Primary care consultations last less than 5 minutes for half the world’s population

But range from 48 seconds in Bangladesh to 22.5 minutes in Sweden Primary care consultations last less than 5 minutes for half the world’s population, but range from 48 seconds in Bangladesh to 22.5 minutes in Sweden, reveals the largest international study of its kind, published in the online journal BMJ Open. Shorter consultation times […]

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Top 10 most read in October: Physician-pharmaceutical industry interactions, systematic reviews and unpublished data, and polypharmacy and falls in older adults

  Four new entries, and two re-entries, made it into BMJ Open’s top 10 most read articles in October. Climbing back into the top position is a longitudinal cohort study by Xie et al., which examines the association between Proton Pump Inhibitors and the risk of all-cause mortality. New in at number five is a […]

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Less red tape and shorter working hours might help stave off retirement of UK doctors

GPs most likely to stop working because of workload pressures, survey shows Less red tape and shorter working hours are the two key factors that might persuade older UK doctors to carry on working rather than hanging up their stethoscopes, suggests an analysis of survey responses, published in the online journal BMJ Open. Family doctors […]

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Top 10 Most Read in September: Survey of British sexual attitudes and lifestyles, the harms of light drinking in pregnancy, and antiretroviral therapies for pregnant women living with HIV or hepatitis B.

8 new entries make it into September’s top 10 most read articles. In first place is a study by Cynthia Graham and colleagues that reports findings from a cross-sectional survey of sexual attitudes and lifestyles in the UK. From data on 4839 men and 6669 women aged 16–74 years who reported ≥1 sexual partner in the past […]

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Editors’ picks

BMJ Open: September Editors’ Picks   Each month the editorial team at BMJ Open select highlights from our recently published articles. We hope you enjoy our September highlights. You can access all the material published in September here.  Improving peer review of biomedical research: are interventions effective? Peer review is considered the best method for evaluating the […]

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Evidence for potential harms of light drinking in pregnancy ‘surprisingly’ limited

But review confirms alcohol best avoided ‘just in case’, say researchers The evidence for the potentially harmful effects of light or occasional drinking in pregnancy is ‘surprisingly limited,’ but women are still better off avoiding all alcohol while pregnant, just in case, concludes a pooled analysis of the available data, published in the online journal […]

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People with disabilities face major hurdles accessing healthcare in UK

Disabled women are particularly disadvantaged People with disabilities in the UK face major hurdles accessing healthcare, reveals research published in the online journal BMJ Open. Disabled women are particularly disadvantaged, the findings show around one in five (19%) people in the UK is thought to live with a disability, but little is known about their access […]

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Top 10 most read in August: Caesarean sections and private medical insurance, seeking ambulance treatment for primary care problems, and social network interventions in type 2 diabetes

August sees eight new entries in the top 10 most read articles. Maintaining the top position for the second consecutive month is longitudinal cohort study by Xie et al, which examines the association between Proton Pump Inhibitors and the risk of all-cause mortality. At number two is a new entry from Vreman et al, who use a microsimulation model […]

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