There is no international consensus on how to treat thoracolumbar burst fractures (TLBFs) without neurological deficits. The planned systematic review with network meta-analyses (NMA) aims to compare the effects on treatment outcomes, focusing on midterm health-related quality of life (HRQoL).
We will conduct a comprehensive and systematic literature search, identifying studies comparing two or more treatment modalities. We will search MEDLINE, EMBASE, Google Scholar, Scopus and Web of Science from January 2000 until July 2023 for publications. We will include (randomised and non-randomised) controlled clinical trials assessing surgical and non-surgical treatment methods for adults with TLBF. Screening of references, data extraction and risk of bias (RoB) assessment will be done independently by two reviewers. We will extract relevant studies, participants and intervention characteristics. The RoB will be assessed using the revised Cochrane RoB V.2.0 tool for randomised trials and the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale for controlled trials. The OR for dichotomous data and standardised mean differences for continuous data will be presented with their respective 95% CIs. We will conduct a random-effects NMA to assess the treatments and determine the superiority of the therapeutic approaches. Our primary outcomes will be midterm (6 months to 2 years after injury) overall HRQoL and pain. Secondary outcomes will include radiological or clinical findings. We will present network graphs, forest plots and relative rankings on plotted rankograms corresponding to the treatment rank probabilities. The ranking results will be represented by the area under the cumulative ranking curve. Analyses will be performed in Stata V.16.1 and R. The quality of the evidence will be evaluated according to the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluations framework.
Ethical approval is not required. The research will be published in a peer-reviewed journal.
To evaluate associations of age, transition readiness and anxiety in adolescents with chronic conditions and to compare perceptions of adolescents and their parents regarding health self-management and transition readiness.
Cross-sectional international study, reported following STROBE guidelines.
Adolescents and young adults (N = 512, mean age 17.7) with a chronic medical condition and their parents (N = 322) from Finland and Australia. Data were collected through surveys (between September 2017 and December 2020).
Adolescents reported the duration of their condition. Age at survey was defined by the response date of the questionnaires. Validated questionnaires were used to measure transition readiness (Am I ON TRAC? for Adult Care) and anxiety related to transition of care (State–Trait Anxiety Inventory short form). Perceptions of health self-management and transition readiness were compared in adolescent/parent dyads. Associations were explored using Spearman's correlation.
Duration of condition and age at survey correlated weakly with transition readiness knowledge and behaviour. Higher transition readiness knowledge scores correlated with higher behaviour scores. Higher transition readiness behaviour scores were associated with lower levels of anxiety. Adolescents were less anxious than their parents and adolescents and parents mostly agreed about health self-management and transition readiness.
Transition readiness should be determined by an assessment of knowledge, self-management and psychosocial skills instead of age alone. Further research should address how well transition readiness predicts positive health outcomes after the transfer of care.
Transition readiness and self-management skills should be formally assessed because positive feedback may decrease the anxiety of both adolescents and their parents regarding the transfer of care.
We have adhered to the STROBE statement, using STROBE checklist for cross-sectional studies.
No patient or public involvement.
ClinicalTrials.org NCT04631965.