Occupational Therapy

Once you have collected your evidence, you will need to appraise the evidence for quality and for the level of evidence.

Evidence-Based Practice includes:

• best evidence
• clinician knowledge and skills 
• patient wants and needs

The best evidence is determined through evaluation and critical appraisal to determine the level of evidence and quality of the study. The highest level of evidence (level I) is the best evidence, but if there is no level I evidence, then the best evidence is level II, and so on.

These are the guidelines for appraising evidence for occupational therapy at BU.

Author, Year

Appraise the author's qualifications followed by the year of publication (e.g., Gish, Staplin, & Perel, 1999). Ideally, studies should be no more than 5 years old.

Study Objectives

Briefly state the objective(s) of the study, using the focused question as a way to frame the study objectives. The objectives are usually stated briefly in the abstract of the article, and again in more detail in the introduction. They may be phrased as a research question, statement, or hypothesis.

Level/Design/Study Participants

Briefly describe the number and type of study participants. Include any available descriptive information (e.g., ages, mean age, age range, number of males and females). If the study has more than one group, list the descriptive information by group.

Levels of Evidence-

If Qualitative studies are included in the review, a separate Evidence Table should be completed. Qualitative studies do not include a Level of Evidence. 

Intervention and Outcome Measures

Intervention

• Brief Description: Briefly describe only those interventions relevant to answering the evidence-based question. Please include the following, as appropriate:

Setting:

• Was intervention received at home or in an institution? Was it the same for different groups of subjects, if there was more than one intervention group?
• Who delivered? Who provided the intervention? Was it different for intervention and control groups?

Frequency:

• How often did the intervention take place, and what was the length of the individual intervention session (e.g., twice weekly for 30 minutes per session)?

Duration:

• How long did the intervention last (e.g., three months)?

Outcomes

• Outcomes are the variables or issues of interest to the researcher. They represent the product or results of the intervention or exposure. Many studies include numerous outcome measures. For the purpose of the Evidence Table, we are only including those measures relevant to answering the evidence-based question. List the name of the measure, and if needed (e.g., description of outcome is not embedded in the name of the measure), describe the outcome in a few words.

Results & Study Limitations

Briefly describe only those results of the study that are appropriate to answer the focused question. While p-values do not need to be included, make sure that significance has been achieved if one is reporting that one group is more likely to have a given outcome.

List the limitations of the study. These limitations may include design and sample selection issues (e.g., small sample size, lack of randomization, lack of control group), intervention biases (e.g., contamination or co-interventions), measurement biases (e.g. recall bias) or statistical issues (e.g., use of inappropriate statistical measures).

Copyright Information  These guidelines are a product of AOTA’s Evidence-Based Practice Project and the American Journal of Occupational Therapy. Copyright© 2009 by the American Occupational Therapy Association. May be freely reproduced for personal use in clinical or educational settings as long as the source is cited. All other uses require written permission from the American Occupational Therapy Association. To apply, visit www.copyright.com