{"id":214,"date":"2020-03-03T09:54:13","date_gmt":"2020-03-03T14:54:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stroke.devel\/?page_id=214"},"modified":"2020-04-13T17:56:44","modified_gmt":"2020-04-13T21:56:44","slug":"evaluation-criteria","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/strokengine.ca\/en\/evaluation-criteria\/","title":{"rendered":"Evaluation Criteria"},"content":{"rendered":"

The benefit of each intervention for various outcomes is given a rating to describe the quality and consistency of the scientific evidence for that specific area of research.<\/p>\n

Example: \u201cIs acupuncture effective for post-stroke pain relief\u201d- you will find a\u00a0level of evidence\u00a0indicating whether it is effective or not effective and how strong the evidence is. While researchers have proposed slightly different scaling methods for producing levels of evidence, the premise behind each is primarily the same: interventions are given a higher grade (towards 1a) as the quality of the research and consistency of the findings increases.<\/p>\n

Here is a description of the levels of evidence:<\/p>\n

Note: The rating does not indicate that an intervention is effective, it only indicates the strength of the evidence in the scientific literature \u2013 so you may see a 1a indicating that two or more randomized clinical trials (RCTs) have studied the question \u2013 and found the treatment in question to be not effective. To help with the clarification of this point throughout StrokEngine \u2013 in all of the topic areas we provide both a level of evidence and an indication of effective\/not-effective.<\/div>\n
\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t
1a (Strong)<\/td>Well designed Meta-Analysis, or 2 or more high quality RCT\u2019s (PEDro \u2265 6) showing similar findings<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1b (Moderate)<\/td>1 RCT of high quality (PEDro \u2265 6)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2a (Limited)<\/td>At least 1 fair quality RCT (PEDro = 4-5)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2b (Limited)<\/td>At least one poor quality RCT (PEDro < 4) or well-designed non-experimental study (non-randomized controlled trial, quasi-experimental studies, cohort studies with multiple baselines, single subject series with multiple baselines, etc.)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
3 (Consensus)\t<\/td>Agreement by an expert panel or a group of professionals in the field or a number of pre-post studies all with similar results<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
4 (Conflict)<\/td>Conflicting evidence of 2 or more equally well designed studies
\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
5 (Insufficient evidence)<\/td>No well-designed studies \u2013 only case studies\/case descriptions, or cohort studies\/single subject series with no multiple baselines)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n

Further description of the levels<\/p>\n

Level 1a<\/strong><\/p>\n

Two randomized controlled trials\u00a0(RCT)\u00a0of\u00a0high\u00a0quality (PEDro \u2265 6) or a\u00a0meta-analysis\u00a0that finds acupuncture to be effective (or not effective) in reducing pain would enable a 1a rating of acupuncture for pain relief.<\/p>\n

Level 1b<\/strong><\/p>\n

One\u00a0randomized controlled trial (RCT)\u00a0of\u00a0high\u00a0quality (PEDro \u2265 6) that finds acupuncture to be effective (or not effective) in reducing pain would enable a 1b rating of acupuncture for pain relief.<\/p>\n

Level 2a\u00a0and 2b<\/strong><\/p>\n

One or more\u00a0fair\u00a0quality RCTs (PEDro = 4-5) that found acupuncture to be effective (or not effective) in reducing pain would enable a 2a rating, while lower quality studies such as\u00a0poor\u00a0quality\u00a0RCT\u2019s, non-randomized trials and strong single subject designs (for example those with multiple baselines) would receive a\u00a0level of evidence\u00a0rating of 2b.<\/p>\n

Level 3<\/strong><\/p>\n

A consensus by an expert panel or a group of professionals in the field or a number of pre-post studies all with similar results that acupuncture was effective or not effective would receive a\u00a0level of evidence\u00a0rating of 3.<\/p>\n

Level 4<\/strong><\/p>\n

A\u00a0level of evidence\u00a0of 4 indicates conflicting findings of equally well-designed studies, for example, one\u00a0high\u00a0quality study finding acupuncture to be effective for pain reduction, the other\u00a0high\u00a0quality study finding it not effective.<\/p>\n

Level 5<\/strong><\/p>\n

Finally, a\u00a0level of evidence\u00a0of 5 indicates that there are no well-designed experimental studies for the intervention.<\/p>\n

Note: There are times when a synthesis of the research on an intervention has been completed by a well-respected research team whose findings conflict with another synthesis, again by a well-respected team. We provide you with these conflicting reports and make an attempt to explain why the conflict exists.<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The benefit of each intervention for various outcomes is given a rating to describe the quality and consistency of the scientific evidence for that specific area of research. Example: \u201cIs acupuncture effective for post-stroke pain relief\u201d- you will find a\u00a0level of evidence\u00a0indicating whether it is effective or not effective and how strong the evidence is. […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-214","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/strokengine.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/strokengine.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/strokengine.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strokengine.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strokengine.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/strokengine.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/214\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":901,"href":"https:\/\/strokengine.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/214\/revisions\/901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/strokengine.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}