On 2014 Apr 23, Hilda Bastian commented:

This is a critical topic for a systematic review, given the potential for decision-making interventions to increase inequality in the community. The conclusions here seem to me over-optimistic. There's another way of putting this: the meta-analyses for most outcomes found no improvement. The weight of evidence for improvement was carried by less than a handful of studies - including some intensive interventions such as community outreach strategy (Wray RJ, 2011).

It's striking that with so much research in this field, such a small proportion could be found that addresses such a critical question. The results here certainly point to the importance of doing more work on this subject, because the cause clearly is not hopeless. Beyond these studies, though, lies another critical question: who is adopting these practices in the community, and is it contributing to a lessening or increase in inequity? Generally, only concerted effort can prevent those who already have more, getting more - in this case, information and clinicians' time (Bastian H, 2003).

On 2014 Apr 23, Hilda Bastian commented:

This is a critical topic for a systematic review, given the potential for decision-making interventions to increase inequality in the community. The conclusions here seem to me over-optimistic. There's another way of putting this: the meta-analyses for most outcomes found no improvement. The weight of evidence for improvement was carried by less than a handful of studies - including some intensive interventions such as community outreach strategy (Wray RJ, 2011).

It's striking that with so much research in this field, such a small proportion could be found that addresses such a critical question. The results here certainly point to the importance of doing more work on this subject, because the cause clearly is not hopeless. Beyond these studies, though, lies another critical question: who is adopting these practices in the community, and is it contributing to a lessening or increase in inequity? Generally, only concerted effort can prevent those who already have more, getting more - in this case, information and clinicians' time (Bastian H, 2003).