Simplifying the Language of Evidence To Improve Patient Care: Strength of Recommendation Taxonomy (SORT): A Patient-Centered Approach to Grading Evidence in Medical Literature
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2-1-2004
Identifier/URL
41086287 (Pure); 14764293 (PubMed)
Abstract
Several taxonomies exist for rating individual studies and the strength of recommendations, making the analysis of evidence confusing for practitioners. A new grading scale-the Strength of Recommendation Taxonomy (SORT)-will be used by several family medicine and primary care journals (required or optional), allowing readers to learn 1 consistently applied taxonomy of evidence. SORT is built around the information mastery framework, which emphasizes the use of patient-oriented outcomes that measure changes in morbidity or mortality. Levels of evidence from 1 to 3 for individual studies also are defined. An A-level recommendation is based on consistent and good-quality patient-oriented evidence; a B-level recommendation is based on inconsistent or limited-quality patient-oriented evidence; and a C-level recommendation is based on consensus, usual practice, opinion, disease-oriented evidence, or case series for studies of diagnosis, treatment, prevention, or screening.
Repository Citation
Lupo, P.,
Neale, A. V.,
& Bowman, M. A.
(2004). Simplifying the Language of Evidence To Improve Patient Care: Strength of Recommendation Taxonomy (SORT): A Patient-Centered Approach to Grading Evidence in Medical Literature. Journal of Family Practice, 53 (2), 111-120.
https://corescholar.libraries.wright.edu/comhth/587
