EBP Tutorial Intro Critical Appraisal Skills
EBP Tutorial Intro Critical Appraisal Skills
EBP Tutorial Intro Critical Appraisal Skills
who was involved in the research (research subjects) how they were recruited (e.g. by advertisements, using a particular practice etc) what were the inclusion criteria (e.g. age, sex, ethnicity, weight, agreed diagnostic criteria etc). Information concerning the inclusion criteria will give the reader an indication about how generalisable the results will be to the wider population, i.e. how accurately the study group reflects the wider population intended to receive a particular type of treatment. The chosen research method may be described quite briefly, but it is likely to be widely referenced for the reader to gather more extensive information should they choose to. Information should also be included in the methods section concerning how measurement procedures have been standardised, in what manner measurements have been made (e.g. particular technical instruments or measures) and the processes by which data has been recorded for later analysis. The structure of any questionnaires used to gather data should also be described. It should be made clear whether a questionnaire has been validated and the manner in which it has been tested to ensure reliability and validity. A wide variety of research methods and styles exist. Research can be described as qualitative or quantitative; it can also be described as either primary or secondary. Primary studies report research first hand, whereas secondary studies consist of summaries or analyses of primary studies. Examples of primary research are experiments (e.g. involving either animals or human volunteers), clinical trials (e.g. investigating the effect of a treatment intervention on a group of patients and then following them closely over a period of time) and surveys (e.g. a particular area of interest is measured in a group of professionals, patients or other targeted group of individuals). Secondary research, by comparison, consists of overviews (e.g. non-systematic reviews, systematic reviews and meta-analyses), clinical guidelines, decision analyses and economic analyses. A hierarchy of research evidence exists where the relevance of each type of evidence is evaluated by the wider research community: