Matthew Leach

Southern Cross University · National Centre for Naturopathic Medicine

Background: Current evidence favours a multidisciplinary biopsychosocial approach to the management of chronic non-specific low back pain (CLBP). However, it is unclear whether such an approach is facilitated by current clinical guidelines. This rapid review set out to examine the extent to which clinical guideline recommendations for managing CLB...

Background: Chronic musculoskeletal pain (CMSP) disorders are a leading cause of disability globally, affecting up to one in three people. Mindfulness-based interventions (MBI) have become a popular treatment for CMSP. The aim of this umbrella review was to synthesise the best available research evidence for the effectiveness of MBI for adults wit...

Objective: Both the United Nations and the World Health Organization have identified antimicrobial resistance as a significant threat to global health. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention identified five pediatric respiratory conditions as requiring particular scrutiny in terms of antibiotic stewardship. This study sought to identify str...

Background and purpose: Naturopathy is a traditional medicine system originating from Europe and naturopathic practitioners provide care to 6.2% of Australians in a 12-month period. Australian naturopathic programs have undertaken a slow transition over the last 20 years from Advanced diploma to Bachelor degree as the minimum level of qualificatio...

Background Evidence-based practice (EBP) is fundamental to the delivery of high-quality, safe and effective health care. Naprapaths, manual therapy providers that specialize in the treatment of musculoskeletal pain and dysfunction, became a Swedish licensed health profession in 1994. This study investigated the attitudes, skills and implementation...

Background The naturopathic workforce spans over 108 countries and is estimated to provide care to over 5.5 million patients globally per month. Despite such demand, naturopathic practitioners are not well integrated into mainstream health systems, in part due to poor knowledge about naturopathy among policy makers and other health professionals. T...

Background Despite the push for complementary medicine (CM) practitioners to engage in evidence implementation, and arguments in support of evidence-based practice (EBP), uptake of EBP among most CM professions remains low. This review aimed to synthesise the evidence examining the barriers and enablers to evidence implementation in CM. Methods An...

Background and purpose: The current body of research examining the effectiveness of reflexology in patients with cancer have predominantly focused on managing physical symptoms and treatment side effects. This review aimed to synthesise evidence from randomised controlled trials (RCTs) examining the effectiveness of reflexology on mental health out...

Background: Despite the reported benefits of evidence-based practice (EBP), there are concerns that some practitioners, including naturopathic doctors (NDs), may be cautious about its use. The objective of this study was to explore Canadian ND perceptions, preparedness, and engagement in EBP, and the barriers and enablers to EBP uptake. Methods: Th...

Objectives To explore the factors impacting evidence implementation in complementary medicine (CM) practice. Content MEDLINE and CINAHL were systematically searched for cross-sectional studies examining evidence implementation among CM practitioners. Qualitative data from eligible studies were collated and analysed using a meta-summary approach. D...

Introduction Evidence suggests an integrative, biopsychosocial approach to managing chronic nonspecific low back pain (CLBP) may help address the complex, unmet healthcare needs of people living with CLBP. Notwithstanding, the translation of this approach into primary care settings has been largely overlooked. This study aimed to develop, and reach...

Objectives Naturopathy is a traditional medicine system informed by codified philosophies and principles, and an emphasis on non-pharmacologic therapeutic interventions. While naturopathy is practised by approximately 75 000–100 000 000 naturopathic practitioners in at least 98 countries, little is known about the international prevalence of histor...

Objective: The purpose of this study was to explore the research priorities of Australian practicing chiropractors and academics across a set of research domains to determine the agreement or disagreement based on these domains. Methods: We conducted a pilot-tested online survey focusing on the following 5 principal research domains: basic scien...

Accessibility of health services outside metropolitan centres in Australia is sub‐optimal. Recognising the barriers and enablers of healthcare access in rural, remote and regional settings is necessary to improving health service access in these disadvantaged populations. Accordingly, this study aimed to examine the determinants of healthcare use i...

Background Most studies examining complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) stakeholder engagement with evidence-based practice have relied on quantitative research methods, which often fail to capture the nuances of this phenomena. Using qualitative methods, this study aimed to explore the experiences of CAM stakeholders regarding the barriers...

