VIII. Structured Review of an Article
Main Article Content
Keywords
Journal article, Causality, Statistics, Sample size, Measures of Association, Exposure, Risk or Outcome
Abstract
Several strategies have been attempted to select an article under assumptions of relevance and good quality. They depend largely on the presence or not of a series of features and in other occasions on the judgment of those who classify the article. However, these strategies do not allow for us to know the magnitude of error. Since there is no such thing as a perfect article, it is relevant to identify the magnitude of error and its impact on the final result; hence, it is necessary to develop skills that allow for us to review an article, identify possible errors and generate an idea of their impact on the result. According to the information contained in parts I to VII of this series of articles on clinical research, we have tried to demonstrate its application in a structured review of a causality article, starting with the examination of the baseline state, the maneuver and the result, with the systematic errors (biases) generated in each item, followed by the relevance of the test, the appropriateness of the sample size and, finally, clinical relevance.
References
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