Making Sense of Critical Appraisal

Olajide Ajetunmobi MB BS MRCPsych is a Consultant in Psychiatry, Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Blackpool, UK

This is an important contribution to the field of evidence-based medicine. It is a well written, easy to understand, follow, and use, small handbook that I plan to keep in my pocket whenever reading medical literature from now on. It is specifically designed to assist non-statistician readers work through the maze of analysis reported in clinical medicine. It is well organised and flows from basic concepts to specific areas.Cathy J Lazarus, MD Tulane University School of MeA very good book for critical appraisal. Easy to read with loads of funny examples...well worth it.Customer review, Amazon.com...provides guidance on how to understand medical research publications, read them critically, and how to decide whether the content is clinically useful in the care of patients. Illustrated throughout with relevant examples.Towers Hospital, LeicesterCompact, yet containing all the statistical terms and concepts that you're ever likely to need, this book represents good value for money and can be recommended to all clinicians who require a firm grounding in this important subjectUnivadis Website

• Introduction 1. Basic stats 2. Relevant study design issues 3. Critical appraisal of studies on diagnostic tests 4. Critical appraisal of cross-sectional surveys 5. Critical appraisal of prospective studies 6. Critical appraisal of retrospective studies 7. Critical appraisal of randomized clinical trials 8. Handling survival time data 9. Critical appraisal of systematic reviews 10. Critical appraisal of clinical audit 11. Critical appraisal of economic evaluations 12. Critical appraisal of qualitative studies