scholarly journals A Meta-Analysis of the Reliability of Four Field-Based Trunk Extension Endurance Tests

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (9) ◽  
pp. 3088
Author(s):  
María Teresa Martínez-Romero ◽  
Francisco Ayala ◽  
Mark De Ste Croix ◽  
Francisco J. Vera-Garcia ◽  
Pilar Sainz de Baranda ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Position Control ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Intraclass Correlation ◽  
Correlation Coefficients ◽  
Induction Rate ◽  
Reliability Estimates ◽  
Endurance Tests ◽  
Meta Analyses ◽  
Trunk Extension

This meta-analysis aimed to estimate the inter- and intra-tester reliability of endurance measures obtained through trunk extension field-based tests and to explore the influence of the moderators on the reliability estimates. The reliability induction rate of trunk extension endurance measures was also calculated. A systematic search was conducted using various databases, and subsequently 28 studies were selected that reported intraclass correlation coefficients for trunk extension endurance measures. Separate meta-analyses were conducted using a random-effects model. When possible, analyses of potential moderator variables were carried out. The inter-tester average reliability of the endurance measure obtained from the Biering-Sorensen test was intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) = 0.94. The intra-session reliability estimates of the endurance measures recorded using the Biering-Sorensen test, the prone isometric chest raise test, and the prone double straight-leg test were ICC = 0.88, 0.90, and 0.86, respectively. The inter-session average reliability of the endurance measures from the Biering-Sorensen test, the prone isometric chest raise test, and the dynamic extensor endurance test were ICC = 0.88, 0.95, and 0.99, respectively. However, due to the limited evidence available, the reliability estimates of the measures obtained through the prone isometric chest raise, prone double straight-leg, and dynamic extensor endurance tests should be considered with a degree of caution. Position control instruments, tools, and familiarization session demonstrated a statistical association with the inter-session reliability of the Biering-Sorensen test. The reliability induction rate was 72.8%. Only the trunk extension endurance measure obtained through the Biering-Sorensen test presented sufficient scientific evidence in terms of reliability to justify its use for research and practical purposes.

scholarly journals Effects of Sport-Based Interventions on Children’s Executive Function: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 755
Author(s):  
Falonn Contreras-Osorio ◽  
Christian Campos-Jara ◽  
Cristian Martínez-Salazar ◽  
Luis Chirosa-Ríos ◽  
Darío Martínez-García
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Working Memory ◽  
Executive Function ◽  
Inhibitory Control ◽  
Cognitive Flexibility ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Healthy Children ◽  
Meta Analyses ◽  
The Impact

One of the most studied aspects of children’s cognitive development is that of the development of the executive function, and research has shown that physical activity has been demonstrated as a key factor in its enhancement. This meta-analysis aims to assess the impact of specific sports interventions on the executive function of children and teenagers. A systematic review was carried out on 1 November 2020 to search for published scientific evidence that analysed different sports programs that possibly affected executive function in students. Longitudinal studies, which assessed the effects of sports interventions on subjects between 6 and 18 years old, were identified through a systematic search of the four principal electronic databases: Web of Science, PubMed, Scopus, and EBSCO. A total of eight studies, with 424 subjects overall, met the inclusion criteria and were classified based on one or more of the following categories: working memory, inhibitory control, and cognitive flexibility. The random-effects model for meta-analyses was performed with RevMan version 5.3 to facilitate the analysis of the studies. Large effect sizes were found in all categories: working memory (ES −1.25; 95% CI −1.70; −0.79; p < 0.0001); inhibitory control (ES −1.30; 95% CI −1.98; −0.63; p < 0.00001); and cognitive flexibility (ES −1.52; 95% CI −2.20; −0.83; p < 0.00001). Our analysis concluded that healthy children and teenagers should be encouraged to practice sports in order to improve their executive function at every stage of their development.

scholarly journals Fractal Dimension and Retinal Pathology: A Meta-Analysis

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 2376
Author(s):  
Sam Yu ◽  
Vasudevan Lakshminarayanan
Keyword(s):  
Fractal Dimension ◽  
Fractal Analysis ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Retinal Disease ◽  
Clinical Value ◽  
Disease Category ◽  
Normal Individuals ◽  
Retinal Pathology ◽  
Meta Analyses

