Objectives: Qualitative evidence syntheses are increasingly used in decision making along with reviews of effectiveness. The GRADE-CERQual approach aims to assess how much confidence to place in evidence from reviews of qualitative research. Assessing the methodological limitations of individual studies contributing to a review finding is one of four components of CERQual. There is no agreement, however, on how best to assess such limitations. To address this issue, the GRADE-CERQual group has identified the most common criteria across existing tools and is currently developing a tool to assess methodological strengths and limitations of qualitative evidence for use in decision making.

The objective of this session is to discuss a draft list of key criteria to consider when assessing methodological strengths and limitations of qualitative evidence.

Description: The session will be presented and facilitated by members of the GRADE-CERQual coordinating team. The session is intended for review authors, and methodologists and end users. Attendees should be experienced in qualitative research methods. The session will cover the following:
1) Overview of the systematic mapping and content analysis of existing checklists;
2) Presentation of top-25 common criteria;
3) Small group discussion to rank and discuss empirical evidence for criteria;
4) Feedback.