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Table 2 Cross-tabulation of quality appraisal tools (QATs) against study designs

From: Evidence-based decision-making in infectious diseases epidemiology, prevention and control: matching research questions to study designs and quality appraisal tools

QAT (Reference)1

Animal study

Before-and-after study (controlled)

Before-and-after-study (uncontrolled)

Case-control study

Case report

Case series

(Cluster) rRCT

Cohort study

Cost-effectiveness (-benefit, -consequence) analysis

Cost-utility analysis

Cross-sectional study

Diagnostic test accuracy study

Document analysis

Ecological study

Focus groups

(Individually) RCT

Interrupted time series

Interview study (Observation study)

Laboratory study

Non-economic modeling study

nRCT

Process evaluation

Self-controlled case series

Van der Worp [37]

X

                 

X

    

NICE (qualitative) [48]

            

X

 

X

  

X

   

X

 

CASP [36]

            

X

 

X

  

X

   

X

 

SIGN (diagnostic) [42]

           

X

           

Cho [30]

 

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

  

X

    

X

    

X

 

X

Hoy [45]

          

X

            

Al-Jader [33]

          

X

            

SIGN (cohort) [40]

       

X

               

NOS [44]

   

X

   

X

              

X

EPOC [50]

                

X

      

SIGN (case-control) [41]

   

X

                  

X

NICE (intervention) [46]

      

X

        

X

    

X

  

Cochrane [35]

               

X

       

SIGN (RCT) [39]

               

X

       

NICE (correlation) [47]

             

X

         

Downs et al. [31]

 

X

X

X

  

X

X

       

X

    

X

  

Loney et al. [32]

          

X

            

QHES [34]

        

X

X

         

X

   

EPHPP [38]

 

X

X

X

  

X

X

       

X

X

   

X

  

SIGN (economic) [43]

        

X

          

X

   

NICE (economic) [49]

        

X

          

X

   
  1. 1Complete names of the included QATs (in the order of appearance): Van der Worp: Aspects of study quality to be reported; NICE (qualitative): Quality appraisal checklist: qualitative studies; CASP: Critical appraisal skills programme tools; SIGN (diagnostic): Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) checklist 5 (diagnostic studies); Cho: Methodologic quality instrument; Hoy: Tool to assess risk of bias in prevalence studies; Al-Jader: Quality scoring system for epidemiological surveys of genetic disorders; SIGN (diagnostic): Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) checklist 3 (cohort studies); NOS: Newcastle-Ottawa Scale; EPOC: Cochrane Effective Practice and Organization of Care (EPOC) Groups risk of bias tool for interrupted time series; SIGN (case-control): Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) checklist 4 (case-control studies); NICE (intervention): National Institute for Health and Care Excellence quality appraisal checklist for quantitative intervention studies; Cochrane: Cochrane risk of bias tool for RCTs; SIGN (RCT): Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) checklist 2 (RCTs); NICE (correlation): National Institute for Health and Care Excellence quality appraisal checklist for quantitative studies reporting correlations and associations; Downs: Checklist for the assessment of the methodological quality of randomized and non-randomized studies of health care interventions; Loney: Guidelines for critically appraising studies of prevalence or incidence of a health problem; QHES: Quality of Health economic studies instrument; EPHPP: Effective Public Health practice projects quality assessment tool for quantitative studies; SIGN (economic): Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) checklist 6 (economic studies); NICE (economic): National Institute for Health and Care Excellence quality appraisal checklist for economic evaluations.