The interpretation of clinical trials

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• Format Texts
• Language/s English
• Target Audience Further education
• EBM Stage 3 - Appraising evidence, 4 - Decision making
• Duration 5-15 mins
• Difficulty Intermediate

Key Concepts addressed

• 2-1a Comparison groups should be similar
• 2-1d People should not know which treatment they get
• 2-1g All should be followed up
• 1-3c Expert opinion is not always right
• 2-3c Average measures of effects can be misleading
• 2-3f Confidence intervals should be reported
• 2-3h Don’t confuse “no evidence” with “no effect”
• 1-2f Consider all of the relevant fair comparisons

Details

Summary

Clinical trials are the foundations of evidence-based treatments. Trials must be critically appraised to confirm the validity of conclusions. Further analysis is required to show if the results from the trial, where patients are carefully selected and followed up in detail, can be extrapolated to other patients and different settings. Data from additional sources including other trials, meta-analyses, practice guidelines, trusted opinions and clinical experiences modify prescribing practices.

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