About the Authors

Gerben ter Riet

g.terriet@amc.nl

Affiliation Department of General Practice, Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Paula Chesley

Affiliation Seminar für Sprachwissenschaft University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany

Alan G. Gross

Affiliation Department of Communication Studies, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities, Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States of America

Lara Siebeling

Affiliation Department of General Practice, Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Patrick Muggensturm

Affiliation Horten Centre for Patient-Oriented Research, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

Nadine Heller

Affiliation Ambulatorium Glattal, Zurich-Schwamendingen, Winterthur, Switzerland

Martin Umbehr

Affiliations Horten Centre for Patient-Oriented Research, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland, Department of Urology, University Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

Daniela Vollenweider

Affiliation Department of Internal Medicine, City Hospital Waid, Zurich, Switzerland

Tsung Yu

Affiliation Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America

Elie A. Akl

Affiliations Department of Internal Medicine, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon, Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, Department of Medicine, State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo, New York, United States of America

Lizzy Brewster

Affiliation Departments of Internal and Vascular Medicine, Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Olaf M. Dekkers

Affiliation Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Leiden University Medical Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands

Ingrid Mühlhauser

Affiliation Mathematics, Informatics, Natural Sciences Faculty, Health Sciences and Education, University Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

Bernd Richter

Affiliation Institute of General Practice, University Hospital Düsseldorf, Heinrich-Heine University, Düsseldorf, Germany

Sonal Singh

Affiliation Division of General Internal Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America

Steven Goodman

Affiliation Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California, United States of America

Milo A. Puhan

Affiliations Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America, Institute for Social and Preventive Medicine, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: GtR PC AGG MAP. Performed the experiments: GtR PC AGG LS PM NH MU DV TY EAA LB OMD IM BR SS SNG MAP. Analyzed the data: GtR PC AGG MAP. Wrote the manuscript: GtR PC AGG MAP. Critically revised the manuscript: GtR PC AGG LS PM NH MU DV TY EAA LB OMD IM BR SS SNG MAP. Approved the final version of the manuscript: GtR PC AGG LS PM NH MU DV TY EAA LB OMD IM BR SS SNG MAP. Conduct of substudy 1: GtR MAP LS PM NH MU TY EAA LB OMD IM BR SS. Coded confounders for sub-study 1: DV TY MAP.