1) Describe the evidence presented in the paper you selected. Specifically address the following questions:
-What was the exposure or intervention?
-What was the outcome?
-What was the study design?
-What was the study population?
-What were the main findings?
2) To what extent can the observed association between the exposure and outcome be attributed to non-causal explanations? Consider the following questions in your critique:
-Are the results likely to be affected by selection and/or measurement bias?
-Are the results likely to be affected by confounding?
-Are the results likely to be affected by chance variation?
3) Do you think there is evidence of a causal association between the exposure and the outcome? This question relates to the internal validity of the study. Consider the following questions in your critique:
-Is there a temporal relationship between exposure and outcome?
-Is there a strong relationship between the exposure and the outcome?
-Is there a dose-response relationship between exposure and the outcome?
-Are the results consistent within the study?
4) Do the findings accord with other evidence? Specifically:
-Are the findings consistent with other evidence, particularly evidence from studies of similar or more powerful study design?
-Are the results plausible in terms of a biological mechanism?
5) Are the findings externally valid, that is generalisable? Specifically:
-Can the findings be applied to the source population from which the study population was derived?
-Can the study results be applied to other relevant populations?
Everything needs referencing at least 5 from other than the paper itself
You may be helped by looking at guidelines for reporting observational research (STROBS) and randomised control trials (CONSORT) depends on the article you review. See lecture on judging the evidence.
Article - Obstetric conditions and risk of first admission with schizophrenia: A Danish national register based study by Majella Byrne, Esben Agerbo, Birgit Bennedsen, William W. Eaton, Preben Bo Mortensen.