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Epidemiology and research methodology in primary care

This section covers, though is not limited to, all aspects of epidemiological research and research methodology within the context of primary care.

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  1. Influenza-like illness (ILI) and Acute Respiratory Infections (ARI) are a considerable health problem in Europe. Most diagnoses are made by family physicians (FPs) and based on symptoms and clinical signs rath...

    Authors: Nicola Buono, Michael Harris, Carmine Farinaro, Ferdinando Petrazzuoli, Angelo Cavicchi, Filippo D’Addio, Amedeo Scelsa, Baldassarre Mirra, Enrico Napolitano and Jean K. Soler

    Citation: BMC Family Practice 2021 22:172

    Content type: Research article

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  2. Cough is a relevant reason for encounter in primary care. For evidence-based decision making, general practitioners need setting-specific knowledge about prevalences, pre-test probabilities, and prognosis. Acc...

    Authors: Milena Bergmann, Jörg Haasenritter, Dominik Beidatsch, Sonja Schwarm, Kaja Hörner, Stefan Bösner, Paula Grevenrath, Laura Schmidt, Annika Viniol, Norbert Donner-Banzhoff and Annette Becker

    Citation: BMC Family Practice 2021 22:151

    Content type: Research article

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  3. Within-consultation recruitment to primary care trials is challenging. Ensuring procedures are efficient and self-explanatory is the key to optimising recruitment. Trial recruitment software that integrates wi...

    Authors: Christie Cabral, Kathryn Curtis, Vasa Curcin, Jesús Domínguez, Vibhore Prasad, Anne Schilder, Nicholas Turner, Scott Wilkes, Jodi Taylor, Sarah Gallagher, Paul Little, Brendan Delaney, Michael Moore, Alastair D. Hay and Jeremy Horwood

    Citation: BMC Family Practice 2021 22:147

    Content type: Research article

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  4. Chronic patients are required to access their chronic medicines on a regular basis, often only to refill their repeat prescriptions. Adherence to chronic medicines is challenging and has stimulated health care...

    Authors: Siraaj Adams, Mwila Mulubwa, Mea van Huyssteen and Angeni Bheekie

    Citation: BMC Family Practice 2021 22:43

    Content type: Research article

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  5. The COVID-19 pandemic has shaken the world in early 2020. In France, General Practitioners (GPs) were not involved in the care organization’s decision-making process before and during the first wave of the COV...

    Authors: Marion Dutour, Anna Kirchhoff, Cécile Janssen, Sabine Meleze, Hélène Chevalier, Sandrine Levy-Amon, Marc-Antoine Detrez, Emilie Piet and Tristan Delory

    Citation: BMC Family Practice 2021 22:36

    Content type: Research article

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  6. Assessing the fidelity of an implementation strategy is important to understand why and how the strategy influences the uptake of evidence-based interventions. The present study aims to assess the fidelity of ...

    Authors: Alvaro Sánchez, Heather L. Rogers, Susana Pablo, Esther García, Inmaculada Rodríguez, Mª. Antonia Flores, Olga Galarza, Ana B. Gaztañaga, Pedro A. Martínez, Eider Alberdi, Elena Resines, Ana I. Llarena and Gonzalo Grandes

    Citation: BMC Family Practice 2021 22:34

    Content type: Research article

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  7. Overuse of proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) – frequently used for relieving symptoms of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GORD) – raises long-term safety concerns, warranting evidence-based non-drug interventions....

    Authors: Loai Albarqouni, Ray Moynihan, Justin Clark, Anna Mae Scott, Anne Duggan and Chris Del Mar

    Citation: BMC Family Practice 2021 22:24

    Content type: Research article

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  8. Evidence-based guidelines include concrete treatment targets that can be used as process and outcome indicators in the evaluation of the quality of healthcare services and diabetes care. Quality improvement ca...

    Authors: Marja-Leena Lamidi, Katja Wikström, Laura Inglin, Päivi Rautiainen, Hilkka Tirkkonen and Tiina Laatikainen

    Citation: BMC Family Practice 2020 21:253

    Content type: Research article

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  9. Telemedicine has been a popular tool to overcome the lack of access to healthcare facilities, primarily in underprivileged populations. We aimed to describe and assess the implementation of a tele-electrocardi...

