‘Worried well’ may be boosting their risk of heart disease

Potential consequences of health anxiety underlines need to treat it, say researchers People who needlessly worry that they have, or will develop, serious illness—popularly referred to as ‘the worried well’—may be boosting their risk of developing heart disease, suggests research published in the online journal BMJ Open. Anxiety is a known risk factor for heart […]

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Current system unlikely to pick up surgeons with above average patient death rates

Performance within ‘expected’ range not good enough to detect outliers, say researchers Publishing the patient death rates of individual surgeons in England is unlikely to pick up those whose mortality rates are above average, because the caseload varies so much, concludes the first analysis of its kind published in the online journal BMJ Open.   Performance […]

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Women catching up with men in alcohol consumption and its associated harms

Trend most evident among young adults, international analysis shows Women are catching up with men in terms of their alcohol consumption and its impact on their health, finds an analysis of the available international evidence, spanning over a century and published in the online journal BMJ Open. The trend, known as ‘sex convergence’, is most evident […]

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Most read articles in September: young people’s views on school sex education, gender equity in academic medicine and improving patient safety

September’s most read list sees several new entries as well as some popular non-movers. This month’s top spot still belongs to Ravnskov et al and their systematic review on the associations between low-density-lipoprotein cholesterol and mortality in the elderly. Pound et al come in at number three with a qualitative synthesis of young people’s views and […]

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Guest blog: Improving peer review using peer-reviewed studies #PeerRevWk16

This week is the second ever “peer review week”. The theme for this year is “Recognition for Review”. Peer review week aims to highlight the importance of peer review, which is a crucial part of the research process. We asked Dr Adrian Barnett, from the Queensland University of Technology, and a member of our editorial board, to survey […]

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School sex education often negative, heterosexist, and out of touch

And taught by poorly trained, embarrassed teachers, say young people School sex education is often negative, heterosexist, and out of touch, and taught by poorly trained, embarrassed teachers, finds a synthesis of the views and experiences of young people in different countries, published in the online journal BMJ Open. Schools’ failure to acknowledge that sex education […]

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BMJ Open to publish abstracts for the UCL Qualitative Health Research Network symposium

On the Tuesday 7th February 2017, the UCL Qualitative Health Research Network will be hosting their third symposium entitled ‘Engagement, Co-production, and Collaborative Meaning-Making: Collaboration in Qualitative Health Research’, supported by The Wellcome Trust. Held within the Institute of Child Health, 30 Guildford Street, London, the Network invite all those with an interest in qualitative health […]

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Volunteering and mental health, breast feeding outcomes and condom use intentions: Most read articles in August

Association of volunteering and mental well-being, breast feeding outcomes and place of birth, and condom use intentions of heterosexual men The August most read list contains papers with a number of different study designs, on a number of different topics. Returning to the top spot this month is a systematic review on the lack of […]

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Complimentary therapies, well-being and consultants as victims of bullying: Most read articles in July.

  July’s top 10 most read papers sees two studies taking into account doctors’ points of view. The first, by Bourne et al., takes a closer look at look at which aspects of the complaints process they find the most stressful. The second, by Shabazz et al., uses a survey of Royal College of Obstetricians […]

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