As with all critical appraisals, it’s worth having a structured template to appraise as you go through the module. Ask yourself the following questions:
- Why was the review done? If the aims are unclear, irrelevant or unimportant to you, then you can stop here
- Was the search diligently done? Is their search reproducible? Is there any publication bias (did they try and find papers that might not have been published)?
- What were their inclusion criteria?
- Did the authors assess study quality?
- Is there publication bias?
- What do the results mean?
- Is there much heterogeneity?
- Is it possible that competing interests may have influenced the study?
- Is this study internally valid (do you accept the findings from the study)?
- Is this study externally valid (can I apply this to my own patients)?
- How much does this cost?