    Authors: Idar Mappangara, Andriany Qanitha, Cuno S. P. M. Uiterwaal, Jose P. S. Henriques and Bastianus A. J. M. de Mol

    Citation: BMC Family Practice 2020 21:247

    Content type: Research article

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  10. General practitioners (GPs) in Norway increasingly use spirometry diagnostically as well as in follow up of patients with respiratory complaints, but little is known about their skills and knowledge in this ar...

    Authors: Mette C. Tollånes, Geir E. Sjaastad, Bernt B. Aarli and Sverre Sandberg

    Citation: BMC Family Practice 2020 21:235

    Content type: Research article

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  11. Chronic illnesses are the leading cause of morbidity and mortality and threaten the sustainability of healthcare systems worldwide. There is limited evidence in terms of the best modality and intensity of phys...

    Authors: María Soledad Arietaleanizbeaskoa, Aintzane Sancho, Iñigo Olazabal, Concepcion Moreno, Erreka Gil, Arturo Garcia-Alvarez, Nere Mendizabal, Ibon de la Fuente, Silvia Dominguez, Susana Pablo and Gonzalo Grandes

    Citation: BMC Family Practice 2020 21:227

    Content type: Study protocol

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  12. Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is underdiagnosed in the UK and the assessment and diagnosis pathway often involves a general practitioner (GP) referral to secondary care services. GPs’ levels ...

    Authors: B. French, D. Daley, E. Perez Vallejos, K. Sayal and C. L. Hall

    Citation: BMC Family Practice 2020 21:224

    Content type: Research article

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  13. To analyse the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic and the lockdown measures on the follow-up and control of chronic diseases in primary care.

    Authors: Ermengol Coma, Núria Mora, Leonardo Méndez, Mència Benítez, Eduardo Hermosilla, Mireia Fàbregas, Francesc Fina, Albert Mercadé, Souhel Flayeh, Carolina Guiriguet, Elisabet Balló, Nuria Martinez Leon, Ariadna Mas, Sílvia Cordomí, Yolanda Lejardi and Manuel Medina

    Citation: BMC Family Practice 2020 21:208

    Content type: Research article

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  14. Patients continue to suffer from medically unexplained symptoms otherwise referred to as persistent physical symptoms (PPS). General practitioners (GPs) play a key role in the management of PPS and require fur...

    Authors: Meenal Patel, Kirsty James, Rona Moss-Morris, Mark Ashworth, Mujtaba Husain, Matthew Hotopf, Anthony S. David, Paul McCrone, Sabine Landau and Trudie Chalder

    Citation: BMC Family Practice 2020 21:207

    Content type: Research article

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    The Correction to this article has been published in BMC Family Practice 2020 21:226

  15. Patient safety incidents defined as any unintended or unexpected incident that could have or were judged to have led to patient harm, are reported as relatively common. In this study patient complaints have be...

    Authors: Svein Zander Bratland, Valborg Baste, Knut Steen, Esperanza Diaz, Svein Gjelstad and Gunnar Tschudi Bondevik

    Citation: BMC Family Practice 2020 21:201

    Content type: Research article

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  16. Complete growth measurements are an essential part of pediatric care providing a proxy for a child’s overall health. This study describes the frequency of well-child visits, documented growth measurements, and...

    Authors: Leanne Kosowan, John Page, Jennifer Protudjer, Tyler Williamson, John Queenan and Alexander Singer

    Citation: BMC Family Practice 2020 21:191

    Content type: Research article

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  17. Primary prevention guidelines recommend the use of the Framingham risk score (FRS) to estimate the 10-year coronary heart disease (CHD) risk in patients without diabetes for statin eligibility. However, the FR...

    Authors: Saif Al-Shamsi

    Citation: BMC Family Practice 2020 21:175

    Content type: Research article

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  19. Erectile dysfunction (ED) is common and impacts psychosocial wellbeing negatively. Many do not seek medical attention and several barriers for healthcare seeking with ED exist. Little is known about the associ...

