This week, Amol, general internal medicine resident at the University of Toronto, and Fahad, general internist at St. Michael’s hospital in Toronto, discuss two recent papers:

Fahad and colleagues recently published a study in JAMA that looks at severe adult undernutrition in low and middle income countries. Using 20-year health survey data collected by USAID, the study found that 18 million (2%) women are affected by severe undernutrition and these levels have not improved over the last 20 years. With obesity and overweight levels also increasing in these countries, Fahad and Amol discuss the growing inequality in weight distribution and reasons behind disproportionate research efforts.

A randomized control trial found that in patients with intermittent claudication, a combination therapy of endovascular revascularization followed by supervised exercise resulted in greater improvements compared to exercise alone. Fahad questions the generalizability of this trial and risk for selection bias, given that around 70% of patients screened were excluded from the trial, but their reason for exclusion were not logged.

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The Papers

1. Undernutrition in women: http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2471574

2. Peripheral arterial disease: http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2468892

3. Echinacea and colds: http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2108871

Good Stuff

1. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/16/health/hepatitis-c-treatment-egypt.html

2. http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2474433

Music Credits (Creative Commons)

In your Robotic Heart – Nicolai Heidlas https://soundcloud.com/nicolai-heidlas/in-your-robotic-heart

Drive – Nicolai Heidlas https://soundcloud.com/nicolai-heidlas/drive-fresh-upbeat-pop-background-music

All tracks have been modified for the purposes of this podcast.