CRITICAL APPRAISAL

Critical Appraisal

Critical Appraisal

Author/s and Year

Judith M. E. Walsh, Rene Salazar, Jonathan P. Terdiman, Ginny Gildengorin, Eliseo J. Perez-Stable, 2005

Journal

Journal of General Internal Medicine

Study Method

Walsh has carried this research based on RCT method. Random allocation of treatments is commonly called randomization ("randomization"). A randomized controlled trial is a trial in which patients are allocated to the control group and experimental group randomly. Since randomization is a random process and that the properties of random processes are known that on average over a large number of repeats, randomization does not guarantee the comparability of both groups on average. The random allocation of treatment is not carried out using dice or drawing a paper from a hat at the time to include a patient. In double-blind trials, the means of randomization gives the number of the box to give the patient treatment. This box contains either study treatment or control treatment. Correspondence between number processing and real nature of the treatment is recorded in a list that will be used only when the statistical analysis. In open trials, the means of randomization gives the type of treatment in the clear.

The average is the simplest randomization list made in advance using a computer program or tables of random numbers. This list gives for each patient included successively in the test box number or nature of treatment. In multicenter trials, a list is available at each center. Randomization can also be done using sealed envelopes containing the number or nature of treatment to give the patient that is randomized. Both methods have the disadvantage of randomization to be relocated at each center and to allow the taking of foreknowledge of the nature of treatment that should receive or incoming patients. It then becomes possible to arrange the time a patient receives will be included so that the desired treatment.

Quality of Methods

A Randomized Evaluation is a type of Impact Evaluation that uses random assignment to allocate resources, run programs, or apply policies as part of the study design. Like all impact evaluations, the main purpose of randomized evaluations is to determine whether a program has an impact, and more specifically, to quantify how large that impact is. The most effective RCT methods are clinches. That of course depends on how they are defined. RCT methods have high internal validity but the formal methodology puts severe constraints on the assumptions a target population must meet to justify exporting a conclusion from the test population to the target.

Participants

94 community primary care physicians were randomly allocated to an intrusion comprising of academic detailing and direct mailings to patients or a control group. Patients of age from 50 to 79 years were sent a letter from their physician, a brochure on CRC screening, and a packet of fecal occult blood test (FOBT) cards from the intervention. The proposed test in the study is both more sensitive and more specific seems to combine the characteristics necessary for it to be extended to a larger scale ...