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The time to act is now: pseudo-systematic review
Journal article

The time to act is now: pseudo-systematic review

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To identify any medical or public health rationale for claims that the time to act is now. DESIGN: Pseudo-systematic review. DATA SOURCES: PubMed. STUDY SELECTION: Studies that included the claim "time is now" in the title, with or without exclamation marks. No language or date restriction was applied. RESULTS: 512 articles were included for review. No relationship was identified between time to act and disease burden, severity, or specialty. Claims that the time to act was Christmas were almost entirely without basis. A clustering of claims that it is time to act in the first quarter of the year suggested a possible association with New Year's resolutions. CONCLUSIONS: Now is as good a time as any.

Authors

Ford N; Brigden G; Ellman T; Mills EJ

Journal

The BMJ, Vol. 371, ,

Publisher

BMJ

Publication Date

December 10, 2020

DOI

10.1136/bmj.m4143

ISSN

0959-8138

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