June 2020

Dr Trisha Greenhalgh discusses how the classical approach of a clinical trial to determine the efficacy of an intervention is not feasible or even possible in the time of a pandemic. Population-wide public health efforts, such as wearing face masks are considered of low methodological quality in evidence-based medicine. Pandemics however demand rapid policy implementation to protect the spread of infection without delay.

Image Credit: leo2014 Pixabay

Editorial

Will COVID-19 be evidence-based medicine’s nemesis?

Trisha Greenhalgh

PLOS Medicine: published June 30, 2020 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003266

Perspective

Social determinants of health, data science, and decision-making: Forging a transdisciplinary synthesis

Sandro Galea, Salma M. Abdalla, Jeffrey L. Sturchio

PLOS Medicine: published June 11, 2020 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003174

Research Articles

Studying individual risk factors for self-harm in the UK Biobank: A polygenic scoring and Mendelian randomisation study

Kai Xiang Lim, Frühling Rijsdijk, Saskia P. Hagenaars, Adam Socrates, Shing Wan Choi, Jonathan R. I. Coleman, Kylie P. Glanville, Cathryn M. Lewis, Jean-Baptiste Pingault

PLOS Medicine: published June 1, 2020 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003137

Chronic pain diagnosis in refugee torture survivors: A prospective, blinded diagnostic accuracy study

Gunisha Kaur, Roniel Weinberg, Andrew Robert Milewski, Samantha Huynh, Elizabeth Mauer, Hugh Carroll Hemmings Jr., Kane Owen Pryor

PLOS Medicine: published June 5, 2020 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003108

Population ageing and mortality during 1990–2017: A global decomposition analysis

Xunjie Cheng, Yang Yang, David C. Schwebel, Zuyun Liu, Li Li, Peixia Cheng, Peishan Ning, Guoqing Hu

PLOS Medicine: published June 8, 2020 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003138

Efficacy of intravenous iron treatment for chemotherapy-induced anemia: A prospective Phase II pilot clinical trial in South Korea

Jun Ho Jang, Youjin Kim, Silvia Park, Kihyun Kim, Seok Jin Kim, Won Seog Kim, Chul Won Jung, Jeeyun Lee, Se-Hoon Lee

PLOS Medicine: published June 8, 2020 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003091

A multiple risk factor program is associated with decreased risk of cardiovascular disease in 70-year-olds: A cohort study from Sweden

Anna Nordström, Jonathan Bergman, Sabine Björk, Bo Carlberg, Jonas Johansson, Andreas Hult, Peter Nordström

PLOS Medicine: published June 11, 2020 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003135

Fatty acids in the de novo lipogenesis pathway and incidence of type 2 diabetes: A pooled analysis of prospective cohort studies

Fumiaki Imamura, Amanda M. Fretts, Matti Marklund, Andres V. Ardisson Korat, Wei-Sin Yang, Maria Lankinen, Waqas Qureshi, Catherine Helmer, Tzu-An Chen, Jyrki K. Virtanen, Kerry Wong, Julie K. Bassett, Rachel Murphy, Nathan Tintle, Chaoyu Ian Yu, Ingeborg A. Brouwer, Kuo-Liong Chien, Yun-yu Chen, Alexis C. Wood, Liana C. del Gobbo, Luc Djousse, Johanna M. Geleijnse, Graham G. Giles, Janette de Goede, Vilmundur Gudnason, William S. Harris, Allison Hodge, Frank Hu, InterAct Consortium, Albert Koulman, Markku Laakso, Lars Lind, Hung-Ju Lin, Barbara McKnight, Kalina Rajaobelina, Ulf Riserus, Jennifer G. Robinson, Cecilia Samieri, Mackenzie Senn, David S. Siscovick, Sabita S. Soedamah-Muthu, Nona Sotoodehnia, Qi Sun, Michael Y. Tsai, Tomi-Pekka Tuomainen, Matti Uusitupa, Lynne E. Wagenknecht, Nick J. Wareham, Jason H. Y. Wu, Renata Micha, Rozenn N. Lemaitre, Dariush Mozaffarian, Nita G. Forouhi

PLOS Medicine: published June 12, 2020 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003102

The association between use of proton-pump inhibitors and excess mortality after kidney transplantation: A cohort study

Rianne M. Douwes, António W. Gomes-Neto, Michele F. Eisenga, Elisabet Van Loon, Joëlle C. Schutten, Rijk O. B. Gans, Maarten Naesens, Else van den Berg, Ben Sprangers, Stefan P. Berger, Gerjan Navis, Hans Blokzijl, Björn Meijers, Stephan J. L. Bakker, Dirk Kuypers