Due to the fractal nature of retinal blood vessels, the retinal fractal dimension is a natural parameter for researchers to explore and has garnered interest as a potential diagnostic tool. This review aims to summarize the current scientific evidence regarding the relationship between fractal dimension and retinal pathology and thus assess the clinical value of retinal fractal dimension. Following the PRISMA guidelines, a literature search for research articles was conducted in several internet databases (EMBASE, MEDLINE, Web of Science, Scopus). This led to a result of 28 studies included in the final review, which were analyzed via meta-analysis to determine whether the fractal dimension changes significantly in retinal disease versus normal individuals. From the meta-analysis, summary effect sizes and 95% confidence intervals were derived for each disease category. The results for diabetic retinopathy and myopia suggest decreased retinal fractal dimension for those pathologies with the association for other diseases such as diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and glaucoma remaining uncertain. Due to heterogeneity in imaging/fractal analysis setups used between studies, it is recommended that standardized retinal fractal analysis procedures be implemented in order to facilitate future meta-analyses.

scholarly journals An Electromyographic Analysis of the Deep Cervical Flexor Muscles in Performance of Craniocervical Flexion

2003 ◽  
Vol 83 (10) ◽  
pp. 899-906 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deborah Falla ◽  
Gwendolen Jull ◽  
Paul Dall'Alba ◽  
Alberto Rainoldi ◽  
Roberto Merletti
Keyword(s):  
Muscle Activity ◽  
Intraclass Correlation ◽  
Correlation Coefficients ◽  
Bipolar Electrodes ◽  
Intraclass Correlation Coefficients ◽  
Reliability Estimates ◽  
Flexor Muscles ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Electromyographic Analysis ◽  
Electromyographic Signals

Abstract Background and Purpose. This study evaluated an electromyographic technique for the measurement of muscle activity of the deep cervical flexor (DCF) muscles. Electromyographic signals were detected from the DCF, sternocleidomastoid (SCM), and anterior scalene (AS) muscles during performance of the craniocervical flexion (CCF) test, which involves performing 5 stages of increasing craniocervical flexion range of motion—the anatomical action of the DCF muscles. Subjects. Ten volunteers without known pathology or impairment participated in this study. Methods. Root-mean-square (RMS) values were calculated for the DCF, SCM, and AS muscles during performance of the CCF test. Myoelectric signals were recorded from the DCF muscles using bipolar electrodes placed over the posterior oropharyngeal wall. Reliability estimates of normalized RMS values were obtained by evaluating intraclass correlation coefficients and the normalized standard error of the mean (SEM). Results. A linear relationship was evident between the amplitude of DCF muscle activity and the incremental stages of the CCF test (F=239.04, df=36, P&lt;.0001). Normalized SEMs in the range 6.7% to 10.3% were obtained for the normalized RMS values for the DCF muscles, providing evidence of reliability for these variables. Discussion and Conclusion. This approach for obtaining a direct measure of the DCF muscles, which differs from those previously used, may be useful for the examination of these muscles in future electromyographic applications.

scholarly journals Investigation of Risk Of Bias due to Unreported and SelecTively included results in meta-analyses of nutrition research: the ROBUST study protocol

F1000Research ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 1760 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew J. Page ◽  
Lisa Bero ◽  
Cynthia M. Kroeger ◽  
Zhaoli Dai ◽  
Sally McDonald ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Open Science ◽  
Included Study ◽  
Risk Of Bias ◽  
Dietary Guidelines ◽  
Healthy Population ◽  
Nutrition Research ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Meta Analyses

Background: Dietary guidelines should be informed by systematic reviews (SRs) of the available scientific evidence. However, if the SRs that underpin dietary guidelines are flawed in their design, conduct or reporting, the recommendations contained therein may be misleading or harmful. To date there has been little empirical investigation of bias due to selective inclusion of results, and bias due to missing results, in SRs of food/diet-outcome relationships. Objectives: To explore in SRs with meta-analyses of the association between food/diet and health-related outcomes: (i) whether systematic reviewers selectively included study effect estimates in meta-analyses when multiple effect estimates were available; (ii) what impact selective inclusion of study effect estimates may have on meta-analytic effects, and; (iii) the risk of bias due to missing results (publication bias and selective non-reporting bias) in meta-analyses. Methods: We will systematically search for SRs with meta-analysis of the association between food/diet and health-related outcomes in a generally healthy population, published between January 2018 and June 2019. We will randomly sort titles and abstracts and screen them until we identify 50 eligible SRs. The first reported meta-analysis of a binary or continuous outcome in each SR (the ‘index meta-analysis’) will be evaluated. We will extract from study reports all study effect estimates that were eligible for inclusion in the index meta-analyses (e.g. from multiple instruments and time points) and will quantify and test for evidence of selective inclusion of results. We will also assess the risk of bias due to missing results in the index meta-analyses using a new tool (ROB-ME). Ethics and dissemination: Ethics approval is not required because information will only be extracted from published studies. Dissemination of the results will be through peer-reviewed publications and presentations at conferences. We will make all data collected from this study publicly available via the Open Science Framework.

