18-21st Century Controversies (part 1 of 3)

Question 1

How to assess the study evidence and study quality?

Answer 1

Be critical!
4 strategies:
1. What type of evidence is this?
2. Does this research apply to my topic?
3. How much is the result affected by bias?
4. What are the effects of the results?

Question 2

Explain the process of evidence based practice?

Answer 2

1. Ask question
2. Find best evidence
3. Appraise the evidence
4. Implement
5. Evaluate outcomes

Question 3

However, the “top 3” best sources to look for evidence on the effectiveness of a treatment/intervention are:

Answer 3

1. Meta-analysis of RCT studies
2. Systematic reviews of RCT studies
3. RCT studies

Question 4

What is a systematic review?

Answer 4

Systematic review is a detailed, comprehensive, structured and critical literature review of all research studies that address a particular clinical issue. It also produces a systematic evaluation of the quality of included studies according to a pre-determined criteria

Question 5

If the studies included in the systematic review have a comparable quantitative data and a low degree of variation in their findings, a _______ can be performed..

Answer 5

meta-analysis

Question 6

What is meta-analysis

Answer 6

Meta-analysis is a type of systematic review in which the data of all selected studies are pooled quantitatively and reanalyzed using statistical methods. By combining the samples of all selected studies, the overall sample size is increased, which improves the statistical power of the analysis and the estimation of treatment effects