Unfair comparison

Unreliable assessment of outcomes

Look out for outcomes that were not assessed reliably in treatment comparisons.

Some outcomes are easy to assess, such as births and deaths. Others are more difficult, such as assessing whether someone is depressed or their quality of life. For treatment comparisons to be meaningful, outcomes that are meaningful to people should be assessed using methods that have been shown to be reliable.

REMEMBER: Think about whether outcomes were assessed using methods that have been shown to be reliable.