Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP) Tools

Oxford Centre for Triple Value Healthcare Ltd (n.d.). The Critical Skills Appraisal Programme: Making sense of evidence. Retrieved from Organization website: http://www.casp-uk.net/

Template available Evaluated/validated

Description

These tools teach users to critically appraise different types of evidence. The program consists of seven critical appraisal tools to assess:

  1. Systematic reviews
  2. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs)
  3. Qualitative research
  4. Economic evaluation studies
  5. Cohort studies
  6. Case-control studies
  7. Diagnostic test studies

Steps for Using Method/Tool

Each tool systematically guides users through questions in three main sections:

  1. Is the study valid?
  2. What are the results?
  3. Will the results help locally?

Evaluation

Long, H. A., French, D. P., & Brooks, J. M. (2020). Optimising the value of the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP) tool for quality appraisal in qualitative evidence synthesis. Research Methods in Medicine & Health Sciences, 1(1), 31–42. https://doi.org/10.1177/2632084320947559

Ma, L. L., Wang, Y. Y., Yang, Z. H., Huang, D., Weng, H., & Zeng, X. T. (2020). Methodological quality (risk of bias) assessment tools for primary and secondary medical studies: What are they and which is better?. Military Medical Research, 7(1), 7. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40779-020-00238-8

These summaries are written by the NCCMT to condense and to provide an overview of the resources listed in the Registry of Methods and Tools and to give suggestions for their use in a public health context. For more information on individual methods and tools included in the review, please consult the authors/developers of the original resources.

We have provided the resources and links as a convenience and for informational purposes only; they do not constitute an endorsement or an approval by McMaster University of any of the products, services or opinions of the external organizations, nor have the external organizations endorsed their resources and links as provided by McMaster University. McMaster University bears no responsibility for the accuracy, legality or content of the external sites.

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