Objectives Understanding and addressing the barriers to evidence-based practice (EBP) falls within the realm of implementation science. To date, disciplines such as naturopathy have paid little attention to implementation science, meaning the obstacles to delivering best practice care have largely been ignored. This study addresses this knowledge g...

Background: This study set out to determine the prevalence and possible risk factors of headache and/or migraine in U.S. children, as well as the prevalence of complementary medicine use in this population. Methods: This is a secondary analysis of data from the 2017 U.S. National Health Interview Survey. Sociodemographic and clinical characteristic...

Background The transition from student to practitioner can be challenging, resulting in stress, burnout and attrition. While there has been ample research examining graduate medical and allied health practitioner experiences of transitioning to practice, there is a paucity of research exploring such experiences in newly qualified naturopathic medic...

Background Evidence-based practice (EBP) is integral to the delivery of high-quality health care. Chiropractic has been a licensed health profession in Sweden since 1989, but little is known of the uptake of EBP in this professional group. This study explored the self-reported skills, attitudes and uptake of EBP, and the enablers and barriers of EB...

Background Mental health disorders are a global health concern. In Australia, numerous national reports have found that the current mental healthcare system does not adequately meet the needs of Australians with mental illness. Consequently, a greater understanding of how people with a mental health disorder are using the broader healthcare system...

Background While evidence-based practice (EBP) is widely accepted across healthcare professions, research investigating its implementation in manual therapy professions such as osteopathy is limited. The primary aim of this study was to investigate Italian osteopaths’ attitudes, skills, and use of EBP. A secondary purpose was to understand the obst...

Evidence-based practice (EBP) is a framework aimed at facilitating the delivery of best practice care. Despite documented benefits, many health professionals have expressed concerns about EBP. Naturopathic medicine has been cited as being in opposition to EBP; however, this is not supported by the evidence. In a recent cross-sectional Canadian surv...

Background While controversy remains regarding optimal vitamin D status, the public health relevance of true vitamin D deficiency is undisputed. There are few contemporary cross-ethnic studies investigating the prevalence and determinants of very low 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] concentrations. Methods We used data from 440,581 UK Biobank partici...

Aim To describe the prevalence of health care utilisation and out-of-pocket expenditure associated with the management of diabetes among Australian women aged 45 years and older. Design Cross-sectional survey design. Methods The questionnaire was administered to 392 women (a cohort of the 45 and Up Study) reporting a diagnosis of diabetes between...

Objectives: Naturopathy is a traditional medicine system informed by codified philosophies and principles, and an emphasis on non-pharmacologic therapeutic interventions. While naturopathy is practiced by approximately 75 000 to 100 000 naturopathic practitioners in at least 98 countries, little is known about the international prevalence of histor...

Background The contemporary evidence-based practice model acknowledges the importance of patient preferences and clinician experience when applying evidence within a clinical setting. Knowledge mobilisation (KM) acknowledges the complexities of knowledge translation by recognising and respecting diversity in types of knowledge and how such diversit...

Introduction To ensure clinical competency, and to facilitate the delivery of safe and effective care, it is important that continuing professional development (CPD) offerings for health professionals are relevant, appropriate and accessible. In the field of naturopathic medicine, there has been no research seeking to understand the educational nee...

Background Over the past few decades, the popularity of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) has grown considerably and along with it, scrutiny regarding its evidence base. While this is to be expected, and is in line with other health disciplines, research in CAM is confronted by numerous obstacles. This scoping review aims to identify and...

Background: Supporting a child's healthy development is determined, in part, by a parent's ability to seek, access, interpret and effectively utilize health information. This aspect of parenting draws on a set of skills referred to as health literacy. Objective: To assess the level of health literacy among parents/carers in a regional South Aust...

Background Learning for patients and their families within nurses’ patient- and family-education practice is an important part of person- and family-centred care. Patients and their families must master health promotional or management strategies to optimise their health outcomes. Support is often provided by nurses, but how nurses facilitate each...

Introduction Despite the growing international popularity and use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), the uptake of evidence-based practice (EBP) in CAM has been slow. This cross-sectional survey aimed to further our understanding of the factors impacting EBP uptake in CAM. Methods The 32-item oBSTACLES instrument was administered onl...

