Tutorials and Fundamentals

O mais novo não é necessariamente melhor

This is a Portuguese translation of the fifth in a series of 36 blogs explaining 36 Key Concepts we need to be able to understand to think critically about treatment claims. With thanks to Henrique Pinho Volker and Cochrane Brazil for the translation.

This blog explains that new treatments are often assumed to be better simply because they are new or because they are more expensive. However, they are only very slightly likely to be better than other available treatments.

Evidence Reviews

The Effect of Prehabilitation Exercise on Strength and Functioning after Total Knee Arthroplasty in Patients with Osteoarthritis

This blog is a critical appraisal of a randomized control trial which examined the effect of a preoperative exercise intervention on knee pain, functional ability, and quadriceps strength among patients with knee osteoarthritis before and after total knee arthroplasty (TKA) surgery.

Evidence Reviews

The effect of prehabilitation on the range of motion and functional outcomes in patients following total hip or knee arthroplasty

This blog is a critical appraisal of a randomized control trial which investigates the effects prehabilitation has on quality of life and functional abilities in patients undergoing total knee or hip replacement.

Tutorials and Fundamentals

Are the treatments practical in your setting?

This is the thirty-third blog in a series of 36 blogs explaining 36 key concepts we need to be able to understand to think critically about treatment claims.

Are the treatments practical in your setting? Be aware that treatments available to you may be sufficiently different from those in the research studies that the results may not apply to you.

Tutorials and Fundamentals

Are you very different from the people studied?

This is the thirty-second blog in a series of 36 blogs explaining 36 key concepts we need to be able to understand to think critically about treatment claims.

Are you very different from the people studied? Systematic reviews of studies that only include animals or a selected minority of people may not provide results that are relevant to most people. This may be misleading.

Tutorials and Fundamentals

Do the outcomes measured matter to you?

This is the thirty-first blog in a series of 36 blogs explaining 36 key concepts we need to be able to understand to think critically about treatment claims.

A systematic review of fair comparisons of treatments should measure outcomes that are important. A fair comparison may not include all outcomes that are relevant to treatments. Patients, professionals and researchers may have different views about which outcomes are important.

Tutorials and Fundamentals

Don’t confuse “no evidence of a difference” with “evidence of no difference”

This is the thirtieth blog in a series of 36 blogs explaining 36 key concepts we need to be able to understand to think critically about treatment claims.

Systematic reviews sometimes conclude that there is “no evidence of a difference” when there is uncertainty about the difference between two treatments. This is often misinterpreted as meaning that there is “no difference” between the treatments compared.

Evidence Reviews

Physiotherapy programme reduces fatigue in patients with advanced cancer receiving palliative care

Much research has looked into the use of exercise for patients receiving cancer treatment, however few studies have focused on palliative care. This blog is a critical appraisal of a randomized controlled trial (RCT) which evaluated the use of a physiotherapy programme to reduce cancer related fatigue in palliative cancer patients.

Evidence Reviews

The Effect of Physiotherapy on Shoulder Function in Patients Surgically Treated for Breast Cancer

This blog is a critical appraisal of a randomized control trial (RCT) looking at the effect of Physiotherapy on shoulder function in patients surgically treated for breast cancer.

Tutorials and Fundamentals

Don’t confuse “statistical significance” with “importance”

This is the twenty-ninth blog in a series of 36 blogs explaining 36 key concepts we need to be able to understand to think critically about treatment claims.

“Statistical significance” is often confused with “importance”. The cut-off for considering a result as statistically significant is arbitrary, and statistically non-significant results can be either informative or inconclusive.

Tutorials and Fundamentals

Práticas comuns nem sempre são baseadas em evidências

This is a Portuguese translation of the fourth in a series of 36 blogs explaining 36 Key Concepts we need to be able to understand to think critically about treatment claims. With thanks to Guilherme de Mattos Queiroz and Cochrane Brazil for the translation.

This blog explains that treatments that have not been properly evaluated but are widely used or have been used for a long time are often assumed to work. Sometimes, however, they may be unsafe or of doubtful benefit.

Tutorials and Fundamentals

Confidence intervals should be reported

This is the twenty-eighth blog in a series of 36 blogs explaining 36 key concepts we need to be able to understand to think critically about treatment claims.

The confidence interval is the range within which the ‘true difference’ is likely to lie, after taking into account the play of chance. Whenever possible, consider confidence intervals when assessing estimates of treatment effects. Do not be misled by p-values.