Study database
Pools several studies statistically. It can estimate an effect more precisely, but it inherits the weaknesses of the studies it includes.
HOHorse
Eleven primary studies yielded a pooled detection rate for affected animals of 0.72 and a rate of correctly classified healthy animals of 0.88; the authors recommend the basal value as a confirmatory test where the probability before testing is high, expressly not as screening and not in horses without clinical signs.
HOHorse
From 21 incidence studies and 65 risk factor studies comes a pooled frequency of 1.17 catastrophic musculoskeletal injuries per 1,000 starts in flat racing, with age, race class, going, previous injury and pre-race examination findings as consistently associated factors.
HOHorse
Across 21 studies with 458 horses, survival was 90 per cent, return to intended use 65 per cent and wound infection 12 per cent; the authors call the procedure safe but consider usability in need of improvement, particularly after fractures.
HUHuman
Across 53 studies with 4,489 adults, early weight bearing after surgically treated ankle fracture probably improved function slightly over the first six months without raising the number of further procedures, the difference remaining small and blinding having been impossible in every study.
HUHuman
From 18 studies comes, for non-operated hip fracture in frail older people, a mortality of 36 per cent at 30 days and 60 per cent at one year, with just under 10 per cent of patients still mobile at six months, this group comprising the frailest patients of all.
HUHuman
Across 27 studies and 37 interventions with 264 healthy adults, tendon stiffness and elastic modulus rose clearly and cross-sectional area less so; loading intensity was decisive, contraction type was not.
HUHuman
Across 21 randomised trials with 994 people, eccentric training was superior to physical modalities for pain reduction but equivalent to other forms of training; the functional data were highly heterogeneous.
HUHuman
Across 33 studies with 35,896 people, surgery lowered the re-rupture rate and raised return to sport, but came with more infections and nerve injuries; platelet-rich plasma showed no added benefit.
HUHuman
Across 14 randomised trials with 1,628 participants, open and minimally invasive surgery clearly lowered the re-rupture rate, with a higher complication rate for the open technique and no difference in functional scores.
HUHuman
Across 9 studies with 464 participants, eccentric training with soft tissue treatment ranked best in the short term, yet confidence in all non-surgical approaches was very low and no best option could be named.
HUHuman
For the Achilles tendon the analysis found only small and inconsistent effects of shockwave therapy on pain and function, while it showed clear effects in plantar fasciitis.
HOHorse
Across 21 included studies, cell or plasma treatments did not raise return to performance but did lower the risk of re-injury; study quality was weak and the risk of bias high.
HUHuman
Across 19 studies with 768 adults, collagen peptides combined with training showed favourable effects on tendon morphology and strength, yet the certainty of the tendon statement was itself rated as very low.
HUHuman
Across 61 papers with 763 people, mechanical loading clearly raised stiffness and elastic modulus and cross-sectional area only slightly; the stiffness gain came mainly from the material, and protocols with high local tendon strain worked more strongly than those with low strain.
HOHorse
From ten pooled outbreak reports, eight of them from peer-reviewed publications, the basic reproduction number is estimated conservatively at 2.2 and less conservatively at 2.7, expressly as a computational quantity for models and probably too low for want of follow-up data.
HUHuman
Analysis of 14 studies with 7,755 febrile infants: procalcitonin detected invasive bacterial infections considerably better than C-reactive protein; for the wider category of serious bacterial infection both markers were equally middling, with optimal CRP thresholds between about 13 and 16 milligrams per litre.
HUHuman
Analysis of 112 papers covering 113 markers: only markers in cerebrospinal fluid reached excellent discrimination (C-reactive protein and ferritin about 0.94 area under the curve each); not a single blood marker reached that quality, procalcitonin in blood lying in the good range at about 0.89.
HUHuman
Analysis of 47 studies with 194,418 people: genetically raised CRP was not associated with more coronary heart disease, while the observed association was clear in the same data; CRP is therefore hardly a causal factor.
HUHuman
Analysis of 14 randomised trials with 133,109 people: more intensive lipid lowering reduced cardiovascular events but did not measurably change high-sensitivity CRP; a residual inflammatory risk persists despite modern lipid therapy.
HUHuman
Analysis of 25 randomised trials: across all anti-inflammatory agents no established benefit on major cardiovascular events was demonstrable, but there was one for inflammasome inhibitors and interleukin pathway inhibitors, while high-sensitivity CRP did not change.
