Rates of pre-diabetes have tripled over past decade in England

The prevalence of pre-diabetes – higher than normal blood glucose levels – has tripled within the space of 8 years in England, reveals research published in the online journal BMJ Open. More than a third of adults in England now have pre-diabetes, the findings suggest, with those who are disadvantaged and of black and minority […]

Read More…

Divorce may be linked to higher risk of overweight/obesity among kids involved

Divorce may be linked to a higher risk of overweight and obesity among children affected by the marital split, suggests research published in the on-line journal BMJ Open. Boys may be especially prone to excess weight gain, the findings indicate. The researchers base their findings on a nationally representative sample of more than 3000 pupils […]

Read More…

Bringing old trials to light in BMJ Open

  Today we have published the first trial prompted by the Restoring Invisible and Abandoned Trials (RIAT) initiative. Dr Tom Treasure from UCL, with colleagues from University of Sussex and Imperial College, have brought back from obscurity the results of the ‘CEA Second-Look’ trial. The study asked the question: in patients who have undergone a […]

Read More…

The CEA Second-Look Trial: a randomised controlled trial of carcinoembryonic antigen prompted reoperation for recurrent colorectal cancer

A trial that remained unpublished for 20 years casts doubt on the survival benefit of repeat (“second look”) surgery for bowel cancer. The trial is published in BMJ Open today. It is the first to be restored under the restoring invisible and abandoned trials (RIAT) initiative that allows third parties to publish previously abandoned studies […]

Read More…

Comparing the results from two surveys of BMJ Open authors

  BMJ Open authors were among those surveyed by Professor David J Solomon of Michigan State University for a study recently published in the journal PeerJ. Needless to say we read this with great interest (we were unaware of the survey until the results were published). The survey reported a generally positive response to BMJ Open […]

Read More…

Salt, eating disorders and the impact of funding deadlines: most read articles in April

This month’s most read article was Krijthe et al.’s study on non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and the risk of atrial fibrillation. Newly-published papers in the top ten most read include He et al.’s paper on salt reduction in England, and it’s relationship to blood pressure, stroke and ischaemic heart disease mortality and also Räisänen et al.’s paper on the role of gendered […]

Read More…

Very overweight teens face stigma, discrimination, and isolation

Very overweight teens face a social world of stigma, discrimination, and isolation because of their body size, reveals an analysis of their views, published in the online journal BMJ Open. And they have to overcome many other additional barriers to lose weight, making it especially hard for them to shed the pounds, the findings suggest. […]

Read More…