    Authors: Sanne Rasmussen, Kirubakaran Balasubramaniam, Dorte Ejg Jarbøl, Jens Søndergaard and Peter Fentz Haastrup

    Citation: BMC Family Practice 2020 21:166

    Content type: Research article

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  20. Chronic lifestyle-related-diseases can be prevented by healthy lifestyle. Patients at high risk of disease may benefit from targeted health checks in general practice. However, general-practice-based-studies h...

    Authors: Caroline Braad Hansen, Kristian Møller Hornbæk Pavlovic, Jens Sondergaard and Trine Thilsing

    Citation: BMC Family Practice 2020 21:159

    Content type: Research article

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  21. Multimorbidity is frequently encountered in primary care and is associated with increasing use of healthcare services. The Andersen Behavioral Model of Health Services Use is a multilevel framework classifying...

    Authors: Mia Messi, Yolanda Mueller, Dagmar M. Haller, Andreas Zeller, Stefan Neuner-Jehle, Sven Streit, Bernard Burnand and Lilli Herzig

    Citation: BMC Family Practice 2020 21:150

    Content type: Research article

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  22. Social and environmental factors in advanced heart failure (HF) patients may be crucial to cope with the end stages of the disease. This study analyzes health inequalities and mortality according to place of r...

    Authors: Miguel-Angel Muñoz, Raquel Garcia, Elena Navas, Julio Duran, José-Luis Del Val-Garcia and José-Maria Verdú-Rotellar

    Citation: BMC Family Practice 2020 21:145

    Content type: Research article

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  23. Uncontrolled blood pressure (BP) is an important modifiable risk factor for recurrent stroke. Secondary prevention measures when implemented can reduce stroke re-occurrence by 80%. However, hypertension contro...

    Authors: Róisín Doogue, David McCann, Noirin Fitzgerald, Andrew W. Murphy, Liam G. Glynn and Peter Hayes

    Citation: BMC Family Practice 2020 21:139

    Content type: Research article

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  24. General practitioners (GPs) often manage individuals with work-related common mental disorders (CMD: depressive disorders, anxiety and alcohol abuse). However, little is known about the ways in which they proc...

    Authors: M. Rivière, Y. Toullic, P. Lerouge, T. Blanchon, A. Leroyer, L. Plancke, T. Prazuck, M. Melchior and N. Younès

    Citation: BMC Family Practice 2020 21:132

    Content type: Research article

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  25. This study aimed to investigate the Patient Assessment of Chronic Illness Care+ (PACIC+) which is a tool to assess care for Chronic Conditions combining PACIC items with an overall 5As score derived from the ‘...

    Authors: Maria Malliarou, Eleni Bakola, Athanasios Nikolentzos and Pavlos Sarafis

    Citation: BMC Family Practice 2020 21:122

    Content type: Research article

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  26. There is a high prevalence of potentially inappropriate prescriptions in primary care. This is associated with more frequent adverse events, lower quality of life and more frequent visits to hospital accident ...

    Authors: Antonio Olry de Labry Lima, Jorge Marcos Marcos, Alfonso Marquina Marquez, María de los Ángeles González Vera, Antonio Matas Hoces and Clara Bermúdez Tamayo

    Citation: BMC Family Practice 2020 21:100

    Content type: Research article

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  28. The study is part of a randomised controlled trial with the overall aim to evaluate if use of the Work Stress Questionnaire (WSQ), combined with feedback at consultation, can be used by healthcare professional...

    Authors: Pernilla J. Bjerkeli, Ingmarie Skoglund and Kristina Holmgren

    Citation: BMC Family Practice 2020 21:70

    Content type: Research article

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  29. Normalisation Process Theory (NPT) provides a framework to understand how interventions are implemented, embedded, and integrated in healthcare settings. Previous reviews of published literature have examined ...

    Authors: Lisa Huddlestone, Jessica Turner, Helen Eborall, Nicky Hudson, Melanie Davies and Graham Martin

    Citation: BMC Family Practice 2020 21:52

    Content type: Research article

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  30. Obesity is a major risk factor behind some of the most common problems encountered in primary care. Although effective models for obesity treatment have been developed, the ‘reach’ of these interventions is po...

