Users' Guides to the Medical Literature
Guyatt G, Rennie D, Meade MO, Cook DJ
Part F Summarizing the Evidence
Chapter 19. Summarizing the Evidence
Gordon Guyatt, Roman Jaeschke, Kameshwar Prasad, Deborah J. Cook
Using the Guide—Part 4
Topics Discussed:
asthma, economic analysis (cost-effectiveness), effects of subgroup analysis, interpretation of results, magnesium, patient-important outcome, review literature, status asthmaticus, subgroup analysis, summarizing the evidence, understanding the results
Excerpt:
"Although it is a good idea to look for focused systematic
review articles because they are more likely to provide accurate
results, this does not mean that you should ignore outcomes that
are not included in a review. For example, the potential
benefits of hormone replacement therapy include a reduced risk of
fractures and a reduced risk of colon cancer, and potential downsides
include an increased risk of breast cancer and, surprisingly, possibly
of adverse cardiovascular outcomes. Focused reviews of the evidence are
more likely to provide accurate results of the impact of hormone
replacement therapy on each of these 4 outcomes, but a clinical
decision requires considering all of them. The
best systematic review is a series of such reviews, one
for each patient-important outcome...."
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