The widespread perception that only women have eating disorders is preventing men with these problems from getting the help and support they need, indicates a small study published in the online journal BMJ Open. Estimates suggest that around 1 in 250 women and 1 in 2000 men in the UK have anorexia nervosa, one of […]
Category: In the news
Painkillers linked to heightened irregular heartbeat risk in older adults
Current and recent use of painkillers/anti-inflammatories may be linked to a heightened risk of an irregular heartbeat (atrial fibrillation) among older adults, finds a large population study published in BMJ Open. Atrial fibrillation has itself been linked to stroke, heart failure, and reduced life expectancy, while previously published research has linked the use of non-steroidal […]
Girls born small or underweight twice as likely to be infertile in adulthood
Girls born unexpectedly small or underweight seem to be twice as likely to have fertility problems in adulthood as those of normal size at birth, suggests research published in BMJ Open. Medical advances mean that more underweight and very small babies will survive into adulthood, which might therefore increase the prevalence of fertility problems, say […]
BMJ Open’s 2013 year in review
2013 was another successful year for BMJ Open. Credit and thanks as always goes to our editorial board and especially our peer reviewers for helping make this happen. BMJ Open’s status as a global journal was confirmed as we received over 2000 submissions from 89 countries and published papers from 60. We published 962 […]
Tobacco industry claims “plain” packs won’t work based on weak evidence
Most studies lack policy relevance; and relevant research lacks key indicators of quality, including peer review A critical evaluation of the volume, relevance and quality of evidence submitted by the tobacco industry to oppose standardised packaging of tobacco products doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2013-003757 Tobacco companies lack strong, relevant evidence to support their claims that standardised (plain) packaging of […]
Clinical Commissioning Groups in England serve too many masters
Accountability regime much more complex than in previous system; potentially competing agendas Clinical Commissioning Groups, the new family doctor-led bodies responsible for commissioning the largest chunk of healthcare in England, are accountable to too many masters with potentially competing agendas, concludes research published in BMJ Open. Clinical Commissioning Groups, or CCGs for short, are membership […]
UK women scientists have fewer studies funded, and are given less money, than men
Women scientists specialising in infectious disease research have fewer studies funded than men, and receive less funding across most topic areas in the specialty than their male peers, finds a study published in BMJ Open. These gender discrepancies have remained broadly unchanged for more than a decade, the findings show. Attempts should be made to explore […]
C-section rate for private patients double that of publicly funded patients
Differences in medical or obstetric risks don’t fully explain disparity. The rate of scheduled caesarean sections among private patients is around double that of publicly funded patients, indicates a study of more than 30,000 women in Ireland, published in BMJ Open. Differences in the medical and obstetric risks between the two groups don’t fully explain […]
NHS 111 increases ambulance and urgent and emergency care use
Call handling service did not reduce pressures during first year of operation, as intended. The call handling service NHS 111 increased the use of ambulance and urgent and emergency care services during its first year of operation, shows a detailed evaluation published in BMJ Open. This is despite the fact that NHS 111 was set […]
Large medical research funders committed to open access publishing
But smaller medical charities, although keen, fear impact on budgets and funded researchers. Large medical research funding bodies are fully committed to open access publishing. But although smaller charitable funders back the principle, they worry about the impact open access will have on their budgets and their funded researchers, reveals a qualitative study published in […]