Table 1 How the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force categorizes level of certainty
From: Against conventional wisdom: when the public, the media, and medical practice collide
Level of Certainty | Description |
|---|---|
High | The available evidence usually includes consistent results from well-designed, well-conducted studies in representative primary care populations. These studies assess the effects of the preventive service on health outcomes. This conclusion is therefore unlikely to be strongly affected by the results of future studies. |
Moderate | The available evidence is sufficient to determine the effects of the preventive service on health outcomes, but confidence in the estimate is constrained by such factors as: • the number, size, or quality of individual studies • inconsistency of findings across individual studies • limited generalizability of findings to routine primary care practice • lack of coherence in the chain of evidence As more information becomes available, the magnitude or direction of the observed effect could change, and this change may be large enough to alter the conclusion. |
Low | The available evidence is insufficient to assess effects on health outcomes. Evidence is insufficient because of: • the limited number or size of studies • important flaws in study design or methods • inconsistency of findings across individual studies • gaps in the chain of evidence • findings that are not generalizable to routine primary care practice • a lack of information on important health outcomes More information may allow an estimation of effects on health outcomes. |