PLOS Medicine: published June 15, 2020 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003140

Antibiotic prescription practices in primary care in low- and middle-income countries: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Giorgia Sulis, Pierrick Adam, Vaidehi Nafade, Genevieve Gore, Benjamin Daniels, Amrita Daftary, Jishnu Das, Sumanth Gandra, Madhukar Pai

PLOS Medicine: published June 16, 2020 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003139

Clinical and epidemiological characteristics of pediatric SARS-CoV-2 infections in China: A multicenter case series

Che Zhang, Jiaowei Gu, Quanjing Chen, Na Deng, Jingfeng Li, Li Huang, Xihui Zhou

PLOS Medicine: published June 16, 2020 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003130

The potential impact of COVID-19 in refugee camps in Bangladesh and beyond: A modeling study

Shaun Truelove, Orit Abrahim, Chiara Altare, Stephen A. Lauer, Krya H. Grantz, Andrew S. Azman, Paul Spiegel

PLOS Medicine: published June 16, 2020 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003144

Telemonitoring at scale for hypertension in primary care: An implementation study

Vicky Hammersley, Richard Parker, Mary Paterson, Janet Hanley, Hilary Pinnock, Paul Padfield, Andrew Stoddart, Hyeon Gyeong Park, Aziz Sheikh, Brian McKinstry

PLOS Medicine: published June 17, 2020 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003124

The association between long-term exposure to low-level PM_2.5 and mortality in the state of Queensland, Australia: A modelling study with the difference-in-differences approach

Wenhua Yu, Yuming Guo, Liuhua Shi, Shanshan Li

PLOS Medicine: published June 18, 2020 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003141

Predicting and elucidating the etiology of fatty liver disease: A machine learning modeling and validation study in the IMI DIRECT cohorts

Naeimeh Atabaki-Pasdar, Mattias Ohlsson, Ana Viñuela, Francesca Frau, Hugo Pomares-Millan, Mark Haid, Angus G. Jones, E. Louise Thomas, Robert W. Koivula, Azra Kurbasic, Pascal M. Mutie, Hugo Fitipaldi, Juan Fernandez, Adem Y. Dawed, Giuseppe N. Giordano, Ian M. Forgie, Timothy J. McDonald, Femke Rutters, Henna Cederberg, Elizaveta Chabanova, Matilda Dale, Federico De Masi, Cecilia Engel Thomas, Kristine H. Allin, Tue H. Hansen, Alison Heggie, Mun-Gwan Hong, Petra J. M. Elders, Gwen Kennedy, Tarja Kokkola, Helle Krogh Pedersen, Anubha Mahajan, Donna McEvoy, Francois Pattou, Violeta Raverdy, Ragna S. Häussler, Sapna Sharma, Henrik S. Thomsen, Jagadish Vangipurapu, Henrik Vestergaard, Leen M. ‘t Hart, Jerzy Adamski, Petra B. Musholt, Soren Brage, Søren Brunak, Emmanouil Dermitzakis, Gary Frost, Torben Hansen, Markku Laakso, Oluf Pedersen, Martin Ridderstråle, Hartmut Ruetten, Andrew T. Hattersley, Mark Walker, Joline W. J. Beulens, Andrea Mari, Jochen M. Schwenk, Ramneek Gupta, Mark I. McCarthy, Ewan R. Pearson, Jimmy D. Bell, Imre Pavo, Paul W. Franks

PLOS Medicine: published June 19, 2020 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003149

Distinct subtypes of polycystic ovary syndrome with novel genetic associations: An unsupervised, phenotypic clustering analysis

Matthew Dapas, Frederick T. J. Lin, Girish N. Nadkarni, Ryan Sisk, Richard S. Legro, Margrit Urbanek, M. Geoffrey Hayes, Andrea Dunaif

PLOS Medicine: published June 23, 2020 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003132

Impact of physicians’ participation in non-interventional post-marketing studies on their prescription habits: A retrospective 2-armed cohort study in Germany

Cora Koch, Jörn Schleeff, Franka Techen, Daniel Wollschläger, Gisela Schott, Ralf Kölbel, Klaus Lieb

PLOS Medicine: published June 26, 2020 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003151

Effect of tailoring anticoagulant treatment duration by applying a recurrence risk prediction model in patients with venous thromboembolism compared to usual care: A randomized controlled trial

Geert-Jan Geersing, Janneke M. T. Hendriksen, Nicolaas P. A. Zuithoff, Kit C. Roes, Ruud Oudega, Toshihiko Takada, Roger E. G. Schutgens, Karel G. M. Moons

PLOS Medicine: published June 26, 2020 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003142

Cover

Will COVID-19 be evidence-based medicine's nemesis?