    Authors: Christie A. Befort, Danny Kurz, Jeffrey J. VanWormer and Edward F. Ellerbeck

    Citation: BMC Family Practice 2020 21:47

    Content type: Research article

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  31. Despite an unparalleled global refugee crisis, there are almost no studies in primary care addressing real-world conditions and longer courses of treatment that are typical when resettled refugees present to t...

    Authors: Andrea K. Northwood, Maria M. Vukovich, Alison Beckman, Jeffrey P. Walter, Novia Josiah, Leora Hudak, Kathleen O’Donnell Burrows, James P. Letts and Christine C. Danner

    Citation: BMC Family Practice 2020 21:17

    Content type: Research article

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  32. Paracetamol is recommended as first-line treatment for pain control in osteoarthritis because it has fewer side effects than do other therapeutic options, including nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs...

    Authors: Massimo Vicentini, Pamela Mancuso, Paolo Giorgi Rossi, Sara Di Pede, Morena Pellati, Alberto Gandolfi, Daniela Zoboli, Daniela Riccò, Corrado Busani and Alessandra Ferretti

    Citation: BMC Family Practice 2019 20:169

    Content type: Research article

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  33. Primary care providers (PCPs) have always played an important role in cancer diagnosis. There is increasing awareness of the importance of their role during treatment and survivorship. We examined changes in P...

    Authors: K. Decker, R. Moineddin, C. Kendell, R. Urquhart, N. Biswanger, P. Groome, M. L. McBride, M. Winget, M. Whitehead and E. Grunfeld

    Citation: BMC Family Practice 2019 20:161

    Content type: Research article

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  34. Variation at different levels of diabetes care has not yet been quantified for low- and middle-income countries. Understanding this variation and its magnitude is important to guide policy makers in designing ...

    Authors: Yvonne Mei Fong Lim, Swee Hung Ang, Nazrila Hairizan Nasir, Fatanah Ismail, Siti Aminah Ismail and Sheamini Sivasampu

    Citation: BMC Family Practice 2019 20:158

    Content type: Research article

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  35. Health care-related harm is an internationally recognized threat to public health. The United Kingdom’s national health services demonstrate that upwards of 90% of health care encounters can be delivered in am...

    Authors: Andrew Carson-Stevens, Stephen Campbell, Brian G. Bell, Alison Cooper, Sarah Armstrong, Darren Ashcroft, Matthew Boyd, Huw Prosser Evans, Rajnikant Mehta, Christina Sheehan, Aziz Sheikh and Anthony Avery

    Citation: BMC Family Practice 2019 20:134

    Content type: Research article

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  36. Alcohol use by health care professionals is one of the potential factors that may affect the prevention of hazardous drinking in Primary Care (PC). The objective of the study was to estimate the prevalence of ...

    Authors: Esperanza Romero-Rodríguez, Luis Ángel Pérula de Torres, Juan Manuel Parras Rejano, Fernando Leiva-Cepas, Francisco Camarelles Guillem, Rodrigo Fernández Márquez and José Ángel Fernández García

    Citation: BMC Family Practice 2019 20:104

    Content type: Research article

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  37. People with low health literacy (HL) are at increased risk of poor health outcomes, and receive less benefit from healthcare services. However, healthcare practitioners can effectively adapt healthcare informa...

    Authors: Paul Campbell, Martyn Lewis, Ying Chen, Rosie J. Lacey, Gillian Rowlands and Joanne Protheroe

    Citation: BMC Family Practice 2019 20:101

    Content type: Research article

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  38. Despite the increasing use of medical records to measure quality of care, studies have shown that their validity is suboptimal. The objective of this study is to assess the concordance of cardiovascular care p...

    Authors: Cynthia Khanji, Mireille E. Schnitzer, Céline Bareil, Sylvie Perreault and Lyne Lalonde

    Citation: BMC Family Practice 2019 20:92

    Content type: Research article

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  40. Multimorbid patients may experience a high burden of treatment. This has a negative impact on treatment adherence, health outcomes and health care costs. The objective of our study was to identify factors asso...

