Critical Appraisal tools
Critical appraisal worksheets to help you appraise the reliability, importance and applicability of clinical evidence.
Critical appraisal is the systematic evaluation of clinical research papers in order to establish:
- Does this study address a clearly focused question?
- Did the study use valid methods to address this question?
- Are the valid results of this study important?
- Are these valid, important results applicable to my patient or population?
If the answer to any of these questions is “no”, you can save yourself the trouble of reading the rest of it.
This section contains useful tools and downloads for the critical appraisal of different types of medical evidence. Example appraisal sheets are provided together with several helpful examples.
Critical Appraisal Worksheets
English
- Systematic Reviews Critical Appraisal Sheet
- Diagnostics Critical Appraisal Sheet
- Prognosis Critical Appraisal Sheet
- Randomised Controlled Trials (RCT) Critical Appraisal Sheet
- Critical Appraisal of Qualitative Studies Sheet
- IPD Review Sheet
Chinese - translated by Chung-Han Yang and Shih-Chieh Shao
- Systematic Reviews Critical Appraisal Sheet
- Diagnostic Study Critical Appraisal Sheet
- Prognostic Critical Appraisal Sheet
- RCT Critical Appraisal Sheet
- IPD reviews Critical Appraisal Sheet
- Qualitative Studies Critical Appraisal Sheet
German - translated by Johannes Pohl and Martin Sadilek
- Systematic Review Critical Appraisal Sheet
- Diagnosis Critical Appraisal Sheet
- Prognosis Critical Appraisal Sheet
- Therapy / RCT Critical Appraisal Sheet
Lithuanian - translated by Tumas Beinortas
- Systematic review appraisal Lithuanian (PDF)
- Diagnostic accuracy appraisal Lithuanian (PDF)
- Prognostic study appraisal Lithuanian (PDF)
- RCT appraisal sheets Lithuanian (PDF)
Portugese - translated by Enderson Miranda, Rachel Riera and Luis Eduardo Fontes
- Portuguese – Systematic Review Study Appraisal Worksheet
- Portuguese – Diagnostic Study Appraisal Worksheet
- Portuguese – Prognostic Study Appraisal Worksheet
- Portuguese – RCT Study Appraisal Worksheet
- Portuguese – Systematic Review Evaluation of Individual Participant Data Worksheet
- Portuguese – Qualitative Studies Evaluation Worksheet
Spanish - translated by Ana Cristina Castro
- Systematic Review (PDF)
- Diagnosis (PDF)
- Prognosis Spanish Translation (PDF)
- Therapy / RCT Spanish Translation (PDF)
Persian - translated by Ahmad Sofi Mahmudi
- Systematic Review (PDF)
- Diagnosis (PDF)
- Prognosis (PDF)
- RCT (PDF)
See also:
- PICO Critical Appraisal Sheet (PDF)
- PICO Critical Appraisal Sheet (MS-Word)
- Educational Prescription Critical Appraisal Sheet (PDF)
Explanations & Examples