Evidence-based abstracts: what research summaries should contain to support evidence-based medicine.
The practice of evidence-based medicine involves the integration of individual clinical expertise with the best available external clinical evidence from the systematic retrieval of the most current literature. Clinicians need to conduct a critical appraisal of the medical articles they access. However, clinicians in developing countries usually lack access to the best resources for evidence-based practice (EBP). The abstracts of 100 of the most recently published randomised controlled trials were used in the present study. These abstracts were critically appraised using a new questionnaire. Questions 1 to 8 were answerable by 38%, 26%, 52%, 23%, 12%, 53%, 36% and 12%, respectively, of the examined summaries. EBP requires better access to medical resources. Therefore, the summaries of relevant studies should be complete and self-sufficient to support EBP. This means a research summary should adequately report the findings of a clinical trial without needing to access the full text.
Education Development Center, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Khorasan, Iran. reza_asady@yahoo.com
Reza
R
Assadi
Nazila
N
Zarghi
Alireza Sapehri
AS
Shamloo
Yasaman
Y
Nikooiyan
D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D006801:Humans; D011643:Publishing / Q000592:standards*; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic