Rebecca Abbott

University of Exeter | UoE · Medical School

Background Studies have found that women with gynaecological conditions and symptoms do not feel listened to by primary care clinicians. Less understood is whether primary care clinicians perceive that there are challenges around listening to and interacting with this patient group. Aim This study aims to understand primary care clinicians’ perspe...

This is the protocol for a Campbell systematic review. The objectives are as follows: identify available systematic reviews and randomised controlled trials on interventions targeting health or social needs of the people aged over 80; identify qualitative studies relating to the experiences of people aged over 80 of interventions that target their...

Background: There is some evidence to suggest that animal-assisted interventions can have beneficial impact for residents in long-term care, but the focus of the evidence has largely been on behavioural and psychosocial measured outcomes. Animals, either as companion animals or in the form of pet/animal-assisted therapy, may provide benefits in th...

Background Systematic reviews require detailed planning of complex processes which can present logistical challenges. Understanding these logistical challenges can help with planning and execution of tasks Objectives To describe the perspectives of expert searchers on the main logistical challenges when carrying out supplementary searches for syst...

Systematic reviews aim to use formalised and explicitly described methods. However, studies show that systematic reviews pose challenges which can only be resolved using expert judgement that is resistant to explicit formulation. The expertise required to make such judgements can be understood as practical knowledge or phronesis, and is based on li...

Approximately two-thirds of hospital admissions are older adults and almost half of these are likely to have some form of dementia. People with dementia are not only at an increased risk of adverse outcomes once admitted, but the unfamiliar environment and routinised practices of the wards and acute care can be particularly challenging for them, he...

Background The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a substantial amount of research produced with startling speed. While the need to understand the nature of the SARS-COV-2 virus, its spread, impact and possible treatments quickly was necessary, we have observed a plethora of variable quality systematic reviews undermining the confidence associated with...

Objective To suggest possible approaches to combatting the impact of the COVID-19 infodemic in-order to prevent research waste in future health emergencies and in everyday research and practice. Study Design and Setting Systematic review. The Epistemonikos database was searched in June 2021 for systematic reviews on the effectiveness of convalesce...

Aim This systematic review identifies, appraises and synthesizes the evidence on the provision of fundamental nursing care to hospitalized patients with a highly infectious virus and the effectiveness of adaptations to overcome barriers to care. Design Systematic review. Data Sources In July 2020, we searched Medline, PsycINFO (OvidSP), CINAHL (E...

Background Since the emergence of COVID-19, the academic and scientific community has reacted at pace to understand its epidemiology, diagnosis, treatment, prevention and impact. There are concerns that in the panic to get answers to help manage the pandemic, many of the cornerstones of robust methods are being omitted. The aim of this review was t...

Objective The academic and scientific community has reacted at pace to gather evidence to help and inform about COVID-19. Concerns have been raised about the quality of this evidence. The aim of this review was to map the nature, scope and quality of evidence syntheses on COVID-19 and to explore the relationship between review quality and the exten...

Background Guidance on provision of care for people with dementia states that occupation people find meaningful is essential for well-being; however, definitions of ‘meaningful occupation’ are often broad, with intrinsic meaning coming from within the person rather than the activity, leading to an inconsistent understanding of its purpose. Objecti...

Introduction Patient experience of nursing care is correlated with safety, clinical effectiveness, care quality, treatment outcomes and service use. Effective nursing care includes actions to develop nurse–patient relationships and deliver physical and psychosocial care to patients. The high risk of transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus compromises...

The need to improve care for people living with dementia in the hospital setting has long been recognised. Person-centred care has the potential to improve the experience of care for persons living with dementia and their carers, and has been shown to improve the experiences of hospital staff caring for the persons living with dementia, however it...

Background: Systematic reviews are comprehensive, robust, inclusive, transparent, and reproducible when bringing together the evidence to answer a research question. Various guidelines provide recommendations on the expertise required to conduct a systematic review, where and how to search for literature, and what should be reported in the publish...

