Critically Appraising a Medical Journal Article

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Critically Appraising a Medical Journal Article

• Bill Burton, Ph.D.
• Associate Director
• Office of Educational Resources
• burton_at_aecom.yu.edu

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The Critical Appraisal Requirement

• A 2-3 page critical appraisal of a research
  article is one of the requirements for completion
  of your Family Medicine Project
• The article should be related to your project
  topic
• Unlike the project itself, which is often a group
  effort, this is an individual assignment

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Defining Critical Appraisal

• critical adj. 1. Characterized by careful
  evaluation and judgment.
• appraise v. To determine the value of something.
• So critical appraisal means to carefully evaluate
  the strengths and weaknesses of an article to
  determine its value.

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A Few Tips on How to Become a Critical Reader

• Dont accept everything an author says at face
  value
• Continually ask yourself questions as youre
  reading an article
• Do the numbers add up?
• Are there inconsistencies between what the
  authors planned and what they did?
• Pay special attention to the Methods section

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Critical Appraisal Involves3 Components

• UNDERSTAND the article
• What was the question?
• What methods were used?
• What did the authors find?
• Determine its VALIDITY (i.e., truthfulness)
• Were the study methods sound?
• Are the authors interpretation of the findings
  valid?
• Determine its UTILITY (i.e., generalizability)
• How useful (i.e., generalizable) are the findings
  to your practice and patients?

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Choose an Article That Is

• An original report of a research study (do not
  pick a review article)
• From a professional journal
• On a topic relevant to ambulatory care, and
  preferably dealing with an urban population
• An investigation of a specific hypothesis

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Your Critical Appraisal Should Be

• Approximately 23 pages in length
• Equally divided into the following three
  sections
• Understanding (one-third)
• Validity (one-third)
• Utility (one-third)

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http//www.phru.nhs.uk/casp/critical_appraisal_too
ls.htm
This is the URL for the critical appraisal tools
web site.
The web site has appraisal tools for a variety of
study designs.
Unfortunately, this web site does not provide an
appraisal tool for a cross-sectional study, so if
the article youve chosen is of that type contact
Dr. William Burton at burton_at_aecom.yu.edu. He
will send you one.
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After selecting a particular appraisal tool
(e.g., for cohort studies) a new page opens up.
Click the blue hyperlink to download a PDF
version of that tool.
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http//www.acpjc.org/
To see the current issue, click here.
This is the URL for the ACP Journal Club (also
available from the library web site under online
journals). This resource provides critical
appraisals of research published in the medical
literature.
To see past issues, click here.
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When the list of past issues opens up, click on
the particular issue you want to see.
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When that issue opens up, scroll down the page to
find an article that interests you. Clicking on
the title provides access to a PDF version of the
article.