This study by staff and students at the European School of Osteopathy explored how decision-making is shared by patients and osteopathy students. Shared decision-making is associated with increased patient engagement, and improved satisfaction. The researchers used a validated scale to assess the extent that osteopathy students involved patients in decision-making, transcribing 35.5 hours of data from 30 patient-student encounters. Read more

Public health campaigns have improved awareness of health risks, according to a large review funded by the National Institute for Health Research. Tobacco control campaigns have demonstrated cost-effectiveness, with only limited positive impact found from campaigns directed at drinking or eating behaviours. Read more

NCOR’s director Dr Dawn Carnes has produced a PowerPoint presentation packed full of information for osteopaths who are unsure what to say when giving presentations or providing materials to GPs and local groups.

The presentation is split into sections:

1. Background.
   • What is osteopathy?

Read more

The National Institute for Health Research has released a review of physical activity and interventions to help clinicians and health service commissioners determine what works, and what doesn’t.

The review summarises evidence from over 50 published and ongoing studies, and is divided into interventions targeting pre-school and school-age children, adults, the workplace, and the elderly. Read more

Two recent news stories have drawn attention to research suggesting that the location of subcutaneous and visceral fat deposists might be significant. Being “apple shaped” — carrying fat around the midriff — is associated with serious illness in post-menopausal women, but the picture for men might be more complicated. Read more

The authors of this study examined psychological readiness to return to sport in 18 athletes after surgical repair of the anterior cruciate ligament. They also measure strength and single-leg landing biomechanics.

Greater movement of the knee in the frontal plane, and lower movement of the hip in the same plane, were associated with a greater readiness to return to sport. Read more

The authors reviewed 16 papers for this study, including both quantitative and qualitative research. The quantitative papers used various tools to record satisfaction and expectation levels, showing mainly positive responses from patients. They summarise the qualitative research as revealing that patients consider osteopathic manipulative treatment to be be patient-centred, holistic, and thorough. Read more

A recent publication in the BMJ indicates that surgery and immobilisation have similar outcomes on Achilles tendon tears. The review examined 29 studies with a total of 15,862 patients. The authors report that risk of re-rupture following surgery was 2.3%, whereas risk of re-rupture following immobilisation with specialised boot or cast was only slightly higher at 3.9%. Read more

That’s the message from a systematic review of 11 trials with 455 adult participants. Although these numbers are small, it’s an encouraging addition to the evidence-base, which has shown conflicting results. The reviewers focused on examining the methodologies of the trials they reviewed in order to reduce confounding effects and misleading results. Read more