Cochrane Library Podcasts

Cochrane Reviews cover a wide range of issues relating to good nutrition for children and adults and the collection was added to in June 2019 by a reviews dedicated to issues faced by young children living in urban slums in low- and middle-income countries. We asked the lead author, Sophie Goudet from the Centre for Global Health and Human Development at Loughborough University in the UK, to tell us about the need for the review and what it found.

One of the earliest Cochrane Reviews on high blood pressure was first published in 1998, investigating treatments for the elderly. It was substantively updated for a second time in June 2019 and we asked the lead author, Vijaya Musini, from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver Canada to tell us about the evidence.

Among the dozens of Cochrane Reviews of various treatments for people with HIV or AIDS, are some that look more at how the treatments should be used, rather than the treatments themselves. One of these examines the timing of the start of treatment, and it was published in June 2019. Lead author, Alberto Mateo from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine in the UK, tells us about the evidence base and the findings for this important question.

Cochrane Overviews bring together the findings from multiple reviews and one of the largest, first published in September 2013, was updated and republished in May 2018. Cindy Farquhar, from the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Auckland in New Zealand describes this enormous volume of evidence for assisted reproduction.

Recent developments allow surgeons to do operations remotely by guiding mechanical arms, rather than needing to be next to the patient. This is called robot-assisted surgery and the Cochrane Review of its use in gynaecological surgery was updated in October 2018. Theresa Lawrie from the Cochrane Gynaecology, Neuro-oncology and Orphan Cancer Group based in Bath in the UK, tells us the latest.

The Cochrane Pregnancy and Childbirth Group has produced more than 600 reviews and one of its first from 1995 looked at the effects of providing support during pregnancy for women at increased risk of having a low birthweight baby. The review underwent another update in April 2019 and we asked a new member of the research team, Christine East from Monash University and La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia to tell us about the importance of the review and its latest findings.

The rising incidence of cancer and successes in its treatment mean that an ever increasing number of people are living with cancer. This is leading to the involvement of more and more informal caregivers in their care. In a new Cochrane Review from June 2019, Charlene Treanor from the Centre for Public Health in Queen’s University Belfast in Northern Ireland and colleagues looked at the evidence on the effects of psychosocial interventions for these people. We asked her to tell us about their findings in this podcast.

Cerebral palsy is the most common form of childhood disability, and there are several Cochrane Reviews of therapies that might help the children and their families. These include a review on constraint-induced movement therapy, which was updated in April 2019. We asked lead author Brian Hoare from Monash Children’s Hospital in Australia to tell us about this treatment, and the evidence on its effects.

Many people use toothbrushes to remove the plaque that builds up on the surface of teeth, but what about getting to the plaque between the teeth? Should we be using dental floss or interdental brushes to help? The relevant Cochrane Review was published in April 2019 and we asked the lead author, Helen Worthington from Cochrane Oral Health at the University of Manchester in England to let us know the answer.

As well as strategies that are focused mainly on the woman, interventions to help couples to become pregnant include some to directly help men who are subfertile and those targeting men where the couple has unexplained subfertility. One of the Cochrane Reviews with this focus on men looks at giving them oral supplementation with antioxidants, and new evidence was added to this in March 2019. We asked Rebecca Mackenzie‐Proctor from the Auckland City Hospital in New Zealand to bring us to up-to-date.