Questions to Ask Yourself
Are the results valid?
* Note that these validity criteria can be applied to systematic reviews in any domain (Therapy, Diagnosis, Harm, Prognosis)
1. Did the overview address a focused clinical question?
Patients? Exposures? Outcomes?
Therapy? Causation? Diagnosis? Prognosis?
2.Were the criteria used to select articles for inclusion appropriate?
Patients? Exposures? Outcomes? Methodological standards?
Was there a thorough literature review conducted?
3. Is it unlikely that important, relevant studies were missed? All
Relevant databases searched?
Reference lists?
Personal contacts?
Detailed search strategy provided?
4. Was the validity of the included studies appraised?
5. Were assessments of studies reproducible?
Blinded reviewers?
Inter-observer agreement?
6. Were the results similar from study to study?
Tests of homogeneity?
What are the results?
*Note that these questions apply only to systematic reviews of therapy
1.What are the overall results of the review?
Overall ORs,RRs?
Weighting of studies?
2. How precise were the results?
3. Did the study have a sufficiently large sample size?
Vanderbilt- Power and Sample Size Calculator
Will the results help me in patient care?
*Note that these questions apply only to systematic reviews of therapy
1. Can the results be applied to my patients?
Patients similar for demographics, severity, co-morbidity and other prognostic factors?
Compelling reason why they should not be applied?
2. Were all clinically relevant outcomes considered?
Are surrogate endpoints valid?
3. Are the benefits worth the harms and costs?
NNT for different outcomes?