Train the Trainer Course book - Cochrane Public Health Group

Emphasise that the criteria to appraise studies may not be suitable for every health promotion or
public health intervention. For example, blinding in educational interventions is difficult and the
potential for contamination is high. Therefore, for such interventions to score highly on a quality
checklist, aspects such as blinding need to be given less weight than aspects such as data collection
methods and comparability of groups at baseline.
Integrity of intervention: Many studies may lack adequate reporting of factors describing integrity.
Information on cluster designs and cluster analysis issues: It is highly recommended to read the
executive summary of “Ukoumunne OC, Gulliford MC, Chinn S, Sterne JA, Burney PG. Methods
for evaluating area-wide and organisation-based interventions in health and health care: a
systematic review. Health Technol Assess. 1999;3(5):iii-92.”. This can be found at the following
website http://www.ncchta.org/ProjectData/3_publication_listings_ALL.asp.
Crib sheets for the appraisal exercises are attached. The checklist for the randomised controlled trial
and the controlled before and after study is the Effective Public Health Practice Project (EPHPP)
quality appraisal tool for quantitative studies. The EPHPP checklist was chosen as it was one of the
six checklists recommended by an HTA report by Deeks et al (2003) for assessing quality when
conducting a systematic review. This checklist is the only one of the six to ask reviewers to
determine the integrity of the intervention. It also has the advantage of being able to be used for a
variety of study designs.
The aim of the exercise is for participants to become familiar with the checklists provided. Do not
let participants get swayed into conversations that do not relate directly to the task at hand. It is
more important that participants complete the checklist than get caught up on one particular
question.
** Feel free to choose critical appraisal studies which are more relevant to your audience.
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