HUHuman
Analysis of randomised trials in older adults: training lowered CRP and interleukin-6, and the combination of training with additional protein intake worked more strongly than either measure alone; on tumour necrosis factor alpha only the combination had an effect.
HUHuman
Analysis of 19 randomised trials with 1,183 people: plant-derived alpha-linolenic acid lowered CRP and tumour necrosis factor alpha slightly, left interleukin-6 unchanged and at the same time raised LDL cholesterol.
HUHuman
Analysis of 18 randomised trials with 1,018 people with rheumatoid arthritis: omega-3 reduced the number of tender joints and the triglycerides, while the reduction in CRP, erythrocyte sedimentation rate and disease activity score was not statistically confirmed.
HUHuman
In 2,443 randomised trials drawn from 228 meta-analyses, treatment effects were exaggerated by roughly 8 to 13 per cent on average where the risk of bias for random allocation, allocation concealment and blinding was unclear or high.
MUMultiple species
In ten animal experiments involving 2,450 animals assessed both blinded and unblinded, the unblinded assessment exaggerated the effect by 59 per cent on average; the outcomes were mostly subjective. The figure is carried by three pesticide experiments with a very large deviation: in the remaining seven experiments the exaggeration came to about 18 per cent and was not statistically significant.
HUHuman
From 5,663 records screened, 61 studies were included, 59 of them randomised; under GRADE the certainty of the evidence stayed very low for every outcome.
HOHorse
This analysis of 33 studies concerns electrolyte balance and not soaking; the only usable finding is that ponies later found to have pituitary dysfunction digested potassium less well, a point the authors ask readers to bear in mind with soaked hay.
HUHuman
In 14 studies covering 3,097 people up to 50 years of age, bulge, extrusion, degeneration and certain signal changes were more common in people with low back pain, whereas spinal stenosis, annular fissures and spondylolisthesis were not: imaging findings have to be examined one by one.
HUHuman
In six randomised trials including 1,804 patients, immediate imaging for low back pain without warning signs improved neither pain nor function, neither in the short term nor after six to twelve months.
HOHorse
Across 19 pooled studies, neither the choice between a medical and a surgical approach, nor rolling versus trotting, nor phenylephrine changed the probability of survival to a statistically meaningful degree, with the absence of randomised studies calling for caution.
HOHorse
The overview finds a very wide spread in the reported frequencies, no meaningful difference between survey and direct observation, and names unsuitable feeding management as the most important influence, while resting on descriptive statistics and data analysis rather than on pooled effect estimates.
HOHorse
The synthesis of 37 studies shows that the collection method shifts the species picture: gathering worms from the dung after treatment overstates the prevalence of rare species and understates their relative abundance compared with post-mortem work, and infection with ten or more species per horse is the rule.
HOHorse
From 60 studies covering 11,835 animals between 1994 and 2022: drug class and active substance influence resistance, whereas formulation, route of administration and dose do not; the lowest efficacies were 67.83 per cent for macrocyclic lactones against roundworms and 69.85 per cent for benzimidazoles against strongyles, and no secure trend emerged across the period.
HOHorse
Synthesis of seven randomised trials covering 566 horses on drug prevention: in the untreated comparison groups the frequency of ulceration reached 75.3 and 87.2 per cent depending on the subgroup; clinical signs were not recorded.
HUHuman
Eleven randomised trials with 735 participants: in older adults with ordinary cramps the difference from placebo after four weeks was 0.18 cramps per week, and a clinically meaningful benefit is unlikely; mild side effects, mostly gastrointestinal, were reported more often, but this comparison was rated as having low certainty.
HUHuman
Thirteen studies: magnesium reduced cramp frequency in pregnancy but showed no effect on nocturnal or persistent calf cramps in adults; calcium and potassium remained unsupported.
HUHuman
Only three randomised trials with 151 older participants: time to fall asleep was around 17 minutes shorter than on placebo, total sleep duration was not reliably different, and all the trials had a moderate to high risk of bias.
HUHuman
Across 31 randomised trials, amino acids, vitamin D and melatonin improved self-reported sleep quality, while the data on magnesium were insufficient for pooling.
HUHuman
Thirty-four double-blind trials with 2,028 adults: supplementation over three months on average lowered the upper blood pressure reading by 2.0 and the lower by 1.8 millimetres of mercury, accompanied by a slight rise in serum magnesium.
HUHuman
Subgroup analysis of randomised trials: the larger reductions in the upper blood pressure reading occurred at relatively low daily amounts and with durations of use of more than three months, not at high amounts.
