Omar Dewidar

Bruyère Research Institute

Objective To evaluate how and to what extent health equity considerations are assessed in WHO guidelines. Study design and Setting We evaluated WHO guidelines published between January 2014 and May 2019. Health equity considerations were assessed in relation to differences in baseline risk, importance of outcomes for socially disadvantaged populat...

Objective : We describe a systematic approach to preparing data in the conduct of Individual Participant Data (IPD) analysis. Study design and setting : A guidance paper proposing methods for preparing individual participant data for meta-analysis from multiple study sources, developed by consultation of relevant guidance and experts in IPD. We pr...

Aims To examine the prevalence, temporal changes, and impact of the National Institute of Health (NIH) Sex as a Biological Variable (SABV) policy on sex and gender reporting and analysis in cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) cohort studies. Methods and results We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, and Web of Science for cohort studies reporting the ef...

Objective: We provide guidance for considering equity in rapid reviews through examples of published COVID-19 rapid reviews. Study design and setting: This guidance was developed based on a series of methodological meetings, review of internationally renowned guidance such as the Cochrane Handbook and the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Re...

An evidence-based approach is considered the gold standard for health decision-making. Sometimes, a guideline panel might judge the certainty that the desirable effects of an intervention clearly outweigh its undesirable effects as high, but the body of supportive evidence is indirect. In such cases, the application of the Grading of Recommendation...

There are growing bodies of evidence demonstrating the benefits of equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) on academic and organizational excellence. In turn, some editors have stated their desire to improve the EDI of their journals and of the wider scientific community. The Royal Society of Chemistry established a minimum set of requirements aimed...

Objective We sought to examine the extent to which populations experiencing inequities were considered in studies of COVID-19 vaccination in individuals with autoimmune inflammatory rheumatic diseases (AIRDs). Methods We included all studies (N=19) from an ongoing Cochrane living systematic review on COVID-19 vaccination in people with AIRDs. We u...

Objective To evaluate the extent to which Cochrane Musculoskeletal systematic reviews assess and analyze health equity considerations. Methods We included Cochrane Musculoskeletal systematic reviews that included trials with participants older than 50 years published from 2015-2020. We assessed the extent to which reviews considered health equity...

Objective: We provide guidance for considering equity in rapid reviews through examples of published COVID-19 rapid reviews. Study design and setting: This guidance was developed based on a series of methodological meetings, review of internationally renowned guidance such as the Cochrane Handbook and the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic...

Background: The mitigation of unfair and avoidable differences in health is an increasing global priority. Observational studies including cohort, cross-sectional and case-control studies tend to report social determinants of health which could inform evidence syntheses on health equity and social justice. However, the extent of reporting and analy...

Background Individuals with autoimmune inflammatory rheumatic diseases (AIRDs) have an increased baseline risk of severe COVID-19 infection. Intersection of inequity factors may result in more severe adverse effects through influencing opportunities for health. We sought to examine the extent to which populations experiencing inequities were consid...

Introduction Health inequities are defined as unfair and avoidable differences in health between groups within a population. Most health research is conducted through observational studies, which are able to offer real-world insights about etiology, healthcare policy/programme effectiveness and the impacts of socioeconomic factors. However, most pu...

Objectives To evaluate the development and quality of actionable statements that qualify as good practice statements (GPS) reported in COVID-19 guidelines. Design and setting Systematic review . We searched MEDLINE, MedSci, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), databases of Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluatio...

Objectives: Sex and gender based analysis may improve understanding of transitions from long term care to community or health services. Our study aims to assess how sex or gender was reported and analyzed in studies about care transitions for older adults. Methods: We identified longitudinal studies from a 2017 scoping review on factors affecting...

Background: Enhancing health equity is endorsed in the Sustainable Development Goals. The failure of systematic reviews to consider potential differences in effects across equity factors is cited by decision‐makers as a limitation to their ability to inform policy and program decisions. Objectives: To explore what methods systematic reviewers use...

The objective of this systematic review is to identify, appraise and synthesise the best available evidence on the effectiveness of nutritional counselling and education interventions on maternal, infant and child health outcomes, and assess the differences in effects across participants' PROGRESS+ characteristics. To achieve these objectives, we w...

Actes de la conférence: Journée de la recherche de la Faculté de médecine / Conference Proceedings: Faculty of Medicine Research Day

Introduction Physical distancing (PD) is an important public health strategy to reduce the transmission of COVID-19 and has been promoted by public health authorities through social media. Although youth have a tendency to engage in high-risk behaviors that could facilitate COVID-19 transmission, there is limited research on the characteristics of...

