Abstract
Review articles are an important source of clinical information for family physicians. However, the volume of available reviews is vast and their scientific quality varies enormously. Family physicians must be able to identify trustworthy reviews quickly. This article outlines practical and flexible guidelines for critical appraisal and discusses the respective roles of review articles and original research reports in guiding clinical practice.
Full text
PDF
Images in this article
Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- Haynes R. B., Mulrow C. D., Huth E. J., Altman D. G., Gardner M. J. More informative abstracts revisited. Ann Intern Med. 1990 Jul 1;113(1):69–76. doi: 10.7326/0003-4819-113-1-69. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Horwitz R. I. Complexity and contradiction in clinical trial research. Am J Med. 1987 Mar;82(3):498–510. doi: 10.1016/0002-9343(87)90450-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Mulrow C. D., Thacker S. B., Pugh J. A. A proposal for more informative abstracts of review articles. Ann Intern Med. 1988 Apr;108(4):613–615. doi: 10.7326/0003-4819-108-4-613. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Mulrow C. D. The medical review article: state of the science. Ann Intern Med. 1987 Mar;106(3):485–488. doi: 10.7326/0003-4819-106-3-485. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Oxman A. D., Guyatt G. H. Guidelines for reading literature reviews. CMAJ. 1988 Apr 15;138(8):697–703. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Sacks H. S., Berrier J., Reitman D., Ancona-Berk V. A., Chalmers T. C. Meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials. N Engl J Med. 1987 Feb 19;316(8):450–455. doi: 10.1056/NEJM198702193160806. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Yusuf S., Peto R., Lewis J., Collins R., Sleight P. Beta blockade during and after myocardial infarction: an overview of the randomized trials. Prog Cardiovasc Dis. 1985 Mar-Apr;27(5):335–371. doi: 10.1016/s0033-0620(85)80003-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]