Developing and Testing a Tool for the Classification of Study Designs in Systematic Reviews of Interventions and Exposures
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AHRQ Background: Classification of study design can help provide a common language for researchers. Within a systematic review, definition of specific study designs can help guide inclusion, assess the risk of bias, pool studies, interpret results, and grade the body of evidence. However, recent research demonstrated poor reliability for an existing classification scheme.
Objectives: To review tools used to classify study designs; to select a tool for evaluation; to develop instructions for application of the tool to intervention/exposure studies; and to test the
tool for accuracy and interrater reliability.
