You can use Jadad scale

I Agree with Prof Ishag Adam. Jaded Scale can be used for RCTs. I would like to give you a brief about Jaded scale here:

- The Jadad scale independently assesses the methodological quality of a clinical trial judging the effectiveness of blinding .

- A three-point questionnaire forms the basis for a Jadad score. Each question was to be answered with either a yes or a no. Each yes would score a single point, each no zero points; there were to be no fractional points.

The questions were as follows:

1. Was the study described as randomized?,

2. Was the study described as double blind?

3. Was there a description of withdrawals and dropouts?

To receive the corresponding point, an article should describe the number of withdrawals and dropouts, in each of the study groups, and the underlying reasons.

- Additional points were given if: The method of randomisation was described in the paper, and that method was appropriate. or The method of blinding was described, and it was appropriate.

- Points would be deducted if: The method of randomisation was described, but was inappropriate. or The method of blinding was described, but was inappropriate.

- A clinical trial could therefore receive a Jadad score of between zero and five. The Jadad scale is sometimes described as a five-point scale, though there are only three questions. [1]

1. Jadad, A.R.; Moore R.A.; Carroll D.; Jenkinson C.; Reynolds D.J.M.; Gavaghan D.J.; McQuay H.J. (1996). "Assessing the quality of reports of randomized clinical trials: Is blinding necessary?". Controlled Clinical Trials. 17 (1): 1–12.

As for RCT, you can also assess the risk of bias using the tools developed by Cochrane:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK115843/bin/appe-fm2.pdf

Thank you so much for replying to my question . i will be using jadad scale . However, my study is regarding surgical procedure compared to medical therapy . How can this be assessed in terms of blinding ?

Thanks

Hi Ahmed,

You can use any one of the available tools to assess the risk of bias - Cochrane risk of bias tool or the Jadad scale.

There are no specific tools as such for the specific purpose you mentioned, i.e. studies in surgical field. Rather you might have to slightly tweak the existing tools. For example, as pointed out by you, one cannot usually blind the intervention in a trial comparing medical vs. surgical therapy. In that case, we assess the quality of evidence based on the blinding of outcome measurement (and not based on the blinding of intervention). If the assessment of outcome measure is blinded (or the outcome is an objective one like death), we don't downgrade the quality of evidence for blinding.

All other risks of bias are not very different for surgical studies vis-a-vis other studies.

Hope this helps.

Jeeva

Thank you very much