Structured checklists that assess how likely a study's design flaws are to distort its results.
Risk-of-bias tools (e.g. Cochrane RoB 2, ROBINS-I, PEDro scale) are structured instruments used to appraise methodological features of a study—such as randomisation, blinding, and handling of dropouts—that could systematically skew its findings. They generate a judgement (e.g. low/some concerns/high risk) rather than a measure of study quality overall, and different tools can rate the same study differently depending on the domains and criteria they weight. Clinicians should treat the output as an aid to interpreting how much confidence to place in a study's effect estimate, not as a definitive pass/fail verdict.
This guide was auto-drafted and is pending editorial review.