Zinc for the prevention and treatment of the common cold

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.

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.

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.

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.