AIM To compare a nurse-led clinic in schools versus care in general practice for adolescents with asthma. DESIGN OF STUDY Randomised controlled trial in four schools; parallel observational study in two schools. SETTING Six comprehensive schools. METHOD In the randomised trial, pupils were invited to attend asthma review at a nurse-led clinic either in school, or in general practice. The ...

The value of the randomised controlled trial still generates debate. Although some of the earliest examples of these trials can be found in behavioural and psychosocial research, this is not an area that has adopted readily the randomised controlled trial to assess interventions. Two recent developments have intensified debate about the role of randomised controlled trials—the urgent need to fi...

OBJECTIVES To develop a school-based obesity prevention programme and evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of the intervention and the planned definitive cluster randomised trial. DESIGN This was a three stage pilot involving six schools (398 children) in South West England, including an exploratory randomised controlled trial and qualitative interviews and focus groups with teachers, p...

OBJECTIVE To determine whether ambulatory (outpatient (OP)) treatment of severe nausea and vomiting of pregnancy (NVP) is as effective as inpatient (IP) care. DESIGN Non-blinded randomised control trial (RCT) with patient preference arm. SETTING Two multicentre teaching hospitals in London. PARTICIPANTS Women less than 20 weeks' pregnant with severe NVP and associated ketonuria (>1+). M...

BACKGROUND In cancer screening trials where the primary outcome is target cancer-specific mortality, the unbiased determination of underlying cause of death (UCD) is crucial. To minimise bias, the UCD should be independently verified by expert reviewers, blinded to death certificate data and trial arm. We investigated whether standardising the information submitted for UCD assignment in a popul...

OBJECTIVE To assess the feasibility of implementing a dedicated feeding support team on a postnatal ward and pilot the potential effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of team (proactive) and woman-initiated (reactive) telephone support after discharge. DESIGN Randomised controlled trial embedded within a before-and-after study. Participatory approach and mixed-method process evaluation. SETT...

The Hierarchy of evidence is based on summaries from the National Health and Medical Research Council (2009), the Oxford Centre for Evidence-based Medicine Levels of Evidence (2011) and Melynyk and Fineout-Overholt (2011). Ι Evidence obtained from a systematic review of all relevant randomised control trials. ΙΙ Evidence obtained from at least one well designed randomised control trial. ΙΙΙ Evi...

BACKGROUND Loneliness in older people is associated with poor health-related quality of life (HRQoL). We undertook a parallel-group randomised controlled trial to evaluate the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of telephone befriending for the maintenance of HRQoL in older people. An internal pilot tested the feasibility of the trial and intervention. METHODS Participants aged >74 years, wi...