Background Guidance for the provision of care for people with dementia asserts that occupation people find meaningful is essential for wellbeing, however definitions of meaningful occupation are often broad with the intrinsic meaning coming from within the person rather than the activity. As such the purpose of meaningful occupation, and how to gau...

Background Being in hospital can be particularly confusing and challenging not only for people living with dementia, but also for their carers and the staff that care for them. Method We undertook three systematic reviews of quantitative and qualitative evidence according to best practice guidelines. The reviews explored: 1) experience of care in...

Background Being in hospital can be particularly confusing and challenging not only for people living with dementia, but also for their carers and the staff who care for them. Improving the experience of care for people living with dementia in hospital has been recognised as a priority. Objectives To understand the experience of care in hospital f...

Background Being in hospital can be particularly confusing and challenging not only for people living with dementia, but also for their carers and the staff that care for them. Methods We undertook three systematic reviews of quantitative and qualitative evidence according to best practice guidelines. The reviews explored: 1) experience of care in...

Aims and objectives To systematically review and synthesise qualitative data from studies exploring the experiences of hospital staff who care for people living with dementia (Plwd). Background In hospital, the number of Plwd continues to rise; however, their experiences of care remain problematic. Negative experiences of care are likely to contri...

Background: An increasingly high number of patients admitted to hospital have dementia. Hospital environments can be particularly confusing and challenging for people living with dementia (Plwd) impacting their wellbeing and the ability to optimize their care. Improving the experience of care in hospital has been recognized as a priority, and non-...

Background: Missed hospital outpatient appointments is a commonly reported problem in healthcare services around the world; for example, they cost the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK millions of pounds every year and can cause operation and scheduling difficulties worldwide. In 2002, the World Health Organization (WHO) published a report h...

This chapter provides an introduction to the principles of critical appraisal and explains why critical appraisal skills are important in practice and research. Guidance is provided on how to approach the critical appraisal of different types of study including cross-sectional studies, case–control studies, cohort studies, clinical trials, systemat...

This long-awaited second edition of Practical Psychiatric Epidemiology covers all of the considerable new developments in psychiatric epidemiology that have occurred since the first edition was published in 2003. It includes new content on key topics such as life course epidemiology, gene–environment interactions, bioethics, patient and public invo...

Background: Medication mismanagement is a major cause of both hospital admission and nursing home placement of frail older adults. Medication reviews by community pharmacists aim to maximise therapeutic benefit but also minimise harm. Pharmacist-led medication reviews have been the focus of several systematic reviews, but none have focussed on the...

Background: People living with dementia at home are a group who are at increased risk of malnutrition. Health care professionals and home care workers, are ideally placed to support nutritional care in this vulnerable group. Yet, few, if any studies, have captured the experiences of these workers in respect of treating and managing nutritional iss...

Objectives: Few studies have captured the experiences of family carers who manage the nutritional needs of family members living with dementia at home. The identification and management of symptoms that may affect nutritional status is often reliant upon the family carer. This interpretative phenomenological study aimed to explore the experiences...

Background The health and well‐being of care home residents are influenced by their experience of mealtimes, which provide an opportunity for residents to socialise and exercise control over their lives, as well as providing essential sustenance. Care home staff are pivotal to this experience, responsible for the provision of meals and eating assis...

Background Robopets are small animal‐like robots which have the appearance and behavioural characteristics of pets. Objective To bring together the evidence of the experiences of staff, residents and family members of interacting with robopets and the effects of robopets on the health and well‐being of older people living in care homes. Design Sy...

The aim of this systematic review was to explore the effects and experiences of parent-to-parent support in neonatal intensive care from the perspectives of those giving, receiving, or implementing support. Electronic database searches (14 databases; February 2018) were supplemented with forward and backward citation chasing. Study selection, data...

