Article Appraisal (Overview)

Authors

Affiliations

Nate Yomogida, B.S., SPT

Doctor of Physical Therapy

B.S. in Kinesiology

Chloë Kerstein, B.S., SPT

Doctor of Physical Therapy

B.A. in Neuroscience

Sampling

• If sampling methods are not stated and cannot be inferred, you should error on the side of caution by assuming the most biased sampling method (i.e. convenience sampling) was used thereby reducing external validity.

Once you determine that a study has adequate construct, external and internal validity only then is it worth it to evaluate author’s conclusions and statistical results

Quality Assessment

Quality Assessment Tool for Studies with Diverse Designs (QATSDD)

• The QATSDD was originally developed for the field of psychology, but has been applied to other fields of health as well¹.
• The QATSDD provides a framework for analyzing the congruency, transparency and organised reporting for research using “post-positivistic” or “positivist” methodology for multiple-methods or mixed-methods designs¹.
• The QATSDD was not meant to be used as a filter to include or exclude studies from a review since the the QATSDD cutoffs are arbitrary¹.

Quality Assessment for Diverse Studies (QuADS)

• Refined version of the QATSDD meant to better apply to health service research and not just psychology¹.
• QuADS was meant for appraising quality of methods, evidence, and reporting for multi-method and/or mixed-method research¹.
• QuADS tool demonstrates substantial interrater reliability and content and face validity according to Harrison¹.
• Strengths (according to a synthesis by Harrison¹)
  • Perceived strong reliability¹.
  • Perceived strong validity¹.
  • Broad application for diverse study designs¹
  • Comprehensive list of indicators¹
  • Large variety of disciplines: Psychology, medicine, health sciences, allied health, and health services, etc¹

Note

If I were to choose one, I would use QuADS over QATSDD

References

1.

Harrison R, Jones B, Gardner P, Lawton R. Quality assessment with diverse studies (QuADS): An appraisal tool for methodological and reporting quality in systematic reviews of mixed- or multi-method studies. BMC health services research. 2021;21(1):144. doi:10.1186/s12913-021-06122-y