Critical analysis is a way or examining the research to assess its validity and relevance. It is an essential step in making sense of the research evidence. You should ask the following questions:
Understanding Terminology
The following terminology is important in critical appraisal and will be helpful to determine the validity of research. Additianal terms can be found in the Centre for Evidence Based Medicine Glossary
| Applicability |
Whether a particular treatment or form of care that was demonstrated as effective in a trial could be expected to provide the same effect for an individual or group in a specific clinical or population setting |
| Bias |
Any influence that may cause a distortion of results in a study and undermine validity. Bias may originate from various sources, such as allocation of patients, measurement, interpretation, publication, and review of data |
| Confidence interval (CI) |
Confidence Interval (CI) is the interval within which the population parameter (the ‘true’ value) is expected to lie with a given degree of certainty, for example 95% |
| External validity |
External validity is the degree to which the results of a clinical study can be applied to a setting other than the one studied. |
| Generalisability |
The ability to reliably apply the results of a study to other populations, based on the characteristics of the subjects, size of the sample, the setting, and trustworthiness of the study |
| Intention-to-treat |
A method of analysis for randomized trials in which all patients randomly assigned to one of the treatment groups is analysed with that assigned group, regardless of whether or not they completed or received the treatment. |
| Internal validity |
A study has internal validity if it is free from bias or systematic error and the results seen are due only to the intervention. |
| p value |
p value is the probability that a particular result would have happened by chance. |
| Power |
Ability to detect a difference between two experimental groups if a difference exists. |
| Relative risk (RR) |
Relative Risk (RR) is the ratio of the probability of outcome in the treatment and control groups. This expresses the risk of the probable outcome in the treatment group relative to that in the control group. |
| Reliability |
The extent of the measurement of trustworthiness of the results. |
Below is a list of critical appraisal tools used in evidence-based medicine:
Find out more about research terminology from the Uni SA Evidence Based Practice Glossary
Find out more about Confidence Intervals and p values