Deck 8: Critically Appraising Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses

Question 1

Which of the following statements is/are an advantage of systematic reviews?

A) They can shed light on the external validity of the findings of an individual study.
B) They can help make sense out of a bewildering array of findings from different types of studies that produced inconsistent results.
C) They can apply statistical techniques that merge the findings of many different studies.
D) All of the above.

Answer 1

All of the above.

Question 2

Which of the following statements is/are correct about systematic reviews and meta-analyses?

A) They are all equally trustworthy.
B) They might be biased due to the influence of vested interests.
C) Their methods remove the need for them to critically appraise the quality of the studies they include.
D) Both a and c above are correct.

Answer 2

They might be biased due to the influence of vested interests.

Question 3

Which of the following statements is/are correct about exclusion and inclusion criteria in systematic reviews?

A) They might pertain to methodological characteristics of studies.
B) They might pertain to the characteristics of study participants.
C) They might be too narrow or restrictive.
D) All of the above.

Answer 3

All of the above.

Question 4

Which of the following statements is/are correct about effect-sizes?

A) They are always reported as correlations.
B) To be considered strong, they should be at least .80.
C) They depict the average strength of the effects of an intervention across studies that use different types of outcome measures.
D) All of the above.

Question 5

If an experimental group's mean of 60 is a better outcome than the control group's mean of 55, and the standard deviation is 10, then the d-index equals:

A) .50
B) 5.0
C) 2.0
D) .05

Question 6

A correlation of .50 and a d-index of .80 are considered to represent:

A) weak effects.
B) medium effects.
C) strong effects.
D) special effects

Question 7

Which of the following statements is/are correct about the interpretation of a correlation that equals .30?

A) It might be clinically significant.
B) It is too weak to be clinically significant.
C) It is strong enough to assure clinical significance.
D) None of the above.

Question 8

Which of the following statements is/are true about the PRISMA group?

A) It was formed in recognition of the poor quality of some of the earlier systematic reviews and meta-analyses being published.
B) It provides a Web site with information on critically appraising systematic reviews and meta-analyses.
C) Its checklist includes a section on the funding of the systematic review or meta-analysis.
D) All of the above.

Question 9

A systematic review showing whether a particular intervention, program or policy has been found to be effective by different independent researchers in different types of settings will give you better evidentiary grounds than just one study for deciding whether the intervention might be effective in your practice.

Question 10

Some systematic reviews and meta-analyses are seriously biased.

Question 11

Some systematic reviews and meta-analyses are more trustworthy than others.

Question 12

The Cochrane Collaboration and Campbell Collaboration are notorious for their biased reviews.

Question 13

If a review is systematic, we can be sure that its exclusion and inclusion criteria were appropriate.

Question 14

Some reviews search for studies in a more comprehensive fashion than others.

Question 15

There is widespread agreement that researchers whose findings fail to support the effectiveness of an intervention are just as likely to submit their studies for publication as are researchers with positive findings.

Question 16

Systematic reviews should avoid transparency.

Question 17

Systematic reviews are the same as literature reviews.

Question 18

A meta-analysis might inappropriately lump together effect sizes from weakly controlled studies and well-controlled studies.

Question 19

Strong and statistically significant effect-sizes assure clinical significance.

Question 20

Explain why systematic reviews and meta-analyses reside at the top of the evidentiary hierarchy for

Question 21

Identify the risks in relying exclusively on systematic reviews and meta-analyses.

Question 22

Describe the differences between systematic reviews and literature reviews.

Question 23

Explain what is meant by the clinical significance of findings.

Question 24

Explain how to interpret odds ratios, risk ratios, and number needed to treat estimates.