Background Clinical guidelines recommend nonpharmacological interventions as the first choice of treatment for agitation in dementia. One intervention that shows some promise as a treatment for agitation is essential oils. Objective To provide preliminary evidence of the effectiveness and feasibility of using topically-administered, individualised...

Background: Inequalities in the availability of maternity health services in rural Australia have been documented, but not the impact on aeromedical retrievals. This study aims to examine the prevalence of pregnancy-related aeromedical retrievals, the most common conditions (overall and in specific age groups), and their distribution according to...

Background There has been little attempt to date to narrow the education-practice gap in naturopathic medicine. A framework that brings naturopathic medicine education and practice closer together could help codify the knowledge of naturopathic medicine by providing simultaneous guidance on curriculum development and clinical decision-making in the...

Background Although evidence-based practice (EBP) is largely supported across healthcare professions, its implementation in manual therapy professions such as osteopathy remains limited and debated. There is currently little knowledge of how Spanish osteopaths relate to EBP. Objectives The main aim of this study was to investigate the attitudes, s...

Background: Although evidence-based practice (EBP) is largely supported across healthcare professions, its implementation in manual therapy professions such as osteopathy remains limited and debated. There is currently little knowledge of how EBP relates to osteopathy in Spain, and the attitudes, skills and utilisation of osteopaths. Objectives: Th...

Background: Evidence-based practice (EBP) is a clinical decision-making framework that supports quality improvement in healthcare. While osteopaths are key providers of musculoskeletal healthcare, the extent to which osteopaths engage in EBP is unclear. Thus, the aim of this cross-sectional study was to investigate UK osteopaths’ attitudes, skills...

Background Integration of complementary therapies alongside conventional medical treatment is common and affects health behaviour and outcomes. Nurses frequently interact with patients and their attitudes to these therapies may play a significant role in decision-making. This mixed-method study investigated nurses' attitudes and behaviour towards c...

Current evidence suggests that N-Acetyl Cysteine (NAC) administration may help improve outcomes in people with acute respiratory distress syndrome and acute lung injury – conditions that closely resemble the signs and symptoms of COVID-19. Few mild and transient adverse events were reported in published randomised-controlled trials, indicating that...

Regional South Australia has some of the highest rates of psychological distress, chronic disease and multimorbidity of any Australian State or Territory. Yet, the healthcare needs of this population are still not completely understood. To better understand the healthcare needs of regional South Australians, we invited adults living in the region t...

Brief overview Based on the evidence identified in this rapid review, Hedera helix preparations and herbal complex preparations including H. helix may be a therapeutic option for treating early symptoms of respiratory tract infections. The best effectiveness for H. helix preparations has been proven for coughing, as an expectorant and to reduce the...

Brief overview Collectively the evidence obtained from across five clinical studies involving 936 adults indicate that mono-herbal preparations of Sambucus nigra L. berry (S.nigra), when taken within 48 hours of the onset of acute respiratory viral infection, may reduce the duration and severity of common cold and influenza symptoms in adults. Ther...

Introduction This study provides the first detailed empirical examination of the naturopathic profession and naturopathic practice in Australia. Methods Naturopaths from the Practitioner Research And Collaboration Initiative (PRACI) were invited to participate in an online workforce survey. Results The baseline survey was completed by 281 naturop...

Brief Overview Seven human clinical trials with some risk of bias suggest that multivitamins may be a safe and effective intervention to relieve some symptoms of respiratory tract infections, increase micronutrient status and immune function; however, further research is needed. There is currently insufficient evidence to recommend multivitamins as...

Purpose Accessibility and availability of health care services/providers is an increasing concern for many regional communities, particularly regional South Australia. Assessing the level of health service/provider utilization within a region (ie, expressed demand) can be useful in determining health care need and health service/workforce demand....

Background Almost one in three women worldwide will be exposed to domestic and family violence some time in their life. This violence can contribute to physical, social, economic and psychological harm. Transcendental Meditation® (TM) may help to lessen the physical and emotional burden of domestic violence. Methods The objective of this pilot, pa...

Background Acute respiratory tract infection (ARTI) is a prevalent condition associated with serious health and economic implications. A range of strategies is used to manage ARTI in children, including complementary and alternative medicines (CAM). There has been little investigation into this area, and this study aims to address this knowledge ga...

