Exergames have been suggested as an innovative approach to enhance physical activity in the elderly. The objective of this review was to determine the effectiveness of exergames on validated quantitative physical outcomes in healthy elderly individuals. We used Centre for Review and Disseminations guidance to conduct systematic reviews. Four electronic databases were searched. We included rando...

BACKGROUND Some argue that by precluding individualized treatment, randomized clinical trials (RCTs) provide substandard medical care, while others claim that participation in clinical research is associated with improved patient outcomes. However, there are few data to assess the impact of random treatment assignment on RCT participants. We therefore performed a systematic review to quantify t...

Most health care initiatives are evaluated using observational study designs in lieu of randomized controlled trials (RCT) due primarily to resource limitations. However, although observational studies are less expensive to implement and evaluate, they are also more problematic in determining causality than the RCT. This trade off is most apparent in the initial planning stage of program develo...

BACKGROUND Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) often have more than one primary outcome and frequently have secondary and harm outcomes. Comparison of outcomes between study arms is the primary focus of RCTs, but there are times when the relation between outcomes is important, such as determining whether an intermediate outcome and a clinical outcome have a strong association. We sought to dete...

INTRODUCTION In a previous review of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on the pharmacotherapeutic management of aggression, it was shown that there is only weak evidence of effectiveness. In the present study we aim to determine comparability of patients included in these RCTs and patients of psychiatric long-stay wards. METHODS Exclusion criteria that were used in at least 20% of the RCTs ...

A quantitative evaluation of randomized trials of counseling, education, and other clinical services provided by pharmacists was performed. Data sources were MEDLINE and the bibliographies of published articles. Pharmacists' services were categorized as counseling of patients, counseling of physicians, counseling of both patients and physicians, and patient care. The outcomes extracted were mea...

background: it is hypothesized that poor zinc nutritional status is associated with an increased risk of esophageal cancer (ec), but current evidence is contradictory. since some factors may influence zinc absorption, its status may be better evaluated thorough biomarkers. the objectives of this study were to perform a systematic review on the association of zinc biomarkers with ec in observati...

Ernest Sosa has lately posed a new skeptical problem and a solution. Setting out a novel account of dreaming, Sosa worries that ‘‘the possibility that we dream now threatens not only our supposed perceptual knowledge but even our supposed introspective knowledge, our supposed takings of the given’’ (2007, p. 9). In what follows, we outline Sosa’s dream argument and evaluate his solution. Accord...

We derive the moduli space for the global symmetry in N = 1 supersymmetric theories. We show, at the generic points, that it coincides with the space of quasi-Nambu-Goldstone (QNG) bosons, which appear besides the ordinary Nambu-Goldstone (NG) bosons when the global symmetry G breaks down spontaneously to its subgroup H with preserving N = 1 supersymmetry. At the singular points, most of the NG...

Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are known to provide the most reliable evidence on intervention. However, RCTs are often conducted and reported incompletely and inadequately, making readers and reviewers unable to judge the validity and reliability of the trials. In this article, we consider the statistical and methodological issues involved in reporting on RCTs, particularly in relation to...