HOHorse
Synthesis of 42 studies: ponies had lower endogenous magnesium losses in the faeces and a higher apparent digestibility than large horses; on calculation, ponies needed about half and large horses 1.9 times the previous recommendation.
HUHuman
Across 46 studies with 913 participants, acetate, propionate, butyrate and mixtures had no effect on blood glucose or insulin; only vinegar lowered the acute glucose rise, and the authors rate the overall evidence as very uncertain.
HUHuman
In 14 intervention groups with 205 adults, cereal fibres raised acetate, propionate, butyrate and total short-chain fatty acids; the effect was more pronounced at a body mass index above 29, and not all fibre types acted alike.
HUHuman
Across nine randomised trials, dietary fibre raised bifidobacteria and the sum of short-chain fatty acids and lowered HbA1c by 0.18 percentage points, while acetate, propionate and butyrate individually, along with fasting glucose and insulin resistance, remained unchanged.
MUMultiple species
Across 61 studies (29 in humans, 32 in animals), prebiotics lowered C-reactive protein and lipopolysaccharide in humans, while tumour necrosis factor fell only in animal experiments; heterogeneity between preparations, doses and durations was very high.
HUHuman
In 21 studies with 2,084 critically ill people, dietary fibre improved gut barrier permeability, the inflammatory marker and length of stay, without significant differences in short-chain fatty acid concentrations.
HUHuman
In eleven randomised trials with 729 people, prebiotics improved neither overall response nor abdominal pain, bloating or quality of life; they raised bifidobacteria, and inulin-type fructans even made bloating worse.
HUHuman
Across eleven studies, total fatty acids, acetate, propionate and valerate were lower in ulcerative colitis than in healthy people; butyrate was reduced in active disease but higher than in healthy people in remission, which weakens a simple deficiency hypothesis.
HOHorse
From 35 cross-sectional studies a pooled seroprevalence of 47.2 per cent emerges, with wide differences between the continents, from 71 per cent in North America to 27 per cent in Europe; the paper measures an exposure and derives no causal link with recurrent uveitis.
HUHuman
Normative values from 65 studies in 3,577 healthy people: effect sizes depended strongly on how strictly participants were filtered, which weakened or masked age relationships; in humans too, then, a normal value is method-dependent.
HUHuman
From 61 studies a modest disadvantage of short-term sleep restriction emerges in humans, detectable only for executive control, sustained attention and long-term memory; for multitasking, impulsive decisions and intelligence the data were insufficient.
HUHuman
Across 1,059 observations, sleep did not generally improve recognition of emotional material; only a partial analysis of eight studies supports a special role for REM sleep over deep sleep.
HUHuman
Across 65 studies from 14 countries with data on 60 million people, the frequency of types 16 and 18 fell by 83 per cent in girls aged 13 to 19 and genital warts by 67 per cent in young women and by 48 per cent in men of the same age, which demonstrates herd protection for unvaccinated people as well.
HUHuman
From 86 studies with more than 100,000 women follow a mean duration of detection of around ten months and a mostly transient course of the infection; only persistence counts as the strongest risk factor for high-grade precursors.
HUHuman
From 18 mostly observational studies follows a possible fall in recurrence of high-grade precursors after local surgery in vaccinated women, while the authors themselves rate the certainty of this evidence from very low to moderate and call for large randomised studies.
HUHuman
Across 64 randomised studies the response to sham treatment rose with a study duration of three months or more, with permitted accompanying treatments and with fewer study arms, and absence of blinding raised the response particularly at the level of skin lesions.
MUMultiple species
Umbrella review of 122 systematic reviews covering 367 interventions: 50 per cent reach a human study, 40 per cent a randomised trial and 5 per cent approval, with 86 per cent concordance of positive results and median times of 5, 7 and 10 years.
MUMultiple species
549 studies in 9,535 animals: mean reported improvement 26.3 per cent; 51.2 per cent without blinded assessment, with an effect inflated by 7.2 percentage points; 2 to 41 per cent of the experiments probably unpublished, and including them lowers the effect by 0.9 to 14.3 points.
HOHorse
21 publications included, 5 of them amenable to meta-analysis: the pooled effect favoured platelet-rich plasma, yet most studies carried a high risk of bias; the authors call for randomised, blinded comparative studies and a uniform classification system.
Once a month: new syntheses, checked studies, and what has changed in the state of the evidence.