How do I Evaluate Clinical Studies Strengths & Weaknesses?

There are different types of medical studies. Laboratory studies are preliminary and animal studies are less important than human studies, though you can use the same criteria to evaluate them. Case studies cover one person or event. Observational studies usually cover large populations. Participants are interviewed or given questionnaires. Sometimes these studies cover the results of certain treatments gathered from medical, government or community records. In clinical trials, participants are observed by researchers to determine how they respond to certain drugs or treatments. All of these types of studies yield valuable information, however, the clinical trial is considered most valuable because it is controlled while in progress, rather than looking back.

Things You'll Need

• Internet connection
• Access to library

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Instructions

• 1

  Obtain the original study of the clinical trial you are evaluating. You may be able to find it on the publication's web site or through the library. Articles in the press describing studies are often incomplete.

• 2

  Evaluate the publication where the study was published. Peer-reviewed journals are best. Articles in other publications are not as credible. Don't accept references to a study that are printed in advertising or on a website that is trying to sell you something, unless you can find and evaluate the original study.

• 3

  Research the investigators who performed the study. Experts on a subject who work for a university or research institution have the most credibility. In most cases, scientists writing on subjects outside their field of expertise will have less credibility. Articles from writers who don't have degrees from recognizable universities or who are not affiliated with a recognized institution shouldn't be accepted without further investigation of the writer's credentials.

• 4

  Identify the number of subjects in the study and how they were chosen. The more people in the study, the better. However, the individuals chosen should have characteristics, such as age and gender, that seem appropriate for the study's goals. Is there a control group? The study will have more credibility if there is, and if the groups were selected randomly.

• 5

  Check the funding. Who paid for the study? It is best if the study was financed by a neutral party, but the study is not necessarily poor if the party who funded it benefits from the results.

• 6

  Evaluate the study results and conclusions. Do the conclusions seem to follow from the results? Does the conclusion reinforce that of other studies or is it new? Do the researchers seem more positive in their conclusions than is warranted? Were they truly impartial or did they have too much information before making conclusions on the study outcomes. Decide if you think the study does what it set out to do, and if not, do the researchers explain the difference.