Critical Analysis Of A Paper

Question 0

Hypothesis

Answer 0

Needs to be written before the study was undertaken
Preferably apriori-> published before study was undertaken
Needs to be justified by literature
Precise and testable
Includes direction of prediction

Question 1

Aims

Answer 1

Should be clear
Made before the study was undertaken
Justified 
Fit with study type
Specific

Question 2

Design

Answer 2

Appropriate to aims
Clearly described
Control or comparison group?
Length of follow up
Blinding, concealment

Question 3

Sampling

Answer 3

When and where
Power analysis
Recruitment method
Response rates
Representative
Specify inclusion criteria
Participants appropriate to aims
Are the results generalisable

Question 4

Procedure

Answer 4

Clearly described and replicable
Intervention described
Clearer instructions to participants

Question 5

Outcome measures

Answer 5

Objective not subject to interpretation
Measured in multiple ways
Adherence

Question 6

Validity

Answer 6

Are you measuring what you thing you are
Criterion validity-> concurrent (correlates with other valid measures) and predictive
Construct validity-> convergent (related to expected factors) and divergent (doesn’t relate to non relevant factors)
Face validity-> extent to which a test is subjectively viewed as covering the concept it purports to measure -> transparency and relevancy

Question 7

Reliability

Answer 7

How accurate is the measure
Consistency and repeatability
Test and re test
Inter rate-> degree of agreement around raters-> how much homogeneity there is in the ratings given
Intra rater-> degree of agreement among repeated administrations of a diagnostic test performed by a single rater
Internal consistency of questionnaire-> corn aches alpha-) coefficient of internal consistency
Equipment accuracy

Question 8

Reporting of outcome measures

Answer 8

Adequately described
Reliability and validity described
Description of scoring
Interpretation of score

Question 9

Ethics

Answer 9

Approval with appropriate board
Opportunity for control patients to receive treatment after 
Informed consent
Free to discontinue
Harm?

Question 10

Data analysis

Answer 10

Probability level set
Stats programme used
Justification of tests
Intention to treat analysis 
Multivariate stats

Question 11

Reporting of results

Answer 11

Demographics table and comparison to baseline
Participant flow diagram
Control for confounders
Clear presentation 
Effect sizes 
Measures of dispersal