scholarly journals The association between environmental exposures to chlordanes, adiposity and diabetes-related features: a systematic review and meta-analysis

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vânia Mendes ◽  
Cláudia Ribeiro ◽  
Inês Delgado ◽  
Bárbara Peleteiro ◽  
Martine Aggerbeck ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Fixed Effects ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals ◽  
Correlation Coefficients ◽  
Epidemiological Data ◽  
Original Data ◽  
Regression Coefficients ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Hormonal Function

AbstractChlordane compounds (CHLs) are components of technical chlordane listed in the Stockholm convention on persistent organic pollutants identified as endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) and may interfere with hormone biosynthesis, metabolism or action resulting in an unbalanced hormonal function. There is increasing scientific evidence showing EDCs as risk factors in the pathogenesis and development of obesity and obesity-related metabolic syndromes such as type 2 diabetes, but there is no systematized information on the effect of CHLs in humans. Our aim is to identify the epidemiological data on the association between CHLs with adiposity and diabetes using a systematic approach to identify the available data and summarizing the results through meta-analysis. We searched PubMed and Web of Science from inception up to 15 February 2021, to retrieve original data on the association between chlordanes, and adiposity or diabetes. For adiposity, regression coefficients and Pearson or Spearman correlation coefficients were extracted and converted into standardized regression coefficients. Data were combined using fixed effects meta-analyses to compute summary regression coefficients and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (95% CI). For the association between chlordanes and diabetes, Odds ratios (ORs) were extracted and the DerSimonian and Laird method was used to compute summary estimates and respective 95% CI. For both, adjusted estimates were preferred, whenever available. Among 31 eligible studies, mostly using a cross-sectional approach, the meta-analysis for adiposity was possible only for oxychlordane and transchlordane, none of them were significantly associated with adiposity [(β = 0.04, 95% CI 0.00; 0.07, I2 = 89.7%)] and (β = 0.02, 95% CI − 0.01; 0.06), respectively. For diabetes, the estimates were positive for all compounds but statistically significant for oxychlordane [OR = 1.96 (95% CI 1.19; 3.23)]; for trans-nonachlor [OR = 2.43 (95% CI 1.64; 3.62)] and for heptachlor epoxide [OR = 1.88 (95% CI 1.42; 2.49)]. Our results support that among adults, the odds of having diabetes significantly increase with increasing levels of chlordanes. The data did not allow to reach a clear conclusion regarding the association with adiposity.

scholarly journals Investigation of Risk Of Bias due to Unreported and SelecTively included results in meta-analyses of nutrition research: the ROBUST study protocol

F1000Research ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 1760
Author(s):  
Matthew J. Page ◽  
Lisa Bero ◽  
Cynthia M. Kroeger ◽  
Zhaoli Dai ◽  
Sally McDonald ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Open Science ◽  
Included Study ◽  
Risk Of Bias ◽  
Dietary Guidelines ◽  
Healthy Population ◽  
Nutrition Research ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Meta Analyses

Background: Dietary guidelines should be informed by systematic reviews (SRs) of the available scientific evidence. However, if the SRs that underpin dietary guidelines are flawed in their design, conduct or reporting, the recommendations contained therein may be misleading or harmful. To date there has been little empirical investigation of bias due to selective inclusion of results, and bias due to missing results, in SRs of food/diet-outcome relationships. Objectives: To explore in SRs with meta-analyses of the association between food/diet and health-related outcomes: (i) whether systematic reviewers selectively included study effect estimates in meta-analyses when multiple effect estimates were available; (ii) what impact selective inclusion of study effect estimates may have on meta-analytic effects, and; (iii) the risk of bias due to missing results (publication bias and selective non-reporting bias) in meta-analyses. Methods: We will systematically search for SRs with meta-analysis of the association between food/diet and health-related outcomes in a generally healthy population, published between January 2018 and June 2019. We will randomly sort titles and abstracts and screen them until we identify 50 eligible SRs. The first reported meta-analysis of a binary or continuous outcome in each SR (the ‘index meta-analysis’) will be evaluated. We will extract from study reports all study effect estimates that were eligible for inclusion in the index meta-analyses (e.g. from multiple instruments and time points) and will quantify and test for evidence of selective inclusion of results. We will also assess the risk of bias due to missing results in the index meta-analyses using a new tool (ROB-ME). Ethics and dissemination: Ethics approval is not required because information will only be extracted from published studies. Dissemination of the results will be through peer-reviewed publications and presentations at conferences. We will make all data collected from this study publicly available via the Open Science Framework.

