Background Growing political attention to antimicrobial resistance (AMR) offers a rare opportunity for achieving meaningful action. Many governments have developed national AMR action plans, but most have not yet implemented policy interventions to reduce antimicrobial overuse. A systematic evidence map can support governments in making evidence-informed decisions about implementing programs to reduce AMR, by identifying, describing, and assessing the full range of evaluated government policy options to reduce antimicrobial use in humans. Methods and findings Seven databases were searched from inception to January 28, 2019, (MEDLINE, CINAHL, EMBASE, PAIS Index, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Web of Science, and PubMed). We identified studies that (1) clearly described a government policy intervention aimed at reducing human antimicrobial use, and (2) applied a quantitative design to measure the impact. We found 69 unique evaluations of government policy interventions carried out across 4 of the 6 WHO regions. These evaluations included randomized controlled trials ( n = 4), non-randomized controlled trials ( n = 3), controlled before-and-after designs ( n = 7), interrupted time series designs ( n = 25), uncontrolled before-and-after designs ( n = 18), descriptive designs ( n = 10), and cohort designs ( n = 2). From these we identified 17 unique policy options for governments to reduce the human use of antimicrobials. Many studies evaluated public awareness campaigns ( n = 17) and antimicrobial guidelines ( n = 13); however, others offered different policy options such as professional regulation, restricted reimbursement, pay for performance, and prescription requirements. Identifying these policies can inform the development of future policies and evaluations in different contexts and health systems. Limitations of our study include the possible omission of unpublished initiatives, and that policies not evaluated with respect to antimicrobial use have not been captured in this review. Conclusions To our knowledge this is the first study to provide policy makers with synthesized evidence on specific government policy interventions addressing AMR. In the future, governments should ensure that AMR policy interventions are evaluated using rigorous study designs and that study results are published. Protocol registration PROSPERO CRD42017067514 .

BackgroundIn the three decades since the first reported case of Ebola virus, most known index cases have been consistently traced to the hunting of “bush meat”, and women have consistently recorded relatively high fatality rates in most catastrophic outbreaks. This paper discusses Ebola-related risk factors, which constantly interact with cultural values, and provides an insight into the link between gender and the risk of contracting infectious diseases, using Ebola virus as an example within Africa.MethodA comprehensive search of the literature was conducted using the PubMed, Ovid Medline and Global Health CABI databases as well as CAB Abstracts, including gray literature. We used a descriptive and sex- and gender-based analysis to revisit previous studies on Ebola outbreaks since 1976 to 2014, and disaggregated the cases and fatality rates according to gender and the sources of known index cases based on available data.ResultsIn total, approximately 1530 people died in all previous Ebola outbreaks from 1976 to 2012 compared with over 11,310 deaths from the 2014 outbreak. Women’s increased exposure can be attributed to time spent at home and their responsibility for caring for the sick, while men’s increased vulnerability to the virus can be attributed to their responsibility for caring for livestock and to time spent away from home, as most known sources of the index cases have been infected in the process of hunting. We present a conceptual model of a circle of interacting risk factors for Ebola in the African context.ConclusionThere is currently no evidence related to biological differences in female or male sex that increases Ebola virus transmission and vulnerability; rather, there are differences in the level of exposure between men and women. Gender is therefore an important risk factor to consider in the design of health programs. Building the capacity for effective risk communication is a worthwhile investment in public and global health for future emergency responses.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40249-017-0346-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

BackgroundResilience is a contextual phenomenon where a complex and dynamic interplay exists between individual, environmental, and socio-cultural factors. With growing interest in enhancing resilience in physicians, given their high risk for experiencing prolonged or intense stress, effective strategies are necessary to improve resilience and reduce negative outcomes including burnout. The objective of this review was to identify effective interventions to improve resilience in physicians who have completed training, working in any setting.Methods and findingsWe included randomized controlled trials (RCT), and observational studies (including pilot studies) published in English, French, and Spanish that included an intervention to improve resilience in physicians who have completed training. We included studies that implemented interventions to reduce burnout, anxiety, and depression or to improve empathy to ultimately enhance resilience, rather than studies designed solely to reduce stress or trauma-induced stress. We performed a systematic search of Medline, EMBASE, PsychInfo, CINAHL and Cochrane Library with no publication year limit. The last search was conducted on March 29, 2017. We used random effect models to calculate pooled standardized mean differences. Resilience was the primary outcome measure using validated resilience scores. Secondary outcome measures included proxy measures of resilience such as burnout, empathy, anxiety and depression. Our search strategy identified 7,579 records;74 met the criteria for full-text review. Seventeen studies were included in the final review published between 1998 and 2016 of which 9 (4 RCT, 5 observational) had physician data extractable. Interventions varied greatly regarding their approach, duration, and follow-up. Two RCTs measured resilience using validated scales; both found a significant improvement. No meta-analysis for resilience was conducted due to the presence of high clinical and methodological heterogeneity.ConclusionsOur systematic review demonstrates that there is weak evidence to support one intervention over another to improve resilience in physicians who have completed training. The quality of evidence for the outcomes ranged from very low to low. There is a need for a consensus on the definition of resilience and how it is measured. Longer follow-up is required to ensure any intervention effects are sustained over time.

Learning to monitor and regulate one's learning in an academic setting is a task that all students must engage in. Learning in "group" situations requires both selfand co-regulation. This research examines a case study of a small group of medical student interactions during an on-line problem based learning activity (PBL) where students learn to co-regulate their performance as they construct their understanding of how best to communicate bad news to patients. This paper introduces an approach for analyzing the group discourse to understand how collective knowledge building facilitates co-regulation. A mixed method analysis was used to analyze the case study data. A qualitative data analysis of verbal interactions was conducted to examine coregulatory episodes. Collective knowledge building was examined by analyzing the group discourse for indicators of co-regulatory processes. The study follows two quantitative analyses: a frequency count analysis of types of questions asked by facilitators and students; and a sequential pattern mining for patterns of cooccurrences of learners' discourse and co-regulation.

Background Countries are currently seeking evidence-informed policy options to address antimicrobial resistance (AMR). While rigorous evaluations of AMR interventions are the ideal, they are far from the current reality. Additionally, poor reporting and documentation of AMR interventions impede efforts to use evidence to inform future evaluations and policy interventions. Objectives To critically evaluate reporting quality gaps in AMR intervention research. Methods To evaluate the reporting quality of studies, we conducted a descriptive synthesis and comparative analysis of studies that were included in a recent systematic review of government policy interventions aiming to reduce human antimicrobial use. Reporting quality was assessed using the SQUIRE 2.0 checklist of 18 items for reporting system-level interventions to improve healthcare. Two reviewers independently applied the checklist to 66 studies identified in the systematic review. Results None of the studies included complete information on all 18 SQUIRE items (median score = 10, IQR = 8–11). Reporting quality varied across SQUIRE items, with 3% to 100% of studies reporting the recommended information for each SQUIRE item. Only 20% of studies reported the elements of the intervention in sufficient detail for replication and only 24% reported the mechanism through which the intervention was expected to work. Conclusions Gaps in the reporting of impact evaluations pose challenges for interpreting and replicating study results. Failure to improve reporting practice of policy evaluations is likely to impede efforts to tackle the growing health, social and economic threats posed by AMR.