Critical appraisal (or quality assessment) in
evidence based medicine
Evidence-based medicine (EBM) is "the conscientious, explicit and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients". The aim of EBM is to integrate the experience of the clinician, the values of t ...
, is the use of explicit, transparent methods to assess the data in published research, applying the rules of evidence to factors such as
internal validity
Internal validity is the extent to which a piece of evidence supports a claim about cause and effect, within the context of a particular study. It is one of the most important properties of scientific studies and is an important concept in reasoni ...
, adherence to reporting standards, conclusions,
generalizability and risk-of-bias. Critical appraisal methods form a central part of the
systematic review
A systematic review is a scholarly synthesis of the evidence on a clearly presented topic using critical methods to identify, define and assess research on the topic. A systematic review extracts and interprets data from published studies on t ...
process. They are used in
evidence synthesis to assist clinical decision-making, and are increasingly used in evidence-based social care and education provision.
Critical appraisal checklists help to appraise the quality of the study design and (for quantitative studies) the risk of bias. Critical appraisal tools for cross-sectional studies are the AXIS tool and JBI tools; for randomised controlled trials are Cochrane Risk of Bias Tool, JBI tool and CASP tools.
Critical appraisal may also be an integral part of formalized approaches to turn evidence into recommendations for practice such as
GRADE
Grade most commonly refers to:
* Grade (education), a measurement of a student's performance
* Grade, the number of the year a student has reached in a given educational stage
* Grade (slope), the steepness of a slope
Grade or grading may also ref ...
.
See also
*
Evidence-based medicine
Evidence-based medicine (EBM) is "the conscientious, explicit and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients". The aim of EBM is to integrate the experience of the clinician, the values of t ...
*
Systematic review
A systematic review is a scholarly synthesis of the evidence on a clearly presented topic using critical methods to identify, define and assess research on the topic. A systematic review extracts and interprets data from published studies on t ...
*
Meta-analysis
A meta-analysis is a statistical analysis that combines the results of multiple scientific studies. Meta-analyses can be performed when there are multiple scientific studies addressing the same question, with each individual study reporting me ...
References
{{Reflist
External links
Cochrane Collaboration HandbookCritical appraisal tools available from the Centre for Evidence-based Medicine
Evidence-based practices
Systematic review
Meta-analysis