Clinical Question Do dietary interventions, such as probiotics, improve pain in children with recurrent abdominal pain? Clinical Application Compared with placebo, children who were treated with probiotic preparations were more likely to experience improvement in pain in the short term (odds ratio, 1.63; 95% CI, 1.07-2.47), suggesting that clinici...

Background: Parents of babies admitted to neonatal units experience an arduous emotional journey. Feelings of helplessness, fear, sadness, guilt, grief and anger are common. These feelings can lead to anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress which may persist long after discharge from the unit. Support from a parent with first-hand experience...

Objectives: Between 4% and 25% of school-aged children complain of recurrent abdominal pain (RAP) severe enough to interfere with their daily activities. Methods: We carried out a systematic review of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) in eleven databases and 2 trials registries from inception to June 2016. An update search was run in November...

There are an increasing number of people with dementia living in their own home for longer, often supported by a family member. The symptoms of dementia can affect an individual's nutritional status, which can lead to a reduced quality of life for the person with dementia and their family members. A scoping review was conducted from July 2016 until...

Background: Qualitative research in dementia improves understanding of the experience of people affected by dementia. Searching databases for qualitative studies is problematic. Qualitative-specific search strategies might help with locating studies. Objective: To examine the effectiveness (sensitivity and precision) of 5 qualitative strategies...

Background The need to better understand implementing evidence-informed dementia care has been recognised in multiple priority-setting partnerships. The aim of this scoping review was to give an overview of the state of the evidence on implementation and dissemination of dementia care, and create a systematic evidence map. Methods We sought studie...

Background Many interventions aim to alleviate well-documented problems of malnutrition in residential care homes and improve residents’ health and wellbeing. Despite some positive findings, little is known about how and why mealtime interventions might be effective, and in particular, what effects residents’ experiences of mealtimes have on health...

Background: Recently, there has been an increased interest in studying the effects of mindfulness-based interventions for people with psychological and physical problems. However, the mechanisms of action in these interventions that lead to beneficial physical and psychological outcomes have yet to be clearly identified. Purpose: The aim of this...

Background: This is an update of the original Cochrane review, last published in 2009 (Huertas-Ceballos 2009). Recurrent abdominal pain (RAP), including children with irritable bowel syndrome, is a common problem affecting between 4% and 25% of school-aged children. For the majority of such children, no organic cause for their pain can be found on...

Background: Between 4% and 25% of school-aged children at some stage complain of recurrent abdominal pain (RAP) of sufficient severity to interfere with their daily lives. When no clear organic cause is found, the children are managed with reassurance and simple measures; a large range of pharmacological interventions have been recommended for use...

Background: Heart rate variability (HRV) is considered to explain improvements in cardiovascular health accrued by physical activity (PA) and cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) over and above traditional cardiovascular risk factors. Objective: To systematically address associations between HRV, PA and CRF in children and adolescents. Data sources:...

Background: Active video games (AVGs) have been identified as a novel strategy to improve motor skill and physical activity in clinical populations. A recent cross-over randomized trial found AVGs to be ineffective at improving motor skill and physical activity in the home-environment for children with or at-risk for developmental coordination dis...

Addressing problems associated with malnutrition in care home residents has been prioritized by researchers and decision-makers. This review aimed to better understand factors that may contribute to malnutrition by examining the attitudes, perceptions and experiences of mealtimes among care home residents and staff. Five databases were searched fro...

Background: This review supersedes the original Cochrane review first published in 2008 (Huertas-Ceballos 2008).Between 4% and 25% of school-aged children complain of recurrent abdominal pain (RAP) severe enough to interfere with their daily activities. No organic cause for this pain can be found on physical examination or investigation for the ma...

Background Research continues to increase our knowledge of what can be done to improve the care of those resident in care homes but there is a persistent gap between this knowledge and the care that people actually receive. The aims of this scoping review are, first, to examine the extent, range, and nature of research on different ways of dissemin...

