Your ability to critically appraise the literature (and in particular an RCT) is key to your future as a health care professional. It is central to making informed decisions relating to best patient care. In this assignment you are a reviewer for a journal and you are required to systematically appraise your allocated study. The assignment is to be completed in 5 steps:

•Obtain your allocated study
•Analyze the study by applying the CONSORT guidelines (2010).
•Appraise the study for quality by applying the Cochrane framework “risk of Bias” analysis for RCT’s. Support your analysis.
•Discuss study outcomes
•Discuss the potential problems in transferring the (and RCT’s in general) study outcome into clinical practice.
PREPARATION
Download your allocated study (ONE ONLY). You will need to login to the library.

allocated study;

Goertz, C. M., Long, C. R., Hondras, M. a, Petri, R., Delgado, R., Lawrence, D. J., … Meeker, W. C. (2012). Adding chiropractic manipulative therapy to standard medical care for patients with acute low back pain: the results of a pragmatic randomized comparative effectiveness study. Spine, 38(8), 627–634. doi:10.1097/BRS.0b013e31827733e7

PART 1: CONSORT Guidelines (5% of unit)
a) Read the COSORT guidelines. You will need to read the 2001, then the 2010 update. I have supplied the required files for you.

Altman, D. G., Schulz, K. F., Moher, D., Egger, M., Davidoff, F., Elbourne, D., & Lang, T. (2001). Academia and Clinic The Revised CONSORT Statement for Reporting Randomized Trials?:, 134(8).

Boutron, I., Moher, D., Altman, D. G., Schulz, K. F., & Ravaud, P. (2008). Annals of Internal Medicine Academia and Clinic Extending the CONSORT Statement to Randomized Trials of Nonpharmacologic Treatment?: Explanation and Elaboration, 295–310.

Schulz, K. F., Altman, D. G., Moher, D., & Group, C. (2010). Academia and Clinic Annals of Internal Medicine CONSORT 2010 Statement?: Updated Guidelines for Reporting Parallel Group Randomized Trials OF TO, 1996(14).

b) Apply the CONSORT check list to your study Nb. You will submit the checklist results as an iLearn Quiz

will upload consort

PART 2: “risk of bias” analysis (5% of unit)
a) Read the attached document.

Higgins, J. (2008). Chapter 8?: Assessing risk of bias in included studies (pp. 1–50).

The document walks you through “risk of bias” concepts and coaches you on how to create a table. This forms the major part of your assignment.

Read in particular Sections 8.4 – through 8.6

b) You are required to present a “risk of bias” table. You will generate a table similar to that in Figure 8.6.a. You do not need to generate Figure 8.6.b.

PART 3: Commentary a (5% of unit) – max 1000 words
Discuss study outcomes. Are your assigned study conclusions valid? Do these outcomes agree with or refute other studies investigating similar constructs?

PART 4: Commentary b (3.33% of unit) – max 500 words
Read the following papers and comment in the context of your assigned study. The “correct” answer is not the goal here, as your opinion must be informed by the evidence you cite.
You are encouraged to use these and other references in your argument.

Croft, P., Malmivaara, A., & van Tulder, M. (2011). The pros and cons of evidence-based medicine. Spine (Phila Pa 1976), 36(17), E1121–5. doi:10.1097/BRS.0b013e318223ae4c

Milanese, S. (2011). The use of RCT’s in manual therapy–are we trying to fit a round peg into a square hole? Man Ther, 16(4), 403–405. doi:10.1016/j.math.2011.02.007
OVERALL impression (1.67% of unit)
Are your table(s) and text well presented? Is Vancouver referencing used correctly. Is your work original?
Submission instructions
PART 1: You will complete an iLearn “quiz”. Log into the quiz that has the title of your paper. You will be allowed one attempt only at any time up until the assignment due date.

CONSORT: Goertz, C. M., Long, C. R., Hondras, M. a, Petri, R., Delgado, R., Lawrence, D. J., … Meeker, W. C. (2012).

PARTS 2, 3, 4: You will submit a Microsoft Word document to Turnitin. Submission will be subject to similarity checking. There are specific instructions in the relevant part of the iLearn page.