[How effective is the teaching of critical analysis of scientific publications? Review of studies and their methodological quality].

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  • 15 March 1993
    • journal article
    • abstracts
    • Vol. 148  (6) , 945-52
Abstract
To evaluate studies assessing the effectiveness of teaching critical appraisal of the literature to medical students. French and English articles published between 1980 and 1990 indexed on MEDLINE or FAMLI as well as articles identified from the bibliographies. Studies were evaluated if the subjects were undergraduate or postgraduate medical students and if the teaching intervention was aimed at improving one or more of the following areas: knowledge in clinical epidemiology and biostatistics, reading habits and ability to critically appraise a scientific article. The methodologic quality of the articles was assessed by three evaluators, who used a modified version of Poynard's checklist to assign a score. Articles with a score of 60% or more were considered satisfactory. The reliability of the checklist was evaluated by means of the kappa (kappa) coefficient and a coefficient of intraclass correlation. For the three evaluators the mean kappa coefficient was 0.33 and the coefficient of intraclass correlation 0.70. Five of the 10 studies had an overall score of 60% or higher. The quality of the individual sections of the articles varied: purpose of the study 85%, description of the population 58%, methods 44%, analysis of results 50%, and conclusions 90%. The effectiveness of teaching critical appraisal of the literature remains uncertain. More rigorous methods are needed in research in this area.