1. Determine Relevance: Is this article worth taking the time to read? If the answer to any of these questions is No, it may be better to read other articles first.

2. Determine Validity: If the answers to all three questions above are Yes, then continued assessment of the article is mandatory. Study design flaws are common; fatal flaws are arresting.

D. Was an "inception cohort" assembled? (Did the investigators identify a specific group of people and follow them forward in time?)

Yes                                     No (stop)

 

E. Were the criteria for entry into the study objective and reasonable?

Yes                                    No (stop)

 

G. Were the patients similar to yours, in terms of age, sex, race, severity of disease, and other factors that might influence the course of the disease?

Yes                                     No (stop)

1. Determine Relevance: Is this article worth taking the time to read? If the answer to any of these questions is No, it may be better to read other articles first.

Based on the conclusion of the abstract or article:

A. Will this information, if true, have a direct bearing on the health of your patients and is it something they will care about?

Yes (go on )                 No (stop)

B. Is the problem addressed by the diagnostic test one that is common to your practice and is the test available to you?

Yes (go on )                 No (stop)

C. Will this information, if true, require you to change your current practice?

Yes (go on )                 No (stop)

2. Determine Validity: If the answers to all three questions above are Yes, then continued assessment of the article is mandatory. Study design flaws are common; fatal flaws are arresting.

D. What is the disease being addressed? What is the diagnostic test?

 

 

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Explain

 

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E. Was the new test compared with an acceptable "gold standard" test and were both tests applied in a uniformly blind manner?

 

 

---

Explain

 

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F. Is the new test reasonable? What are its limitations?

 

 

---

Explain

 

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G. What are the sensitivity, specificity, and predictive values of the test?

1. Determine Relevance: Is this article worth taking the time to read? If the answer to any of these questions is No, it may be better to read other articles first.

2. Determine Validity: If the answers to all three questions above are Yes, then continued assessment of the article is mandatory. Study design flaws are common; fatal flaws are arresting.

D. Were the methods used to locate relevant studies comprehensive and clearly stated?

  Yes                 No (Stop)

F. Was the validity of the original studies included in the overview appropriately assessed? 

Yes                 No (Stop)

G. Was the assessment of the relevance and validity of the original studies reproducible and free from bias? Yes No

 

H. Was variation between the results of the relevant studies

analyzed? (test of homogeneity) 

Yes                 No

 

I. Were the results combined appropriately?  

(apples with apples) Yes                 No

 

1. Determine Relevance: Is this article worth taking the time to read? If the answer to any of these questions is No, it may be better to read other articles first.

2. Determine Validity: If the answers to all three questions above are Yes, then continued

assessment of the article is mandatory. Study design flaws are common; fatal flaws are arresting.

D. Was it a controlled trial and were the subjects randomly assigned? 

Yes                 No (Stop)

do not apply? 

Yes (Stop)                 No

F. Were steps taken to conceal the treatment assignment from study personnel entering patients into the study (opaque envelopes, centralized randomization scheme, "concealed allocation")?  

Yes                             No

G. Were all patients who entered the trial properly accounted for at its conclusion?

i. Was follow-up complete?     Yes                 No

ii. Were patients analyzed in the groups to which they were randomized ("intention-to-treat" analysis)?     Yes                 No

H. Were patients and study personnel "blind" to treatment?  

Yes                 No

I. Were the intervention and control groups similar?  

Yes                 No

(Check "Table 1" of most studies)

J. Are the results clinically as well as statistically significant?

K. Were there other factors that might have affected the outcome?  

Yes                 No

Explain ____________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________