January sees seven new papers enter BMJ Open’s top 10 most read articles. In at number one is Aiken et al, who investigate how patient perceptions of hospital care are associated with confidence in nurses and doctors, nurse staffing levels and hospital work environments. The authors found a strong association between patients’ perceptions of hospital care and a lack of nursing care, which is also linked to poor nurse staffing levels and less favourable hospital work environments.
BinDhim et al are at number five with a double-blind randomised controlled trial assessing the efficacy of an interactive smoking cessation decision-aid app compared with a static information app on quit rates. Also new in this month is a systematic review and meta-analysis by Carnes et al, which evaluates the effect of manual therapy interventions for excessively crying infants, finding moderate favourable evidence for the reduction in crying time in infants receiving manual therapy.
Other new entries include Nordqvist et al, who investigate if the timing of probiotic milk consumption either before, during early or late pregnancy is associated with preeclampsia and preterm delivery. The authors found that probiotic milk intake during late pregnancy was associated with a decreased risk of preeclampsia and intake during early pregnancy was associated with a decreased risk of preterm delivery. They conclude that future randomised controlled studies are needed to confirm the possible protective effect of probiotics consumption on pregnancy outcomes.
Finally, reaching number 10 this month is a mixed methods study by Miles et al, which aimed to develop a computerised decision aid for stage II colorectal cancer patients considering adjuvent chemotherapy and examine its usefulness and acceptability.
Most read figures are based on pdf downloads and full text views. Abstract views are excluded.