Finding evidence for your health assessment

Evaluating the information

You've found evidence, but how do you know whether they're reliable and accurate?  Here is a brief overview of how to evaluate and assess information.

Tools for appraising health information

Various tools are available for assessing the quality of individual studies. These tools aid in ensuring that decisions are grounded in solid evidence relevant to the given situation. Checklists serve as guides for evaluating various aspects of different types of studies, including internal validity, external validity and bias. 

The following is a list of online tools to assist with appraising evidence: 

• CASP
  The Critical Appraisal Skills Program (CASP) provide a variety of checklists covering different study designs including Randomised Controlled Trials, Systematic Reviews, Cohort Study, Diagnostic, Case Control studies, Economic Evaluation and Qualitative. For more information on using CASP for finding and evaluating evidence, check out these e-learning modules.
   
• JBI
  The Joanna Briggs Insitute (JBI) provide checklists for common study designs, as well as tools for textual evidence such as Policies, Expert Opinion and Narratives. JBI checklists offer explanatory text for each of its criteria, which helps make them easier to understand.
   
• CEBM
  University of Oxford’s Centre for Evidence Based Medicine (CEBM) critical appraisal tools can be used appraised the Randomised Controlled Trials, Systematic Reviews, Diagnosis, Qualitative and Prognosis studies, as well as Individual Participant Data reviews. CEBM tools are available in various languages.
   
• AACODS
  Developed by Jessica Tyndall of Flinders University Medical Library, this tool is designed for evaluating and critically appraising grey literature sources.