Background There is a gap between the dementia care that is provided and that which research evidence suggests should be provided and this hinders efforts to improve the quality of care for people with dementia. A systematic scoping review was conducted to identify and synthesise the strategies of disseminating and implementing practices that have...

Background Non-adherence to medication regimens is a major cause of nursing home placement of frail older adults. Approximately 30 percent of hospital admissions of older adults are drug related, with more than 11 percent attributed to medication non-adherence and 10–17 percent related to adverse drug reactions. The aim of this systematic review wa...

Objectives To evaluate the effectiveness of behaviour changing interventions targeting ordering of thyroid function tests. Design Systematic review. Data sources MEDLINE, EMBASE and the Cochrane Database up to May 2015. Eligibility criteria for selecting studies We included studies evaluating the effectiveness of behaviour change interventions aimi...

Review question/objective: This qualitative review aims to gain an increased understanding of the factors that support (facilitators) and challenge (barriers) people who have dementia and live alone in being able to remain living in their own homes. The review will contribute to the development of a complex intervention, inform clinical practice a...

To provide a detailed description of young adults’ sedentary time and physical activity. 384 young women and 389 young men aged 22.1 ± 0.6 years, all participants in the 22 year old follow-up of the Raine Study pregnancy cohort, wore Actigraph GT3X+ monitors on the hip for 24 h/day over a one-week period for at least one ‘valid’ day (≥10 h of wakin...

Fitness is an important component of health, and obese adolescents regularly have poor fitness. Unfortunately, few have assessed the impact of community-based lifestyle interventions on multiple components of fitness. The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of participation in a community-based intervention involving adolescents and pare...

Depression is more common among individuals with chronic physical illness than in the general population. New treatments for severe and chronic inflammatory conditions which inhibit tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), a pro-inflammatory cytokine, may be able to shed some light on the role of inflammatory mediators in depression. This systematic r...

The detailed patterns of physical activity and sedentary behaviors of overweight and obese adolescents are unknown, but may be important for health outcomes and targeted intervention design. Participants completed Curtin University's Activity, Food and Attitudes Program (CAFAP), an 8-week intervention with 12 months of maintenance intervention. Phy...

Background: To determine the effects of participation in Curtin University's Activity, Food and Attitudes Program (CAFAP), a community-based, family-centered behavioural intervention, on the physical activity, sedentary time, and healthy eating behaviours of overweight and obese adolescents. Methods: In this waitlist controlled clinical trial in...

Objective To examine the impact of gardens and outdoor spaces on the mental and physical well-being of people with dementia who are resident in care homes and understand the views of people with dementia, their carers, and care home staff on the value of gardens and outdoor spaces. Design Systematic review. Methods Fourteen databases were searche...

Background Antipsychotic medications are commonly used to manage the behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia. Several large studies have demonstrated an association between treatment with antipsychotics and increased morbidity and mortality in people with dementia. Aims To assess the effectiveness of interventions used to reduce inapprop...

Active-input videogames could provide a useful conduit for increasing physical activity by improving a child's self-confidence, physical activity enjoyment, and reducing anxiety. Therefore this study evaluated the impact of (a) the removal of home access to traditional electronic games or (b) their replacement with active-input videogames, on child...

This study assessed the feasibility and impact of introducing a programme of an additional 30 minutes per day of moderate physical activity within curriculum time on learning and readiness to learn in a large elementary school in south-east Queensland, Australia. The programme, Active Kids Active Minds (AKAM), involved Year 5 students (n = 107), th...

To determine the effectiveness of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) on psychological and physical outcomes for people with vascular disease. Systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials. AMED, CINAHL, EMBASE, British Nursing Index, Medline, Web of Science, PsycINFO, Cochr...

Electronic games (e-games) are widely used by children, often for substantial durations, yet to date there are no evidence-based guidelines regarding their use. The aim of this paper is to present guidelines for the wise use of e-games by children based on a narrative review of the research. This paper proposes a model of factors that influence chi...