Critical Appraisal Skills Program

Asieh Golozar, MD MPHTehran University of Medical

Sciences

What does critical appraisal attempt to do?

• Systematic reviews are not all as good as one another, and quality issues are crucial.

• Critical appraisal is an appraisal based on careful analytical evaluation.

• Critical appraisal attempts to identify the strengths and weaknesses of pieces of information, often research literature, so that readers may apply that information within the limits identified.

What is CASP?(Critical Appraisal Skills Program)

http://www.phru.nhs.uk/Pages/PHD/CASP

Critical Appraisal Skills Program

• The Critical Appraisal Skills Program (CASP) is a program within Learning & Development at the Public Health Resource Unit. Since 1993 the program has helped to develop an evidence-based approach in health and social care, working with local, national and international groups.

• CASP aims to enable individuals to develop the skills to find and make sense of research evidence, helping them to put knowledge into practice.

Critical appraisal is the process of weighing upevidence to see how useful it is in decision making

Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP)

Critical appraisal helps the reader of research……

• Decide how trustworthy a piece of research is (validity)

• Determine what it is telling us (results)

• Weigh up how useful the research will be (relevance)