Top 10 Most Read: Negative primary care feedback from minority ethnic patients, higher caesarean sections in for-profit hospitals, adolescents’ sex and drug habits, and biased psychology

 

 

February sees five new entries in the top 10 most read articles. At number one this month is an experimental vignette study investigating why minority ethnic groups report poorer primary care experience in patient surveys. Burt and colleagues designed an experiment in the UK to determine whether South Asian people rate simulated GP consultations the same or differently from White British. The findings suggest that the lower scores reported by Pakistani patients in national surveys represent genuinely worse experiences of communication compared to the White British majority.

Making its way up to the top and catching significant online attention, is a systematic review exploring whether researchers’ conflicts of interest are adequately reported in publications related to psychological therapies. The authors show that non-financial conflicts of interests, especially the inclusion of own primary studies and researcher allegiance, are frequently seen in systematic reviews in the field of psychology.

At number five, another systematic review and meta-analysis exploring the connections between caesarean sections and for-profit status of hospitals. Hoxha and colleagues establish that regardless of women’s risk and contextual factors, private for-profit hospitals are more likely to perform caesarean interventions to women as compared with non for profit hospitals. The authors recommend examining the incentive structures of for-profit hospitals to set strategies that encourage appropriate provision of caesarean sections.

Other new entries on February include two research papers looking at adolescent’s behaviours. The first one is an interesting epidemiological study concluding that brainy adolescents are at a reduced risk of cigarette smoking, but are more likely to drink alcohol regularly and use cannabis. The second on is a qualitative study exploring the views and experiences of young people about their school-based sex and relationship education.

The two most read articles the previous month, systematic reviews by Ravnskov et al. and Fenton et al., stay up in the ranking at the second and third positions respectively. January’s highlight article, a cohort study by Anick Bérard and colleagues indicating that antidepressants increase the risk of a wide range of organ-specific malformations, continues halfway through the ranking. Also, an enlightening survey by Boulton and colleagues reporting the unacceptably high amount of sugars hidden in drinks marketed to children continues to be highly read.

Finally, the cross-sectional study by Murdoch and colleagues investigating the lack of evidence and efficacy, and potential harmful effects, of a clinic website in Canada offering naturopathy, homeopathy, chiropractic and acupuncture to treat serious conditions such as allergy and asthma, continues to grow in popularity online. In light of the results, the authors call for a policy response to safeguard the public interest. We would like to take this opportunity to direct you to: Should doctors recommend homeopathy?

 

Rank Author(s) Title
1 Burt et al. Understanding negative feedback from South Asian patients: an experimental vignette study
2 Ravnskov et al. Lack of an association or an inverse association between low-density-lipoprotein cholesterol and mortality in the elderly: a systematic review
3  Fenton et al. Systematic review of the association between dietary acid load, alkaline water and cancer
4  Lieb et al. Conflicts of interest and spin in reviews of psychological therapies: a systematic review
5 Hoxha et al. Caesarean sections and for-profit status of hospitals: systematic review and meta-analysis
6 Bérard et al. Antidepressant use during pregnancy and the risk of major congenital malformations in a cohort of depressed pregnant women: an updated analysis of the Quebec Pregnancy Cohort
7 Murdoch et al. Selling falsehoods? A cross-sectional study of Canadian naturopathy, homeopathy, chiropractic and acupuncture clinic website claims relating to allergy and asthma
8 Pound et al.  What do young people think about their school-based sex and relationship education? A qualitative synthesis of young people’s views and experiences
9 Boulton et al. How much sugar is hidden in drinks marketed to children? A survey of fruit juices, juice drinks and smoothies
10 Williams et al. Childhood academic ability in relation to cigarette, alcohol and cannabis use from adolescence into early adulthood: Longitudinal Study of Young People in England (LSYPE)

*Most read figures are based on pdf downloads and full text views. Abstract views are excluded.

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