critical appraisal
Last reviewed 01/2018
When critically appraising a study then consider:
- what is the research question - for most studies there should be a single sentence describing why the study was done and what hypothesis the authors were testing
- the type of study design used
- the study population investigated
- comparator drugs and doses studied
- sample size and power used in the study
- primary versus secondary endpoints and subgroup analysis
- duration of the study
- study follow-up
- is there a sponsorship or publication bias
- other considerations
- intention to treat analysis
- what p-values are used
- what confidence intervals are used
- comparing statistical and clinical significance of results
- analysis of results e.g absolute risks, relative risks, odds ratios, hazard ratios, numbers needed to treat, numbers needed to harm, Kaplan-Meier survival curves, simple statistical test
These points are expanded upon in the linked items below.
comparator drugs in statistical studies
sample size and power of study
primary versus secondary endpoints
is there sponsorship or publication bias
statistical versus clinical significance
simple statistical test - to check difference between two treatments