Background Health Professionals (HPs) play an important role in supporting parents to care for their children, by facilitating parents' knowledge and skills development through parent education. This is achieved through teaching, whereby planned strategies, based on principles of how people learn, enable learning. Despite Learning Principles being...

Objective: This study aims to describe the prevalence of health care utilization (including conventional medicine, self-care and complementary medicine treatments) for the management of asthma by women aged 45 years and over and their associated out-of-pocket expenditure. Methods: A self-reported mail survey of 375 Australian women, a cohort of the...

Purpose: The dearth of accessible and appropriate conventional health care services in regional areas may drive many people to seek care provided by complementary medicine (CM) practitioners. Understanding the drivers of CM service use in this population may help inform future health services planning. This study set out to examine the determinant...

Objectives Each health profession has a responsibility to generate and implement evidence to support its practices; however, many obstacles continue to impede such progress. The 32-item BarrierS To the Application and Conduct of rEsearch (oBSTACLES) instrument was developed and subsequently validated to help identify these obstacles in complementar...

Background: Relapse prevention is an important objective in the management of serious mental illness (SMI). While community mental health nurses (CMHN) might be well-placed to support people with SMI in averting relapse, no systematic reviews have examined this association. Aim: To review the evidence from studies reporting an association betwee...

Background Impaired sleep is a common complaint among patients undergoing major surgery and may be a contributing factor in postoperative pain. The provision of eye masks to patients after cardiac surgery may reduce postoperative pain through improvements in sleep quality. Objective To examine the effect of nocturnal eye masks on postoperative pai...

Introduction Building and implementing a robust evidence-base which is informed by high quality research is the challenge facing contemporary healthcare professions. In doing so, it can be valuable for healthcare professions to establish a strategic research agenda in order to enhance the professions public health priorities within healthcare and a...

Objectives Osteoarthritis is a prevalent condition with a high level of disease burden. Some dietary regimens used in traditional medicine systems show promise as a treatment for osteoarthritis. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of a Persian food on the symptoms of osteoarthritis. Design A pilot non-randomised open-labeled clinical st...

The authors have withdrawn this preprint from Research Square.

Introduction The health workforce is an integral component of the healthcare system. Comprehensive, high-quality data on the health workforce are essential to identifying gaps in health service provision, as well as informing future health workforce and health services planning, and health policy. While many data sources are used in Australia for t...

The aim of this study is to determine the level of adherence to dietary guidelines among men and women during preconception, and pregnant women, and factors associated with adherence. Searches were conducted in CINAHL, AMED, EMBASE, and Maternity and Infant Care from inception to March 2018. Observational studies assessing the primary outcome (adhe...

Background: Neck pain is a leading cause of individual and societal burden worldwide, affecting an estimated 1 in 5 people aged 70 years and older. The nature and outcomes of chiropractic care for older adults with neck pain, particularly those with co-morbid headaches, remains poorly understood. Therefore, we sought to ascertain: What proportion...

Background: Acute respiratory tract infection (ARTI) is one of the most prevalent types of infection among children and a common reason for hospital admission. Although parents frequently consult complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) practitioners to assist with the management of childhood ARTI, little is known about the treatments that CAM...

Background and objectives: Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) use has been associated with preventive health behaviors. However, the role of CAM use in patients’ health behaviors remains unclear. This study aimed to determine the extent to which patients report that CAM use motivates them to make changes to their health behaviors. Materia...

Background: The use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is increasing globally, in both adults and children. A common condition where CAM is used in children is acute respiratory tract infection (ARTI). However, limited information exists regarding specific CAM modalities used in children, and the factors that influence a parent's deci...

Background Accessibility and availability of health care services/providers is an increasing concern for many regional communities, particularly regional South Australia. However, in order to ascertain the health service/workforce requirements of this community, it is important to understand the health care needs of the population. Assessing the le...

Background: Osteopaths are an integral member of the health care team, playing a pivotal role in the provision of care for patients with musculoskeletal disorders. Osteopaths, like other health care providers, are under increasing pressure to deliver evidence-based health care and to improve patient outcomes. However, the extent to which osteopath...