Applying evidence grading methods to public health interventions

Article type
Year
Authors
Ahn HS1, Young K2, Kim HJ1
1Chochrane Korea
2hallym university medical college
Abstract
Objectives:
1. To develop better templates for reporting, and checklists for assessing the quality of public health intervention studies for use in guidelines.
2. To explore how evidence-based grading systems evaluate various aspects of existing studies.
3. To assess how to express uncertainties from the scientific evidence more explicitly, along with the considered judgements.
4. To identify future challenges and research needs.

Description: Substantial uncertainties exist at several stages in assessing evidence for public health interventions. It is important these uncertainties are communicated explicitly and transparently to practitioners, public health researchers and guideline developers.

We will explore the usefulness of certain evidence grading tools for public health interventions. We will discuss several methods for reporting, assessing and grading evidence identified and the applicability of these tools in a public health setting. In particular, we will explore the Community Guide methods, developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Task Force on Community Preventive Services to assess the quality of public health evidence. We will discuss the importance of the different domains and items and propose some additional criteria for public health intervention guidelines. We will present an evaluation of these tools for the purpose of public health guidelines.