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the global imperative to address health inequities. Observational studies are a valuable source of evidence for real-world effects and impacts of implementing COVID-19 policies on the redistribution of inequities. We assembled a diverse global multi-disciplinary team to develop interim guidance for improving tr...

In this meta-analysis of cohort studies, women benefited more than men from CRT with a significant reduction in rate of long-term all-cause mortality. However, globally, women are less frequently implanted with CRT device in practice. These results provide evidence to support the sex disparity in CRT; more sex-based analyses are needed to investiga...

Objectives: To propose a taxonomy and framework that identifies and presents actionable statements in guidelines. Study design and setting: We took an iterative approach reviewing case studies of guidelines produced by the World Health Organization and the American Society of Hematology to develop an initial conceptual framework. We then tested...

Conference proceedings prepared by the University of Ottawa Journal of Medicine for Brain Health Research Day

Dr. Marc-André Langlois, a cutting-edge virologist, Canada Research Chair in Molecular Virology and Intrinsic Immunity, and Professor in the Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Ottawa, received 1 million dollars in Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) funding to develop a nasal spray COVID-19 vaccin...

Introduction There is abundant evidence for sex differences in the diagnosis, implantation, and outcomes for cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) devices. Controversial data suggesting women are less likely to receive the device regardless of the greater benefit. The aim of this review is to assess sex differences in the implantation rate, clini...

Background: Social networking platforms offer a wide reach for public health interventions allowing communication with broad audiences using tools that are generally free and straightforward to use and may be combined with other components, such as public health policies. We define interactive social media as activities, practices, or behaviours a...

Background Musculoskeletal conditions are the leading cause of years lived with disability for older adults. Limitations in functional ability affect healthy ageing for ageing populations worldwide. Thus, it is important to assess effects of interventions on the multiple dimensions of function for older adults. Objectives To assess: (1) which doma...

Background Idiopathic ventricular fibrillation (IVF) is diagnosed in patients with apparently unexplained cardiac arrest (UCA) after varying degrees of evaluation. This is largely due to the lack of a standardized approach to UCA. Objectives We sought to develop an evidence-based diagnostic algorithm for IVF by systematically examining the yield o...

The rapidly unfolding Coronavirus Disease of 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and an ever-increasing volume of relevant literature presents considerable strain for decision makers. Those decision makers are interested in information not only about benefits and harms of interventions but also contextual information such as people’s values and preferences, c...

Introduction: There is abundant evidence for sex differences in the diagnosis, implantation and outcomes for Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy (CRT) devices. Controversial data suggesting women are less likely to receive the device regardless of the greater benefit. The aim of this review is to assess sex differences in the Implantation rate, clini...

Background: Social media are an increasingly commonly used platform for delivering health promotion interventions. Although recent research has focused on the effectiveness of social media interventions for health promotion, very little is known about the optimal content within such interventions, and the active ingredients to promote health behavi...

Background: The randomized controlled trial (RCT) is considered the gold standard study design to inform decisions about the effectiveness of interventions. However, a common limitation is inadequate reporting of the applicability of the intervention and trial results for people who are "socially disadvantaged" and this can affect policy-makers' d...

Intestinal parasites affect millions of children globally. We aimed to assess effects of deworming children on nutritional and cognitive outcomes across potential effect modifiers using individual participant data (IPD). We searched multiple databases to 27 March 2018, grey literature, and other sources. We included randomised and quasi randomised...

Soil transmitted (or intestinal) helminths and schistosomes affect millions of children worldwide. To use individual participant data network meta‐analysis (NMA) to explore the effects of different types and frequency of deworming drugs on anaemia, cognition and growth across potential effect modifiers. We developed a search strategy with an inform...

BACKGROUND Social media is an increasingly commonly used platform for delivering health promotion interventions. While recent research has focused on the effectiveness of social media interventions for health promotion, very little is known about the optimal content within such interventions; the active ingredients to promote health behaviour chang...

Background: Social media are an increasingly commonly used platform for delivering health promotion interventions. Although recent research has focused on the effectiveness of social media interventions for health promotion, very little is known about the optimal content within such interventions, and the active ingredients to promote health behav...

Stent thrombosis remains an infrequent but significant complication following percutaneous coronary intervention. Preclinical models to rapidly screen and validate therapeutic compounds for efficacy are lacking. Herein, we describe a reproducible, high throughput and cost-effective method to evaluate candidate therapeutics and devices for either tr...

Background: The importance of sex and gender considerations in research is being increasingly recognized. Evidence indicates that sex and gender can influence intervention effectiveness. We assessed the extent to which sex/gender is reported and analyzed in Campbell and Cochrane systematic reviews. Methods: We screened all the systematic reviews...