Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Oct 30, 2022
Date Accepted: Mar 14, 2023
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Similar outcomes of online and face to face training of GRADE approach for certainty of evidence: a randomized controlled study
ABSTRACT
Background:
GRADE approach (Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation) is a system for transparent evaluation of certainty of evidence, used in clinical practice guidelines and systematic reviews.
Objective:
To compare online and face-to-face methods of teaching GRADE approach for evidence assessment.
Methods:
Randomised controlled trial on two delivery modes of GRADE education integrated into a course on research methodology and evidence-based medicine with 3rd year medical students. Education was based on the 90-minute Cochrane Interactive Learning (CIL) 'Interpreting the findings'. Online group received the online asynchronous training, while the face-to-face group had a seminar with a lecturer. Main outcome measure was the score on a five-question test that assessed confidence interval interpretation and overall certainty of evidence, among others. Secondary outcomes included writing a recommendation for practice and course satisfaction.
Results:
50 participants received the online intervention and 47 participants received the face-to-face intervention. The groups did not differ in the overall scores for the CIL test. When analysed separately, face-to-face group better assessed the overall certainty of evidence question. Students avoided clear clinical decisions when writing recommendations. Course satisfaction was high in both groups.
Conclusions:
Training in GRADE approach may be equally effective in online and face-to-face formats.
Citation
