Critical appraisal tools and checklists

On this page, we have collected tools for assessing risk of bias in various types of studies as well as SBU's ethical guidelines. Most of the tools SBU uses are produced by international organizations of which some have been translated into Swedish by SBU.

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Assessing the risk of bias in studies is a critical step when conducting a systematic review. In the tree structure below, you can navigate to the type of study you are interested in assessing. Each box indicates a study design for which you can find tools if you click on the box.

  • By clicking on a box with a plus sign, you get to see the study designs listed in that box.
  • By clicking on a box with an arrow, you get links and information about different tools for the study design indicated in the box.
  • For study designs that SBU does not work with, we provide suggestions on various international websites where there are more tools.
  • In the box Other, you will find SBU's guidelines to assess ethical aspects of interventions.

Older tools that were previously used by SBU, but are no longer in use, can be found in our archive.

  • Critical appraisal tools and checklists

        • Experimental studies of interventions (2)

          • Controlled (2)

        • Observational studies (2)

          • Controlled (3)

        • Tests and measurement tools (3)

        • Quantitative (intervention, exposure or diagnostic) (3)

Most frequently used tools

Most frequently used tools used by SBU

  • SBU mainly uses ROBIS or a modified version of AMSTAR called QUICKSTAR to assess the risk of bias in systematic reviews. Another commonly used international tool is AMSTAR 2.

    For qualitative evidence syntheses SBU has developed a specific tool.

  • For randomised controlled studies SBU uses RoB2 and for nonrandomised studies ROBINS-I.

  • For studies of exposures SBU has developed a specific tool which is currently only available in Swedish. The tool was developed before ROBINS E was available; both tools cover similar bias domains.

  • For qualitative research SBU has developed a specific tool which is currently only available in Swedish.

    If you are interested in finding a tool in English, we refer to other web pages that list critical appraisal tool and which may have one for your area of interest.

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