A new tool to assess Clinical Diversity In Meta-analyses (CDIM) of interventions.

OBJECTIVE: To develop and validate Clinical Diversity In Meta-analyses (CDIM), a new tool for assessing clinical diversity between trials in meta-analyses of interventions. STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING: The development of CDIM was based on consensus work informed by empirical literature and expertise. We drafted the CDIM tool, refined it, and validated CDIM for interrater scale reliability and agreement in three groups. RESULTS: CDIM measures clinical diversity on a scale that includes four domains with 11 items overall: setting (time of conduct/country development status/units type); population (age, sex, patient inclusion criteria/baseline disease severity, comorbidities); interventions (intervention intensity/strength/duration of intervention, timing, control intervention, cointerventions); and outcome (definition of outcome, timing of outcome assessment). The CDIM is completed in two steps: first two authors independently assess clinical diversity in the four domains. Second, after agreeing upon scores of individual items a consensus score is achieved. Interrater scale reliability and agreement ranged from moderate to almost perfect depending on the type of raters. CONCLUSION: CDIM is the first tool developed for assessing clinical diversity in meta-analyses of interventions. We found CDIM to be a reliable tool for assessing clinical diversity among trials in meta-analysis.

Prehabilitation for major abdominal urologic oncology surgery.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Whether prehabilitation in radical cystectomy adds to the effort of reducing postoperative morbidity and impairments in the survivorship phase has until recently received limited attention. This narrative review aims to summarize the current evidence base on prehabilitaion interventions focusing on the efficacy of procedure-specific interventions and the influence on postoperative outcomes. RECENT FINDINGS: Given the oncological risk, there is a relative short window to intervene and proactively optimize the patient before radical cystectomy. Preliminary results are however promising and a single-center randomized controlled trial (RCT) has shown that home-based short-term physical prehabilitation is feasible and effective and significantly improves early mobilization, time to perform activities of daily living and health-related quality of life (HRQoL). No significant impact on length of stay or complications was found. Limited evidence support preoperative nutritional interventions in cancer surgery, although evidence suggests improved outcome if malnourished individuals are adequately fed 7-10 days before surgery. No RCTs have evaluated the effect of smoking or alcohol cessation interventions on complications or HRQoL in radical cystectomy. Patient education interventions focusing on stoma care improve significantly self-efficacy in regards to independently change of stoma-appliance up to 1 year postoperatively. Currently, there is no evidence of early intervention considering psychological well being, sexual health or shared decision-making. SUMMARY: Published data indicate that a group of preoperative multiprofessional interventions including physical exercises, supportive nutritional care and stoma education can postoperatively improve early mobilization, self-efficacy and HRQoL. No evidence for further reduction of length of stay or complications was found.