Study Rating

A study rating has been added to the summaries of randomized clinical trials in your newsletter. The rating is a measure of how well the study, as reported in the journal, conforms to well documented quality standards. Additional study types (meta-analyses and observational studies) will be included in upcoming issues.

Study Quality Standards

Study quality is measured using a checklist rating system that we developed based on the very comprehensive Strength of Evidence Report from the Evidence-based Practice Center Program of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). We acknowledge that we are actually measuring the report of the study and not the study itself. The AHRQ report identifies the elements and specifically the “key items” that are essential to a high quality study report. An example of a key item is disclosure of study sponsorship or funding and whether it is included in the report. Another is investigator blinding.

Study Quality Rating
The checklist contains 10 items, 7 of which are key items worth 2 points each for
scoring purposes. The non-key items are each worth 1 point and the maximum score is
17 (100%). Each rating will be followed by a brief explanation. The checklist determines the presence or absence of the item and it does not involve the quality of the item. The rating checklist for randomized clinical trials is posted below.

Checklist for RCTs

Your Feedback is important to us

We feel that study ratings improve the usefulness of the Alerts Newsletters by giving you an additional way to judge the reliability of clinical information. All thoughts or suggestions are welcome, please let us know what you think.