Podcasts From The Cochrane Library

People with cystic fibrosis are particularly prone to chest infections caused by bacteria that are hard to treat, but one possible treatment is a class of antibiotic known as the macrolides. There’s been a Cochrane Review of this since 2003 and the fourth update was published in February 2024. Here's Kevin Southern from Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in the UK, who is one of its authors and an Editor for the Cochrane Cystic Fibrosis Group, to tell us more.

There are several Cochrane Reviews of the effects of physical activity and these were added to in June 2024 with a qualitative evidence synthesis of factors that influence it for people with bipolar disorder. We asked one of the authors, Gavin Breslin, from Queen’s University Belfast in Northern Ireland to tell us more about the condition and the review in this podcast.

There are many Cochrane Reviews relevant to the diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis. These were added to in June 2024 by a new review of prognosis, specifically to look at the impact of undernutrition. Here are two of the authors, Juan Franco and Brenda Bongaerts from the Institute of General Practice, Medical Faculty of the Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf in Germany, to tell us more.

The Cochrane Back and Neck Group have produced approximately 100 Cochrane reviews, covering the effects of interventions and the accuracy of diagnostic tests. One of these, relevant to the detection of spinal injury in children, was updated in March 2024. We asked lead author, Emma Tavender from Murdoch Children's Research Institute in Melbourne Australia to tell us about the latest findings in this podcast.

There are more than 100 Cochrane Reviews relevant to the care of people with cystic fibrosis and an update for the one looking at the effects of nebulisers was published in November 2023. Here's the new lead author, Gemma Stanford, from the Royal Brompton Hospital in London UK to tell us about it.

The Cochrane Eyes and Vision US Project prepares and maintains reviews across a wide range of conditions. These include neovascular age-related macular degeneration and their new review of its treatment by anti-vascular endothelial growth factor biosimilars was published in June 2024. Here’s one of the authors, Sueko Ng from the Department of Ophthalmology in the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in the USA, to tell us more about the condition and this treatment.

The Library contains several reviews of treatment for people with influenza and, one of these, published in November 2014, looks at the evidence for amantadine and rimantadine.

People with cystic fibrosis are particularly susceptible to chest infection. It’s important to find treatments for these infections and a Cochrane Review from Cochrane Cystic Fibrosis examines the evidence for the use of antibiotics. Nikki Rowbotham, respiratory paediatrician, who is based in the East Midland in the UK and one of the authors of the June 2023 update of the review, tells us more in this podcast.

There are many Cochrane Pregnancy and Childbirth reviews of interventions to prevent health problems in babies that are born early. One of these was updated in April 2024, looking at the evidence on the effects of receiving magnesium sulphate prior to early birth. Lead author, Emily Shepherd from the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute and University of Adelaide in Australia tells us about the latest findings in this podcast, with a focus on the prevention of cerebral palsy.

Adding to the Cochrane Reviews of screening for breast cancer, a new review was published in May 2024 looking at the research into shared-decision making for this screening. In this podcast, Dr. Marleen Kunneman from Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands and Mayo Clinic in the US talks with lead author Dr. Paula Riganti from Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires in Argentina about the review and its findings.

Many of us experience the nuisance of having a common cold, and a variety of interventions have been suggested to prevent or treat it. One of these is zinc and a new Cochrane Review, published in May 2024, looks at the evidence. Here's the first author, Daryl Nault from Maryland University of Integrative Health in the USA to tell us what the review found.

Since 2002, Cochrane has maintained a series of reviews on interventions to prevent obesity in children and young people. The sixth update, focusing separately on those aged 5 to 11 and 12 to 18 years of age, was published in April 2024. We asked one of the authors, Francesca Spiga from Bristol Medical School in the UK to tell us about the importance of the reviews and the latest findings and she prepared this podcast, which was recorded using ElevenLabs.

In February 2024, we published the first update of the Cochrane Drugs and Alcohol review of psychosocial treatments for people with stimulant use disorder. Here's lead author, Silvia Minozzi from the Lazio Regional Health Service in Rome Italy to tell us about the latest findings.

The Cochrane Pregnancy and Childbirth Group produced more than 650 Cochrane Reviews after its establishment as the first Cochrane Review Group, 30 years ago. Several relate to postpartum haemorrhage, and these were added to in November 2023, with a new review of qualitative research, which was also supported by the Cochrane Effective Practice and Organisation of Care Group. In this podcast, Martha Vazquez Corona, talks with corresponding author Meghan Bohren, head of the Gender and Women’s Health Unit at the University of Melbourne in Australia, about this qualitative evidence synthesis and its findings.

Pregnant women are sometimes given vaccines to help protect the health of their babies after birth, with Cochrane reviews examining the evidence on this for, for example, pneumococcal disease and hepatitis B. In May 2024, we published a new addition, looking at RSV vaccination. In this podcast, review authors, Emily Phijffer and Odette de Bruin, medical doctors and PhD students in respectively, Pediatrics and Obstetrics at the Wilhelmina Childrens Hospital, University Medical Centre Utrecht in the Netherlands, talk about their findings.

Patient understanding can be key to the successful use of many of the interventions for which there are Cochrane Reviews and, in November 2023, we published a review that might help with this. Here are two of the authors, Angela Aldin from Cochrane Haematology and Annika Baumeister from the University of Bonn, both in Germany, to talk about the findings of that review looking at interventions for improving health literacy in migrants.

Alongside its many reviews of possible treatments for dementia, the Cochrane Dementia and Cognitive Improvement Group produced reviews relevant to other aspects of the care of people with dementia. In this podcast, Tanja Richter talks with Julia Lühnen (Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Institute of Clinical Nursing Science, Berlin, Germany) about the August 2023 update of the 2012 review of psychosocial interventions for reducing the use of antipsychotic medicines for people with dementia living in care homes.

The question of whether and how to treat preterm infants with postnatal corticosteroids for the management of bronchopulmonary dysplasia, which is a chronic lung problem due to prematurity, has been a neonatologist's quandary for decades. In August 2023, Cochrane Neonatal published a network meta-analysis on the use of postnatal corticosteroids for its prevention. In this podcast, Roger Soll of Cochrane Neonatal, talks with the lead author Susanne Hay, an attending neonatologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in the US, about her team's work.

Two of the Cochrane Reviews that investigate different ways to deliver health and social care services look at the qualitative and quantitative research into a strategy called hospital at home. In this podcast, Roses Parker, Cochrane’s Commissioning Editor talks with lead author of the March 2024 qualitative evidence synthesis of implementing hospital at home, Jason Wallis, a physiotherapist and researcher at Monash University in Australia, and Sasha Shepperd, researcher at Oxford Population Health, University of Oxford in the UK who led the Cochrane review of the quantitative effects of admission avoidance hospital at home, which was updated in March 2024.

Immunisation is a key component in the prevention of illness and the Cochrane review of interventions to improve coverage of childhood immunisation in low- and middle-income countries was updated for the second time in December 2023. We asked lead author, Angela Oyo-Ita from University of Calabar Teaching Hospital in Nigeria, to tell us about the latest findings in this podcast.