. This study aimed to investigate the effect of ...

Background Colorectal cancer survivors are not only at risk for recurrent disease but also at increased risk of comorbidities such as other cancers, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, hypertension and ...

Background Breast cancer is a heterogeneous disease at the clinical and molecular level. In this study we integrate classifications extracted from five different molecular levels in order to identify ...

Background Polypharmacy and inappropriate drug use is associated with negative health outcomes among older people. Various interventions for improving drug treatment have been evaluated, but the majority ...

Background Several reports have shown that postoperative monitoring of general safety and quality issues, including pain treatment, after discharge from recovery is often non-systematic and inadequate. We ...

Background Innovations in technology have contributed to rapid changes in the way that modern biomedical research is carried out. Researchers are increasingly required to endorse adaptive and flexible ...

Aim To evaluate the patterns of loco-regional recurrences in head and neck cancer patients Methods Twenty-six out of 112 patients treated ...

Background There is a long-lasting need for non-invasive, more accurate diagnostic techniques when evaluating primary Sjögren’s syndrome (pSS) patients. Incorporation of additional diagnostics involving ...

Background Research has suggested that patient expectations are associated with treatment outcome and evolve along with patient communication within the musculoskeletal field. However, few studies have ...

Current three-dimensional (3D) genome modeling platforms are limited by their inability to account for radial placement of loci in the nucleus. We present Chrom3D, a user-friendly whole-genome 3D computational modeling ...

Background Persons with dementia have described life in nursing home as difficult and lonely. Persons with dementia often reside in nursing homes for several years; therefore, knowledge is needed about how ...

Background The effectiveness of complex interventions, as well as their success in reaching relevant populations, is critically influenced by their implementation in a given context. Current conceptual ...