Evidence-based Medicine Toolkit

Indexabsolute risk reduction (ARR) 50,55, 56, 57abstracts, structured 9, 11accuracy, test 37–9adverse events, studies of 42–5aetiology 5levels of evidence 94–6see also harm/aetiology studiesallocation concealment 51–2all or none studies 94AND (Boolean) 16, 17AskMedline 18Bandolier 11biasobserver 53, 61publication 29bibliographic databases 8, 14–17binary data 32‘blinding’ 48, 52–3BMJ Updates 11Boolean operators 16, 17Canadian Medical Association 10case–control studies 97harm/aetiology 42, 43, 44–5level of evidence 95, 96case-series 96CAT crawler 11CATmaker 11causal associationreasonableness 43–4see also aetiologyCI see confidence intervalsCINAHL 14Clinical Evidence 8, 11Cochrane Collaboration 13Cochrane Database ofMethodology Reviews 12Cochrane Database of SystematicReviews 12Cochrane Library 8, 12–13, 28cohort studies 97–8harm/aetiology 42, 43, 44levels of evidence 94–5, 96comparison intervention 3, 4,75–6confidence intervals (CI) 46critical appraisal 33, 45, 48–9,55number needed to treat 56conflict of interest 25consensus method 60content analysis 62continuous data 32control event rate (CER) 55, 57cost–benefit analysis 66, 68cost–consequences study 66cost-effectiveness 5cost-effectiveness analysis 66cost-minimization analysis 66costsdirect 67indirect 67prospective identification 67unit 67cost–utility analysis 66, 68critical appraisaldiagnosis articles 34–41economic evaluations 65–70guidelines 21–6harm/aetiology studies 42–5prognosis studies 46–9qualitative studies 59–64systematic reviews 27–33therapy articles 50–8critically appraised topics (CATs)9, 11101