Spotlight on Methods and Tools: GRADE

This webinar was presented on March 22, 2018.

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GRADE: appraising the quality of evidence and strength of recommendations

The GRADE framework (Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation) applies a rating of quality (i.e. confidence, certainty) of evidence and a grading of strength of recommendations for systematic reviews and clinical practice guidelines. The GRADE system classifies the quality of evidence and gives an overall rating of very low quality of evidence, low quality of evidence, moderate quality of evidence or high quality of evidence. The quality of evidence rating depends on a summary of many different factors.

How can GRADE help you?

The GRADE approach is useful when answering questions about interventions and when evidence-informed decision making is needed and recommendations are being produced. Originally developed for clinical interventions, the GRADE approach is designed to assess the quality of evidence for both randomized controlled trials and observational studies. A standard appraisal tool can be used to determine the risk of bias present in individual studies gathered from a systematic review, however GRADE addresses the quality of a body of evidence rather than individual studies.

The National Collaborating Centre for Methods and Tools is funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada and affiliated with McMaster University. The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent the views of the Public Health Agency of Canada.

NCCMT is one of six National Collaborating Centres (NCCs) for Public Health. The Centres promote and improve the use of scientific research and other knowledge to strengthen public health practices and policies in Canada.