    Authors: Lilli Herzig, Andreas Zeller, Jérôme Pasquier, Sven Streit, Stefan Neuner-Jehle, Sophie Excoffier and Dagmar M Haller

    Citation: BMC Family Practice 2019 20:88

    Content type: Research article

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  41. Older adults suffer from various chronic conditions which make them particularly vulnerable. The proper management of multiple drug use is therefore crucial. The aim of our study was to describe drug prescript...

    Authors: Marina Guisado-Clavero, Concepción Violán, Tomàs López-Jimenez, Albert Roso-Llorach, Mariona Pons-Vigués, Miguel Angel Muñoz and Quintí Foguet-Boreu

    Citation: BMC Family Practice 2019 20:82

    Content type: Research article

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  42. The public primary healthcare system in Greece has not been fully developed and is delivered by urban and rural health centers, outpatient departments in public hospitals and the recently established first-con...

    Authors: Daphne Kaitelidou, Charalambos Economou, Petros Galanis, Olympia Konstantakopoulou, Olga Siskou, Silviu Domente, Dolf de Boer, Wienke G. Boerma and Peter P. Groenewegen

    Citation: BMC Family Practice 2019 20:49

    Content type: Research article

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  43. The implementation of early palliative care within a primary care setting is a recent academic topic. Recruiting General Practitioners (GPs) to participate in a palliative care study can be challenging. The pr...

    Authors: B. Leysen, B. Van den Eynden, A. Janssens and J. Wens

    Citation: BMC Family Practice 2019 20:40

    Content type: Research article

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  44. The management of hyperglycaemia and associated cardiovascular risk factors in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) may reduce diabetes-related complications. The strategy to broaden the knowledge bas...

    Authors: Àngels Molló, Anna Berenguera, Esther Rubinat, Bogdan Vlacho, Manel Mata, Josep Franch, Bonaventura Bolíbar and Dídac Mauricio

    Citation: BMC Family Practice 2019 20:25

    Content type: Study protocol

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  45. The PR1MaC study was conducted to evaluate the integration of Chronic Disease Prevention and Management services into primary care practices and was reported effective. The aim of this study was to further exp...

    Authors: Martin Fortin, Maud-Christine Chouinard, Bayero Boubacar Diallo and Tarek Bouhali

    Citation: BMC Family Practice 2019 20:7

    Content type: Research article

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  46. Multimorbidity has already become common in primary care and will be a challenge in the future. Primary care in Sweden participates to a great extent in the care of patients with two severe, chronic conditions...

    Authors: Elzbieta Kaszuba, Håkan Odeberg, Lennart Råstam and Anders Halling

    Citation: BMC Family Practice 2018 19:178

    Content type: Research article

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  47. Frailty is a condition of increasing importance, given the aging adult population. With an anticipated shortage of geriatricians, primary care physicians will increasingly need to manage care for frail adults ...

    Authors: David R Lee, Eilann C Santo, Joan C Lo, Miranda L Ritterman Weintraub, Mary Patton and Nancy P Gordon

    Citation: BMC Family Practice 2018 19:170

    Content type: Research article

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  48. Standardised generic patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) which measure health status are often unresponsive to change in primary care. Alternative formats, which have been used to increase responsiveness...

    Authors: Mairead Murphy, Sandra Hollinghurst and Chris Salisbury

    Citation: BMC Family Practice 2018 19:162

    Content type: Research article

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  49. Iron deficiency in early childhood has been associated with poor developmental outcomes. Little is known about the nutritional health of young children receiving care at Canadian Community Health Centres (CHCs...

    Authors: Imaan Bayoumi, Patricia C. Parkin, Gerald Lebovic, Rupa Patel, Kendra Link, Catherine S. Birken, Jonathon L. Maguire and Cornelia M. Borkhoff

    Citation: BMC Family Practice 2018 19:161

    Content type: Research article

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  50. Promoting the collection and use of health related outcome measures (HROM) in daily practice has long been a goal for improving and assessing the effectiveness of care provided to patients. However, there has ...

    Authors: Pasqualina Santaguida, Lisa Dolovich, Doug Oliver, Larkin Lamarche, Anne Gilsing, Lauren E. Griffith, Julie Richardson, Dee Mangin, Monika Kastner and Parminder Raina

    Citation: BMC Family Practice 2018 19:152

    Content type: Study protocol

    Published on:

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