The following comparisons of outcomes will be performed: comparisons between the participating countries; comparisons between each professional group; comparisons by country and profession.
Although the small number of clinics participating precluded comparisons by clinic type, we did see a trend toward a larger increase in screening in larger practices, academic practices and those with higher baseline rates of screening.
Among participating women, comparisons will be made for all deliveries across both arms of the trial and also restricted to deliveries for which oxytocin was given before delivery of the baby.
The rightmost column identifies the number of individuals who participate in comparison programs (UI claimants or ES participants) and are available to be matched to program participants.
Ranch Hands and one living comparison subject from each matched set, with replacement of non-participating comparison subjects, were invited to participate in periodic physical examinations and questionnaires.
Weaknesses of the study include the possible bias from a willingness to participate, although comparison with SAMSS November sample does not indicate this to be the case.
The pre- and post-test showed improvement among the participating residents in comparison to the residents from the control group, but this improvement was not significant.
Because of lower breakpoints (MIC >2 mg/L) defined by SRGA and DIN, this definition may have caused partial overestimation of MRSA proportions reported from Sweden (where SRGA is used in 100% of laboratories), and from Germany (where DIN is used in 59% of the participating laboratories) in comparison to other countries (19 ).
The analysis included 1271 patients, but only 70 controls agreed to participate and comparisons should therefore be considered with caution.
Although practices participated voluntarily, comparisons with cancer registration statistics indicate that the data set is representative of the age, sex and cancer site case-mix of incident English cancer patients (Rubin et al, 2011).
The socio-demographic characteristics of the sample and a comparison of participating with non-participating patients have been described in detail elsewhere [ 26].
