Abstract
The quality of evidence in meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials is the degree to which the estimated effect represents the “truth.” Current approaches to assessing the quality of evidence focus on trial design and methods. I describe a new quality of evidence index composed of four sub-indexes that measure pre-registration, independent replication, data availability, and trial design and methods, respectively. This index is systematic, objective, and quantitative. I illustrate the index with an empirical example and provide a spreadsheet for easy calculation.
“…when you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind.”
-Lord Kelvin (William Thompson), 1824-1907
Footnotes
dbrewer{at}interscientific.net