Critical appraisal
From WikPH
[edit] Why you need to know how to critically appraise research or other evidence
1) It is a basic skill for medicine and public health, e.g., allowing you to judge whether to accept or reject a treatment, diagnostic test, public health intervention, etc. The 'Bandolier' article below illustrates this brilliantly.
2) Students of medical and other clinical sciences: to underpin your studies of diagnosis, prognosis and treatment.
3) Students of public health: to pass the Faculty of Public Health Part A exam (it is 25% of all the marks) and other public health exams.
4) For all who need to assess quality and usefulness of research evidence in any scientific discipline, e.g., psychology.
[edit] Finding evidence for critical appraisal
Click on Evidence_searches for guidance and sources for evidence from the internet.
[edit] What is critical appraisal
Introduction from University of Kent. Includes links to other critical appraisal resources including, CASP checklists.
[edit] Introductory critical appraisal sources
Healthknowledge On-line critical appraisal course
Good course, written by experts. You can give feedback to help its development. It has a useful glossary.
Newcastle Critical Appraisal Worksheet
Manchester University introduction
This has been taken off. Its replacement is under development.
Please use the 'discussion' tab at top to comment on the quality of these courses. Login in and use the 'edit' tab at top to add any other good introductory courses that you find.
[edit] Critical appraisal guides/checklists/tools to help critically appraise written articles/studies/evidence
such as systematic reviews, RCTs, economic analyses, qualitiative studies, journal and newpaper articles, etc.
'Critical appraisal for Public Health: a new checklist', from Manchester University, will be accessible from here in the future.
[edit] Commentaries on critical appraisal
Systematic review of the content of critical appraisal tools
A very important review from BioMed Central. If you do not know the importance of BMC, judge it from this article.
Bias in critical appraisal From Bandolier. As is usual from Bandolier, a 'must read' which says it all-well a lot of it.
Systematic Review of the Effectiveness of Critical Appraisal Teaching ARIF 2000
Effective Public Health Practice Project Hamilton Ontario Canada
[edit] Case study in Critical Appraisal
A case study in critical appraisal using a newspaper report on a study of exercise in pregnancy. Critical appraisal case study
[edit] See Also
Begun by David Lawrence
