The Pocket Guide to Critical Appraisal

Book excerpt: This second edition of the popular guide to critical appraisal is a fully updated revision of the previous edition. Written in the same easily accessible style, The Pocket Guide to Critical Appraisal now provides annotated checklists of the most common research designs. Consistent with recent developments in evidence-based medicine, these checklists distinguish between the risk of bias in the conduct of published studies and the value of the findings for healthcare delivery. Five new chapters have been added and the original chapters have been rewritten, making the new edition a complete and concise guide for the evaluation of research quality. In addition to the checklists, the book also: describes how to quickly identify the information needed for the critical appraisal provides simple explanations of statistical significance and the interpretation of confidence intervals reviews the major sources of bias and their impact on research findings explains how to summarise the risk of bias outlines the concept of certainty of evidence and how to calculate it identifies the challenges in assessing the value of research findings The Pocket Guide to Critical Appraisal is an essential guide for all health professions and students who read research papers and use their findings.