Evidence-based review in the field of developing critical appraisal tools for quantitative studies

Selection of an appropriate critical appraisal tool is an important part of evidence-based practice. The aim of the present study was to do a systematic review of articles according to existing evidence in databases in the field of developing critical appraisal tools for quantitative studies from 2006 to 2016.
A systematic review was performed on the critical appraisal tools for quantitative studies between 8 to 12 January 2016 in the PubMed, ProQuest, Ovid, Web of Science, Scopus and Cochrane databases using keywords in the MeSH and based on inclusion and exclusion criteria.
Of the 1100 retrieved articles, 19 articles were only remained in the study. Workshop, Delphi technique, a panel of experts and exploration method have been used for development of the critical appraisal tools for observational studies (STROBE, STROBE-NI, RECORD, STROME-ID, STROBE-nut AXIS, STROBE-ME, CORE), clinical trials studies (CONSORT and different types, STRICTA, SPIRIT, CA of RCTs of NPs), interventional studies (QI-MQCS), case studies (CARE and SCARE). Also, a general assessment tool (CAT) and a special tool for assessment of the psychometric characteristics of the studies (COSMIN) were presented.
A number of useful critical appraisal tools have been identified in this review; however, the validity and reliability of the tools did not show enough attention in these studies. Researchers and referees should be aware of the selection of a simple, valid and reliable critical appraisal tool during the writing of the quantitative articles or evaluation of them can be a useful guide.