Critical Appraisal of Epidemiological Studies and Clinical Trials

by Elwood, J. Mark

• ISBN13: 9780192627445
• ISBN10: 0192627449
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1998-02-26
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

This book is a revised and substantially expanded successor to Causal Relationships in Medicine: A Practical System for Critical Appraisal , published by Oxford in 1988. This new edition has been thoroughly rewritten and new sections on meta-analysis, evidence-based medicine and misclassification have been added. The appraisal system proposed here is applicable to studies involving randomized clinical trials, and epidemiologic studies of the survey, cohort, and case control design. It covers all major study designs used in clinical medicine and public health to assess the etiology of conditions, the efficacy of treatment, and the outcomes of health management. The book presents a logical system of critical appraisal, from the description of the nature of the study and its results to the consideration of observational bias, the effects of extraneous factors, chance variation, the types of positive evidence expected where causal relationships exist and the issues of generalization of the results. Each chapter concludes with a summary and a set of self-test questions, with answer key. The book has two unique features. One is the presentation of six important studies illustrating randomized trials, prospective and retrospective cohort designs and case control designs, each with a critical appraisal. The other is the summary of major statistical methods used in the analysis of each study design in a series of logical tables with worked examples.

Table of Contents

The importance of causal relationships in medicine and health care

Study design which can demonstrate and test causation

The results obtained from studies of causation

Selection of subjects for study

Error and bias in observations

Confounding

Chance Variation

Combining results from several studies

The Diagnosis of causation

Critical appraisal of a randomized clinical trial

Critical appraisal of a randomized trial of a preventive agent

Critical appraisal of a prospective cohort study

Critical appraisal of a restrospective cohort study

Critical appraisal of a matched case-control study

Critical appraisal of a large, population based, case-control study

Answers to self test questions

Statistical analysis methods: formulae and worked examples

Lifetable methods

Statistical Tables

References

Index

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.