Clinical correlates and implications of the reliability of the frailty index in the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Quoc Dinh Nguyen ◽  
Erica M Moodie ◽  
Mark R Keezer ◽  
Christina Wolfson
Keyword(s):  
Odds Ratio ◽  
Frailty Index ◽  
Intraclass Correlation ◽  
Correlation Coefficients ◽  
Community Dwelling ◽  
Deficit Accumulation ◽  
Intraclass Correlation Coefficients ◽  
Reliability Estimates ◽  
Predicted Probability ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Background Deficit-accumulation frailty indices (FIs) are widely used to characterize frailty. FIs vary in number and composition of items; the impact of this variation on reliability and clinical applicability is unknown. Methods We simulated 12,000 studies using a set of 70 candidate deficits in 12,080 community-dwelling participants 65 years and older. For each study, we varied the number (5, 10, 15, 25, 35, 45) and composition (random selection) of items defining the FI and calculated descriptive and predictive estimates: frailty score, prevalence, frailty cut-off, mortality odds ratio, predicted probability of mortality for FI=0.28 (prevalence threshold), and FI cut-off predicting 10% mortality over the follow-up. We summarized the estimates’ medians and spreads (0.025-0.975 quantiles) by number of items and calculated intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC). Results Medians of frailty scores were 0.11-0.12 with decreasing spreads from 0.04-0.24 to 0.10-0.14 for 5-item and 45-item FIs. The median cut-offs identifying 15% as frail was 0.19-0.20 and stable; the spreads decreased with more items. However, medians and spreads for the prevalence of frailty (medians: 11% to 3%), mortality odds ratio (medians:1.24 to 2.19), predicted probability of mortality (medians: 8% to 17%), and FI cut-off predicting 10% mortality (medians: 0.38 to 0.20) varied markedly. ICC increased from 0.19 (5-item FIs) to 0.84 (45-item FIs). Conclusions Variability in the number and composition of items of individual FIs strongly influences their reliability. Estimates using FIs may not be sufficiently stable for generalizing results or direct application. We propose avenues to improve the development, reporting, and interpretation of FIs.

scholarly journals Guidelines for Reporting Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses

2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 412 ◽  
Author(s):  
María Rubio-Aparicio ◽  
Julio Sánchez-Meca ◽  
Fulgencio Marín-Martínez ◽  
José Antonio López-López
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Reviews ◽  
Applied Research ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Scientific Journal ◽  
Wide Applicability ◽  
Research Fields ◽  
Meta Analyses

<p>Meta-analysis is an essential methodology that allows researchers to synthesize the scientific evidence available on a given research question. Due to its wide applicability in most applied research fields, it is really important that meta-analyses be written and reported appropriately. In this paper we propose some guidelines to report the results of a meta-analysis in a scientific journal as Annals of Psychology. Concretely, the structure for reporting a meta-analysis following its different stages is detailed. In addition, some recommendations related to the usual tasks when conducting a meta-analysis are provided. A recent meta-analysis focused on the psychological field is used to illustrate the guidelines proposed. Finally, some concluding remarks are presented. </p>

scholarly journals Meta-Analysis of the Relationship Between the Big Five and Academic Success at University

2007 ◽  
Vol 215 (2) ◽  
pp. 132-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sabrina Trapmann ◽  
Benedikt Hell ◽  
Jan-Oliver W. Hirn ◽  
Heinz Schuler
Keyword(s):  
Academic Success ◽  
Big Five ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Correlation Coefficients ◽  
The United States ◽  
Personality Factors ◽  
Big Five Personality ◽  
Meta Analyses ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. Interest in the prediction of academic success in higher education has grown considerably in recent years in German-speaking countries. While the validity of school grades and admission tests has been investigated by meta-analyses and large-scale studies at least in the United States, less is known about noncognitive predictors of academic success. The present meta-analysis investigates the impact of the Big Five personality factors on academic success at university. A total of 258 correlation coefficients from 58 studies published since 1980 were included. Grades, retention, and satisfaction served as success criteria. Correlations were corrected for attenuation caused by measurement error. Results show that the influence of personality traits on academic achievement depends on the success criterion. While Neuroticism is related to academic satisfaction (? = -.369, k = 8), Conscientiousness correlates with grades (? = .269, k = 41). Extraversion, Openness to Experience, and Agreeableness have no significant impact on academic success. Moderator analyses suggest effects of culture for the validity of Extraversion. Parallels to validity for job performance are identified and implications for admission and counseling of students are discussed.

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