Criteria scored:
(1) source of subjects and the list of eligibility criteria specified
(2) random allocation of subjects
(3) concealment of allocations
(4) the most important prognostic indicators were similar between the groups at baseline
(5) all subjects were blinded
(6) all therapists who administered therapy were blinded
(7) all assessors who measured at least one key outcome were blinded
(8) > 85% of subjects allocated to the initial groups had at least one key measure reported
(9) one of the following:
(9a) all subjects with outcome measures available received the initially assigned intervention
(9b) at least one key outcome was analyzed by an "intention to treat"
(10) a statistical comparison between groups is reported for at least 1 key outcome
(11) both point measures and measures of variability is reported for at least one key outcome
where:
• The full definition of each criterion is given in Appendix 1 (pages 48-49).
|
Performance
|
Points
|
|
not clearly satisfied based on a literal reading of the trial report
|
0
|
|
clearly satisfied
|
1
|
PEDro score =
= SUM(points for all 11 criteria)
Interpretation:
• minimum score: 0
• maximum score: 11
• The higher the score the better the evidence for the practice.
Limitation:
• The score cannot be used to directly compare 2 trials, since any failures may be to different degrees or for different criteria.
• There could be variability in how the grader scores a study in that "literal" and "clearly" are subjective.
• For some measures the scoring is "all or nothing". For the last 5 criteria only 1 key outcome needs to comply. In theory the "one key outcome" that met the criterion could be different for each item. It would seem that only the key outcomes that met the criteria should be evaluated.
• The eligibility criteria only have to be specified. There is no determination on how good they are.
